6 Best Low-Cost Marketing Strategies

by Ryan McMullen

Wouldn’t it be so much easier to build your business with Nike’s, Apple’s or Anheuser-Busch’s marketing budget? Unfortunately, as small-business owners, we sometimes have to use low-cost strategies to get our message out there. I’ve polled a number of my fellow local marketers to see what has worked for their clients and compiled the best six bootstrap strategies:

1. Craigslist used to have a negative perception because it was viewed as a glorified newspaper classified section. As it has evolved, consumers have completely embraced the platform, whether they’re looking for a new job, a service or a product. I have a B2B client who posts on Craigslist every day, and it accounts for about 25% of his new leads.  

2. Customer loyalty programs are so easy to execute these days, and we all know they work. I Googled “customer loyalty programs for small business,” and there are dozens of companies that have inexpensive monthly packages to drive customers back to you. The barrier to entry always was that loyalty programs were hard to keep track of and messy, but now you can have it all done for you very inexpensively.

3. Business cards may be the most overlooked opportunity to make an impression. If your business card is unique, cool and just an overall good conversation piece, it has the ability to go viral. My brother works for an organic juice company in Florida, and the back of his business card is a coupon for one free bottle. He’s like a rock star wherever he goes because he will hand it out to everyone and it spreads like wildfire.

4. Fishbowl marketing is one of my favorite strategies, especially for restaurants. We’ve all seen the fishbowl next to the cashier – the place where you drop in your business card for a free lunch, happy hour, dinner or whatever has some value. This is so great because you now have a list of customers you can send emails to until the end of time. Spend $20 a month on an auto-responder, set up your email series, just plug in the email addresses from the fishbowl cards and you’ve got an extremely powerful customer communication tool. You won’t get a ton of new business from this, but you will definitely get more business. I love this one.

5. Include a promo with every invoice. There is a reason that every time you get a takeout or delivery pizza, coupons and specials are stapled to the top of the box. It works.

6. Trade your services for marketing services. The perceived value of your product or service is far greater than the actual cost to you. Your accountant will be supremely impressed that you’re getting professional marketing help at an actual fraction of the cost.

This could easily be a list of 25, but I really like these six because each one is very inexpensive and extremely easy to implement. As with all marketing, don’t give up on it too quickly. If you try Craigslist and you don’t get a call the very first day, that’s OK. All marketing works to a certain degree, so allow it the time it needs to prove its effectiveness.

Ryan McMullen (ryan@stlouismarketinglab.com) is the owner of St. Louis Marketing Lab.