Marketing with a Low Budget

Times are tough. And this is starting to become an understatement. We hear you, we’re in it together.

The situation in Lebanon is forcing a big number of businesses to work with a limited budget and few in-house resources. Some, who don’t believe in marketing, simply stop all efforts. WRONG! It’s the worst thing you can do and to learn why, read our previous blog entry. The rest are likely looking for cheap marketing ideas that still get an impact.

We’d like to help, as much as we’re able to. We’ll start with a few quick ideas.

Don’t slash your digital ad budget

We can’t repeat this enough. If you don’t advertise online, no one sees your business, no one buys from your business. It’s a simple cycle. Try to cut down on some of your other big advertising expenses if it makes sense but digital has proven time and time again that it’s the cheapest channel to reach masses. You just need to make sure you’re managing your ads in an optimal way.

Develop your email marketing

If you haven’t yet, this is a very low cost channel to utilize that can help bring in a few sales to keep you stable and maybe invest more again. There is a number of platforms out there that free and can help you launch your email campaigns in no time. One key element to remember is to make sure it’s permission marketing – don’t go buying those huge anonymous lists. That’s just spam.

Look into missed opportunities

Did you create your Google Business listing yet? What about Zomato Gold if you’re a restaurant? TripAdvisor? Talk to that influencer cousin you’ve always said you would. Maybe take the down-time to reassess your strengths and adapt your business to shave off what was bringing you down. If you’re a B2B, maybe it’s time to go back to the good-old cold-calling.

Ask for referrals

Don’t be shy. Ask for help, offer an incentive and get your close circle to help you. It’s a tough time and you need to push through so there’s no harm in asking for a little help. Try to find additional channels that can support your sales traffic and help you close deals. A customer referral program might just do it.

Run a social media contest

Everyone likes to win, especially in a recession. This could be a great way to get you some free reach that would hopefully bring new sets of eyes on to your products. Make sure your contest is smart: good hook, trackable, gets you additional reach and more importantly, relevant. One idea might be to co-sponsor a content with another business to help each other in getting a new audience.

Publish engaging quality content

Spice things up if you can with new content or recycle old content that performed well and is still relevant.t If you have a blog, ask a guest blogger to write and promote. It can bring in a new audience to your business.

What we’ve learned over the years that it’s not always a big budget that gets you places. Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. It’s really about being creative and adapting. Our model is built around modularity and scalability. We’ve worked with low budgets. It’s not ideal but doable. We’ve done major rebrands, we’ve worked on video campaigns and we even helped reshape packaging.

We plug into our clients’ businesses based on their needs. We share the workload. Get in touch today and we’ll find the gaps that we can cover while maintaining your budget.