Every startupreneur faces lots of hurdles in the quest to gain some market share in his industry. It gets more challenging when the person involved is a greenhorn in his profession. More often than not, these startupreneurs keep experimenting a wide array of strategies to determine the most suitable strategy for their businesses. But then, there is another obstacle in their way: where to source funds to finance their marketing strategies. Consequently, having low-cost, time-tested marketing tactics matters to startupreneurs more than anything else. Are you a startupreneur in dire need of such marketing tactics? If yes, we would show you low-cost, effective marketing tactics that return the best possible results.
20 Low-cost Marketing Tactics for Startupreneurs
Here are the tried-and-tested tactics
#1 Network: Well, the first tactic on our list is networking. You are new in this business, which means that nobody knows you yet. Meet established professionals and exchange your business cards and ideas.
#2 Join Professional Bodies: Although joining professional bodies is similar to networking, they are not exactly the same. You see, when you become a vibrant member of such organizations, you could meet practitioners who would transform your business for good.
#3 Write Articles: You are in business and you can write so well. Then you use that skill. Write journals, and write for relevant magazines and newspapers to enlighten their readers. However, don’t fail to attach your contacts to the write-ups. You can pitch editors to discuss your topic of choice.
#4 Referrals: Additionally, if you have a couple of clients that you are already working for, terrific! You should ask them to refer you to colleagues and friends in your industry.
#7 Cold-pitching: While cold calling might have worked for many different people, these days people just cold-pitch. You don’t need to bug people with calls. Just design an attractive company catalog with a list of services you offer. Afterward, send a convincing proposal to companies in your line of business, telling why they should do business with you.
#8 Advertise using branded T-shirts: Also, you should have branded T-shirts of your company and get your staff to mandatorily wear them on a particular day at work; it could be on Thursdays and/or Fridays. When you do that, you are creating brand awareness.
#9 Engagements: When you work for a client, it doesn’t end there. Find a reason to keep in touch. It could be to felicitate with them on their birthdays, anniversaries, festive seasons, etc. You shouldn’t only work to satisfy your clients, but you should also strive to build a cordial relationship with them.
#10 Events: Do well to attend relevant events and lobby the organizers to speak at such events. As long as you know your onions in your space, people will want to connect with you. If you don’t have a good oratory skill, work on yourself.
#11 Reviews: Well, another low-cost tactic that works perfectly for startupreneurs is the use of previous clients’ reviews. As a matter of fact, a lot of times, new clients would ask if you have recommendations from your previous clients. Therefore, you should use ‘What our clients say about us’ to get new clients.
#12 Compliments: still, you may find the use of compliments funny but it works. Here’s the simple tactic, when your prospective client gives a job you are interested in a competitor, send a thank-you note to the prospective client. This courtesy could earn you their next project, especially if they weren’t impressed with the work of the project contractor.
#13 Do more: Go out of your way to satisfy your client by helping them fetch qualified consultants or companies that can satisfactorily execute their projects, most especially when it is outside your scope. More often than not, they would feel that they owe you a favor.
#14 Nominations: Nominate the projects that you executed for your clients for awards. Essentially, one fascinating fact about awards is that they propel projects into the limelight. Consequently, other interested people would want to know the brain behind the projects.
#16 Pamper your clients: Well, there’s no denying the fact that it is cheaper to get your existing clients to patronize you again than striving to get new clients. The logic behind it is that they trust your product/service, but you may need to persuade them to buy some more.
#17 Enlighten your employees: Most times, employees confine their job description to all that they need to do for their companies. No way! Every worker should be a marketer, better still, a brand ambassador. Beyond branded T-shirts, they should also use mouth-to-mouth marketing technique to promote your company
#18 Sponsor Events: Admitted, you don’t have a lot of money to throw around. But you can take a step further to sponsor an event. For instance, charity drive, hockey competition, soccer, etc. When you do that, you send a message that you are a community-oriented company, thus generating goodwill among the government, customers, and prospects.
#19 Free Presentation: Plus, there are a lot of complacent chief executives out there, so they don’t bother improving their business processes. Google different companies in your line of business and grasp the technique they employ in production or project execution. Afterward, offer them free presentation or consultation on how they can improve. You may use a webinar.
#20 Incentives: Don’t stop by making your staff your brand ambassadors but offer them incentives for every project/contract/client that they attract to your company. We cannot emphasize it enough: Incentives motivate workers. Research shows that companies have fired workers that showed low motivation at work, leaving just about 13%.
Conclusion
Without doubts, breaking into your market is no child’s play. Many startups have tried different cost-intensive marketing strategies, but they just threw in the towel halfway into it. From our findings, those startups let up because they lacked the financial muscle to finance such strategies. However, the tactics we have shared with you in this guide have been tested and tried over the years. On top of that, they are budget-friendly. Guess what, they work perfectly! But then, we must admit that it takes a while for positive results to start trickling in. Of course, no good thing comes easily. Nevertheless, if you deploy and execute these tactics to the letter, we assure you that you would get to the top sooner than you expected. Start today!!
