Thousands of ambitious entrepreneurs create start-up businesses each year. They do so with the intent to go from bootstrapping to having a company that pays back itself. Unfortunately, some good intentions don’t always work out.
Over 50% of start-ups begin to fail at the end of their fourth year. Factors for this include burnout and lack of new services or products. Not taking advantage of bursting points that move the company to the next level is another explanation for a start-up to not reach levels the entrepreneur expects.
Some of these factors might be lessened if an entrepreneur learns how to market their business at the start. They don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to do so. Several low-cost marketing techniques are perfect for start-ups. Here are five of them.
Newsletters
Newsletters are not a dying industry. Businesses big and small still use them to promote upcoming products and offer giveaways. One explanation why entrepreneurs don’t use them as much at the start is they take away time and energy that can be used to generate business.
A low-cost way to create this marketing tool is to bring in a company that offers to run your business’ newsletter as a service. Ones like ReadyToGo Newsletters charge a low monthly fee for pre-prepared online newsletters in several industries. The only thing to add is your promotions. This way, information is delivered to your client list without delay and you don’t have to worry about keeping up with the newsletter yourself.
Build A Mobile App
Ignore information that says it takes a minimum of $80,000 to develop and release a mobile app. The days where you must hire a team to create one are waning. Today, there are plenty of sites that give you a chance to build your own mobile application.
For a low monthly fee, you can choose an app from hundreds of options. By following the site’s instructions you customize, test, and release it to the public within days or weeks. The marketing benefits of this type of software include product promotion and free giveaways.
Guest Blog
Like newsletters, reports of the blog’s demise are not to be believed. They’re still an important way to market yourself and your products. In fact, affiliate marketers rely on your promotion to generate their own income.
If you don’t feel like creating your own blog then consider guesting on another site. There, you can apply your subject matter expertise to a passionate topic. In turn, readers not originally familiar with your work will visit your website.
Social Media
While social media has become the internet’s third rail over the last few years it’s still an important, low-cost marketing technique for start-ups. It’s not a secret that successful marketing doesn’t involve corrosive statements or trolling competitors. That leads to a drop in clients and the potential suspension of your credentials.
There are two critical items to consider when marketing on social media. First, you want to keep it to platforms where you’ll gain and retain the most interest. Second, you want to mix your product promotions with other interesting items. There are sites where you can retrieve relevant topics that draw in readers. On top of this, make sure to regularly interact with visitors.
Utilize LinkedIn
One of the social media platforms you must work on is LinkedIn. This site goes beyond memes and cat videos. Business owners and influencers make up the majority of LinkedIn’s users.
As a result, it’s a prime location to promote yourself. For a small monthly fee, you receive extra benefits on Linkedin’s premium platform. One of these is the ability to pull up a potential client’s phone number or email. It’s much easier to reach them through this avenue over LinkedIn’s instant messaging tool.
The items mentioned above are a small percentage of the low-cost marketing techniques that are perfect for start-ups. Rather than take them all on at once it’s better to try one or two out to see how they work. If they seem to do the job you can take time to refine your practices.
In the end, these tools are only one part of the recipe to move your business forward. Persistence, patience, and the urge to move through the worst bits are the main ingredient. With both, your start-up will become a full-fledged business in no-time.
