You can’t run a successful business without a successful marketing strategy. In fact, some businesses are pretty much only successful because they market themselves so fantastically. You’ve definitely seen some huge brands and looked at what they offered and wondered how on earth people buy that crap. Most of the time, it’s because their marketing strategy is so brilliant that they’ve managed to build such a good brand image that anyone will buy anything with their logo on it. 

You’re well aware of how critical marketing is, and you’re also aware of how costly it can be. Big brands can afford to spend millions on marketing campaigns because they have the income. For a small business, steps need to be made to cut the costs of marketing. 

Use word of mouth

Back in the olden times, word of mouth marketing was the only way to spread the news about your business. Nowadays, there are many ways to take the word of mouth approach and use it to promote your business for very little. As an example, encouraging people to leave online reviews is a form of word-of-mouth marketing. It’s a digital way of loads of people saying you’re great and passing this information on to whoever cares about it. There are also social media posts that you can share around, getting other people to share them as well. Again, you’re spreading the word without needing to pay much money. 

Franchise your business

Turning your business into a franchise can help you reduce what you spend on marketing. With a franchise, you have multiple franchisees that will market your business for you. They own the franchises, paying you a fee to have them, and they are in charge of marketing them. But, it benefits your business because a) you get the word out there a lot faster, and b) you don’t spend a penny. Plus, the money you get from franchising can help you invest in a better overall marketing strategy for your brand. These days, sites like Franchise Direct list loads of franchise opportunities for people to invest in. If you can get your business listed on a site like this, loads of people will be interested. 

Opt for digital advertising

If you want to save money, avoid the traditional methods of advertising. TV, print, radio, billboards – all of these methods aren’t for small businesses with small budgets. Instead, you want to go for the digital approach. Why? Because it’s a lot easier to measure the ROI of a digital advertising campaign. As such, you save a lot of money by only choosing campaigns that are proven to elicit big returns. With traditional advertising, you can waste a lot of money before realising that an advert doesn’t work. Digital advertising stops this – and many forms of advertising online will only charge you if people click on your advert anyway. 

There you have it; three ways you can cut the cost of your marketing strategy while still ensuring maximum exposure. It’s all about being a bit creative and thinking outside of the box, while also understanding which methods are more cost-effective than other similar ones.