By T. Leigh Buehler | 04/01/2025
Deciding to venture into the world of entrepreneurship takes courage, patience, and a little bit of craziness. For many new entrepreneurs or small business owners, you start with a vision, grow your passion, and perfect your product or service.
After that, you face one of your biggest hurdles: financial constraints. Marketing is not only for companies with large, million-dollar budgets. The ability to effectively implement low-cost marketing strategies can be a game-changer in helping an entrepreneur to build brand awareness and growth.
Low-Budget Marketing
For many entrepreneurs, operating a business with limited funds and maintaining a competitive edge requires innovative approaches to marketing. These approaches must prioritize strategic planning and creativity over financial investment. By adopting low-cost marketing tactics, any business owner can maximize resources while still achieving brand visibility and customer engagement.
Small businesses and new startups must compete with giant corporations that have nearly unlimited marketing budgets. As a result, small business owners must be creative and budget-savvy to avoid wasting time and money while still promoting their company in an impactful way. Consequently, creativity and strategic thinking become essential.
Ideas for Low-Cost Marketing
To build brand awareness, many low-budget marketing ideas focus on leveraging existing resources, community engagement, and digital tools. From maximizing social media reach to forming strategic partnerships and utilizing email marketing, entrepreneurs can create high-impact campaigns without breaking the bank. The key is consistency, creativity, and a willingness to experiment with different approaches to see what resonates best with the target audience.
Creating a Social Media Presence
Social media platforms offer a cost-effective way to gain new customers and retain existing customers. The selection of appropriate platforms should be based on an analysis of the demographics of a small business. For instance, LinkedIn may be more suitable for B2B enterprises, while Instagram could be optimal for visually-oriented consumer brands.
To create impactful and shareable content, entrepreneurs can utilize cost-effective tools such as Canva® for graphic design and Hootsuite® or Buffer® for post scheduling. These platforms enable the creation and distribution of high-quality content without requiring extensive financial resources or specialized expertise. Many platforms also offer a business account with a free tools option, providing access to analytics, scheduling, and engagement insights at no additional cost.
Social Media Platforms
When it comes to social media marketing, it is vital to understand the unique characteristics that each platform offers. Social media sites have their own strengths, tools, audience demographics, and user behaviors, which is why a one-size-fits-all approach rarely works – especially for small businesses.
To craft an effective social media strategy, small businesses need to select platforms that align with their goals, audience, and type of content. Here are the most popular social media channels for small businesses to create social media posts:
- Meta®: With over 2.9 billion monthly active users, Meta (previously known as Facebook) remains one of the largest platforms, making it ideal for reaching a broad audience. It offers robust advertising tools, such as Meta Ads. Meta Ads allow small businesses to target specific groups based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.
- Instagram®: A visually driven platform, Instagram is particularly effective for businesses that rely on strong visuals to showcase products or services. Instagram also caters to younger demographics and has seen significant growth in its “Stories” and “Reels” features, making it a key player in video content marketing to new customers.
- LinkedIn®: LinkedIn is a professional networking platform, primarily focused on B2B marketing. For small businesses in consulting, professional services, or education, LinkedIn provides opportunities for thought leadership, industry networking, and online visibility.
- X®: Formerly known as Twitter, X is known for its real-time updates and concise messages. It is useful for businesses looking to engage in direct conversations with prospective customers or existing customers. It’s also highly effective for sharing news and announcements, and X is especially helpful for building a brand’s voice.
- TikTok®: This short-form video platform has skyrocketed in popularity, especially among Gen Z consumers. Small businesses that embrace creativity and entertainment can use TikTok to quickly go viral. However, using TikTok requires a knack for understanding trends and an ability to connect with younger audiences.
- Pinterest®: Often overlooked, Pinterest is powerful for businesses in niches like fashion, crafts, home decor, and cooking. Its user base, primarily women, uses the platform for inspiration and product discovery, making it great for visual marketing and the development of loyal customers.
Understanding these social media sites and how they align with business goals is crucial for developing effective social media posts and an impactful marketing strategy.
Email Marketing
Email marketing remains a cornerstone of relationship-building and customer engagement in the digital age. It allows businesses to maintain direct communication with their audience.
Platforms like Mailchimp®, Kit®, and Constant Contact® offer helpful tools for designing visually appealing newsletters. Also, they allow you to segment subscriber lists and automate email sequences.
The key to success with an email marketing program lies in providing value to your subscribers through engaging and relevant content. For example, a fashion company may send style tips or a behind-the-scenes look at new collections. Similarly, a fitness company might share workout guides or healthy recipes to educate subscribers.
Creating personalized subject lines and compelling calls-to-action can significantly improve email performance metrics like open rates and click-through rates. Over time, businesses should optimize send times and track engagement to refine their email marketing campaigns. Through consistently delivering valuable content for subscribers, businesses can strengthen customer relationships and grow repeat business.
Referral Programs
A customer referral program is a great, low-cost marketing technique that can turn satisfied, existing customers into brand advocates and significantly expand digital marketing efforts. Referral programs have evolved rapidly with technology, offering incentives to customers to promote brands within their networks – networks your marketing may not have reached yet.
Referrals are the modern-day word of mouth, and incentives can be business awards, store credits, discounts, freebies, or exclusive perks. Similarly, subscription boxes may provide a free month for every three successful referrals, or online clothing stores can offer 15% off for both the customer and the referral.
One of my personal favorites is the Morning Brew referral program. This company highlights the program in every daily newsletter, and their referral program is designed in a tiered fashion.
The more you refer, the better the rewards. Also, Morning Brew holds flash referral contests, sometimes giving winning subscribers a MacBook Pro® for both the subscriber and a friend.
Using tools like ReferralCandy® or Yotpo® to facilitate the creation and management of referral programs will help business owners to track and automate reward distribution. These software programs can also be integrated into e-commerce platforms. To help bolster the referral program, entrepreneurs should look to promote their programs through their business website, social media platforms, and email campaigns.
Strategic Partnerships
A great marketing tactic that new entrepreneurs can use to grow a business is to create strategic partnerships with complementary businesses. This method can help business owners expand their reach to attract new customers without substantial financial cost. Strategic partnerships allow businesses to tap into each other’s audiences at little to no cost.
For example, a fitness apparel startup might partner with local gyms or nutrition coaches to cross-promote services. Similarly, a bakery might team up with a local coffee shop to offer baked goods at their shops while also gaining exclusive coffee rights within their bakery.
Platforms like LinkedIn and industry networking events are valuable for identifying potential partners. However, starting with local businesses can be the best place to look for partnerships at first. By aligning with businesses that share a similar target audience but offer non-competing products or services, entrepreneurs can increase brand exposure and build strong customer relationships.
Content Marketing
New entrepreneurs should not overlook the value of content marketing. It is a powerful tool that attracts organic traffic and helps to establish industry authority.
A content marketing strategy can be as simple as establishing a blog or producing educational videos. A blog, for example, allows businesses to address common pain points, answer frequently asked questions, and provide actionable insights.
Plus, customers love free knowledge and insights into topics. For instance, a personal finance company might publish articles on budgeting tips, investment strategies, or debt management so their readers can make better informed financial decisions.
Publishing educational videos on platforms like YouTube or TikTok can increase engagement. For example, fitness brands may share workout tutorials where a tech company may create product demos or how-to guides. Tools like BuzzSumo® help business owners identify trending topics, and other tools like Google Analytics® track content performance. By consistently producing high-quality, relevant content, brands can improve their search engine rankings.
Maximizing Results Through Analytics
To ensure the efficiency or effectiveness of these low-cost strategies, businesses should track their return on investment (ROI) carefully. Google Analytics provides comprehensive insights into data analytics such as website traffic and user behavior, helping entrepreneurs and businesses refine their marketing approaches and marketing investment based on data-driven decisions.
Additionally, tools like Hotjar® offer visual representations of user interactions with websites in the form of a heat map. This information facilitates the optimization of user experience and conversion paths.
Errors to Avoid with Low-Cost Marketing
Entrepreneurs need to be cautious not to overextend their resources across too many platforms and derail their marketing budget. It is important to maintain consistent messaging across all chosen channels to reinforce brand identity and company values.
Too much content that does not correlate to consumer interests can overwhelm customers. The quality of content should never be compromised in the pursuit of quantity because mediocre content can damage brand reputation.
When new entrepreneurs use marketing tactics wisely, they can significantly increase their brand growth. Consequently, entrepreneurs can effectively build brand awareness and foster customer loyalty without substantial financial investment.
Entrepreneurship Degrees at American Public University
For aspiring entrepreneurs who are interested in starting their own businesses or who want to grow their current organizations, American Public University (APU) offers two degrees:
Taught by experienced faculty members who understand business and entrepreneurship, the courses in these programs cover topics such as business plan foundations, idea generation, innovative marketing, and money management for entrepreneurs. Other courses include strategic growth, small business customer service, venture capital, and business plan development.
These degrees have also received specialty accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). This accreditation ensures that both programs have been thoroughly evaluated for high academic quality.
For more information on these degrees, visit APU's business and management degree program page.
Canva is a registered trademark of Canva Pty, Ltd.
Hootsuite is a registered trademark of Hootsuite, Inc.
Buffer is a registered trademark of Buffer, Inc.
Meta is a registered trademark of Meta Platforms, Inc.
LinkedIn is a registered trademark of the LinkedIn Corporation.
X is a registered trademark of the X Corporation.
TikTok is a registered trademark of Bytedance, Inc.
Pinterest is a registered trademark of Pinterest, Inc.
MailChimp is a registered trademark of The Rocket Science Group.
Kit is a registered trademark of Kit, Inc.
Constant Contact is a registered trademark of Constant Contact, Inc.
MacBook Pro is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc.
ReferralCandy is a registered trademark of Anafore Pte., Ltd.
Yotpo is a registered trademark of Yotpo, Ltd.
BuzzSumo is a registered trademark of Brandwatch.
Google Analytics is a registered trademark of Google, LLC.
Hotjar is a registered trademark of Hotjar, Ltd.
