Whenever we come across a remarkable piece of marketing, it’s easy to assume that the big agencies (who have equally big budgets to spend) are the only ones who can pull off something successful. This just isn’t the case: you don’t need celebrity endorsements or flashy adverts to create great content. Yes, having lots of resources to use definitely helps your reach, but small businesses and agencies can also create meaningful, successful campaigns.
Here are just a few tips and tricks on how to have mass appeal without a massive budget:
1) Turn to social
It just so happens that some of the most effective marketing tools – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and other social media platforms – are completely free. Use social media to interact with your target audience: find out what they are talking about, what sorts of posts they like to share and what their pain points are. That way, you can tailor your content to fit their preferences and grab their interest.
2) Appoint brand ambassadors
Using the power of social, you can appoint brand ambassadors, which have become a more common marketing tactic in recent years. A brand ambassador is someone to represent and promote your brand’s message on and offline in a positive, engaging way. To find out more about how to set up a social media ambassador program and why you should, read this article from Social Media Today.
3) Host a meetup
One way to get people talking about your company or product is to introduce yourself! Even in this digital age, face-to-face interaction is still a great way to establish connections. Host a free, casual meetup and invite key influencers in your target audience to get the conversation going offline. You can even hold recurring meetups – monthly, biannually, etc. – to build on those relationships and attract new ones.
You can also take this one step further and use a meetup as a way to position your business as an expert in your field. Establishing yourself as the authority on whatever you do – be it selling coffee or providing copywriting services – will help retain your current clients and attract new ones. You can give presentations, host workshops or demos or provide free advice/consulting, anything that helps boost your credibility.
4) Team up with a charity
Another way to attract brand attention is to partner up with a charity. You can sponsor a fundraising event, give a portion of your sales as donation, volunteer for the charity, whatever would be the best way to help. This is a positive move for many reasons: it will bring your business in front of new eyes, it will help your brand’s image (consumers are becoming more conscious about supporting ethical businesses) and best of all, it’s a great way to give back to the community.
5) Host competitions
Competitions are a great low-budget way to interact with your consumers and generate brand awareness. If you host the competition on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll also be increasing social engagement with your company and drawing in more potential followers/customers.
Using the power of social media, partnerships and networking, marketing your business doesn’t have to be expensive. Reaching new audiences through positive, genuine interaction is a tactic that businesses of any size can utilise. These tips are meant to be a starting point – expand, interpret and reinvent any of these simple strategies into creative, bespoke marketing ideas for your brand.
Gemma Falconer is a member of the Demand Generation team at Citrix and GoToMeeting, a cloud computing company that enables mobile workstyles. She has been using collaboration tools/video conferencing/online meetings for the past 6 years and splits her working time between the office and home. Having experienced the flexibility and various advantages of using such technology, Gemma would love for employers to seriously consider offering collaboration tools and flexible working for their employees so they too can truly benefit. Gemma is a mother, keen volleyball player and writer. Find her on Twitter on LinkedIn.’
