Last Updated on Wed-Mar-2024 by Robert Bogere
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of U.S. small businesses fail before making it through the first year.
Two years ago, a business owner (whose name I’ll withhold for data privacy purposes) contacted me.
“Hey, Bob, I’ve got a tight budget for my startup, and I want to focus more on operations. How can I build my brand without spending too much?”
I carefully considered smart strategies for growing and building a startup with limited money. Perhaps you may be in the similar position, wondering how to make a mark without breaking the bank. Fortunately, my prospect had someone to ask. Do you?
If you’re nodding yes, awesome! If you’re shaking your head, worry no more.
In this article, you’ll explore 5 practical and budget-friendly strategies to help your startup grow without draining your wallet.
So, as we dive in, settle down, and let’s explore these simple, practical strategies together.
5 Cost friendly strategies to build and grow your startup
“When I started, I asked myself, “Where will I get clients to scale and grow my brand when I’m not known to people?’’ This question always haunted me.
One reason for working on your brand strategy is to attract quality leads you’ll turn into customers. To make your business known to your target audience, use budget-friendly strategies to create awareness for your business, brand, products, and services.
To make it grow, aim to get the most out of your investment by finding cost-effective strategies that won’t break the bank.
Related: Learn the startup branding mistakes you need to avoid
Operating on a tight budget can be challenging, hindering investment in marketing strategies like out-of-home and traditional approaches.
1. Leverage blogging
Blogging is a powerful tool to not only showcase your brand but also educate your target audience.
You developed your brand strategy. Worked on your brand identity and reached the stage of working on your brand tools. You have worked on your website.
When designing and developing your website, think of a blog where you’ll share your content in line with what you do as a brand so you can educate your target audience.
With your website, you need to start blogging straight away. It’s one of the easiest and most friendly strategies to refer organic traffic to your website.
According to Forbes, websites that publish 16 blogs monthly drive 3.5X more web traffic than sites with 4 blogs or fewer. What will separate you from others will be the consistency and hard work you’ll put into sharing quality educative content that solves your target customer problems.
Make blogging your habit and learn to publish insightful content to attract unique visitors to your website. Content sharing through videos, social media posts, educative articles, emails, etc., is a surefire approach.
How will you implement blogging to attract unique visitors to your website?
2. Work on your social media accounts
Harness the boundless potential of social media as we delve into a strategy that not only builds your brand’s presence but also serves as a cost-effective approach for engagement and growth.
Leveraging social media is another cost-effective approach to build and grow your brand. If you wholesomely use it with care, this strategy can save a lot of dollars and help you figure out what’s working and not.
Discover: How you can work on your brand positioning statement
According to Ty Crandall, CEO of Credit Suite, he said, “Some of the most effective and efficient marketing strategies for growing a new business now comes from social media”
While you might face challenges in getting quality leads from these platforms, you can use them to grow your email lists and drive traffic to your website. It’s very doable.
By July 2023, there were 4.8 billion social media users worldwide, representing 59.9% of the global population and 92.7% of all internet users (Search Engine Journal).
Leverage your social media by showing up daily with educative, inspirational, and funny content. Engage with your audience through contests, challenges, rewards, and prizes.
Your brand tends not to engage with its audience which is wrong. You need to dialogue with your followers to express your brand voice and get more engagement. You can also run polls and request your audience’s feedback about your brand.
How will you leverage social media to engage with your audience daily? What type of content will you share to captivate and connect with your followers?
3. Start your newsletter list
Uncover the often underestimated power of e-mail newsletters—a versatile and budget-friendly tool to nurture customer relationships, foster brand loyalty, and drive tangible results for your startup.
According to Statista, currently there’re 4 billion daily email users and this figure is expected to rise to 4.6 billion by 2025. Over 319 billion emails were sent and received in 2021, daily.
And this number will also continue to rise by approximately 4% annually. With that said, email newsletters will continue to serve their purpose.
If you’re looking at nurturing your customers or creating relationships with your audience, you need to start your e-mail newsletter and start sending out e-mails to your subscribers.
One issue with email marketing is some brands spam subscribers by directly selling products and services instead of sharing valuable information to turn customers into fans.
When you spam your subscribers, it will lead to a bad reputation. Your list should be used to generate real, qualified leads that can be turned into sales.
An email newsletter is a cost-friendly approach to promoting your brand through creating insightful emails. To attract a new audience, think of offering lead magnets such as e-books, roadmaps, templates, and free tips.
To optimize your website’s performance, it is recommended to strategically position your opt-in page. Consider placing it either in the footer or at the top of your webpage. This will ensure maximum visibility and encourage more visitors to subscribe to your mailing list.
You can also think of positioning your opt-in page in the sidebar of your article.
As you embark on building your email newsletter, what kind of lead magnets will you offer to entice new subscribers? How do you plan to use your newsletters to build genuine connections with your audience?
4. Leverage virtual events and classes
Step into the virtual realm and discover the transformative impact of hosting online events. From webinars to trade shows, learn how this cost-effective strategy can catapult your business into a visible one.
Nowadays, there’s a trend of hosting live events online. As you’re planning for the annual plan, plan to host events and classes online so you can reach a big audience.
Think of hosting your webinars, trade shows, conferences, exhibitions, etc. Such an approach is a cost-effective one to promote your business through offering helpful information to potential interested customers.
With hosting your events, you’ll need to spread the word about your webinar on your social handles or through your weekly e-mail marketing 1 to 2 weeks before your event.
In 2020, the market size of the global meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) industry was estimated at approximately one trillion U.S. dollars.
Companies globally have been exploring digital experiences to engage their consumers and audiences weathering COVID-19’s impact on business. Again, virtual events and classes are cost-friendly in building brand awareness and generating leads for your brand.
Leveraging such, you can also launch your new products and services, share knowledge with your customers, and answer your customers’ questions.
Do you know how to develop your brand strategy? If not, find out more here.
When planning your virtual events, what topics or themes will resonate most with your target audience? How will you ensure active participation and engagement during your webinars and online classes?
5. Offer contests, free coupons and discounts
Prepare to unleash the excitement with giveaways, contests, and discounts—a dynamic trio that not only saves your customers money but also propels your brand into the limelight through engaging and wallet-friendly strategies.
An average of over 34% of new customers are acquired through contests landing pages running a contest give away increased email leads by 700%. 45% of digital marketers agree social media contests give them a good return on investment.
Providing free coupons and discount codes will save your customers a lot of dollars. Think of it this way; if you’re introducing a new product or service, you can say your 100 first customers to buy your new product will be given a 25% discount off your product price.
You give away or contests is a cost-effective powerful approach that requires minimal funds to execute and promote your brand to your target customers.
Launching contests or offering limited-time free coupons and discounts creates a sense of urgency and excitement among your audience.
This not only encourages immediate purchases but also sparks discussions and social media sharing, increasing your brand’s visibility.
You can use contests and coupon offerings as incentives for customers to subscribe to your mailing list. This will provide a direct communication channel, allowing you to share your updates, promotions, and product launches, further maximizing the impact of your cost-effective strategies.
Your contests can be designed to gather valuable insights about customer preferences and expectations. You need to encourage participants to share feedback as a condition for entry.
This dual-purpose approach not only engages your audience but also provides you with valuable market information for refining your products or services.
Discover: The effective brand positioning strategies to position your brand
In your contests and promotions, what creative incentives can you offer to encourage participation? How will you use your engagements to not only spark discussions but also enhance your brand’s visibility?
Conclusion
In this startup era, where budgets are tight with many dreams, the journey to building and growing your startup might seem a challenge.
Armed with strategic simplicity, you can solve such challenges and set your brand up for success. Remember the questions that tickled in my mind when I started: “Where will I find clients? How can I grow when no one knows me?”
Today, I share with you five cost-friendly strategies to not only answer these questions but also to turn your startup into a brand that attracts the right customers.
Embrace the power of blogging, as your website isn’t just a digital storefront—it’s a tool for sharing your brand’s story. Social media isn’t just a virtual hangout—it’s a goldmine for building your brand without breaking the bank.
Don’t underestimate the magic of a well-nurtured email newsletter, and as the world shifts to virtual spaces, leverage virtual events and classes. Lastly, the power of giveaways, contests, and discounts is not to be underestimated.
Building your brand doesn’t require a bottomless bank account. It’s about creativity, consistency, and connecting with your audience in meaningful ways.
Now, armed with these strategies, take the first step in growing your startup today. Your journey to brand greatness begins now.
A determined soul who battled with self-doubt. Feeling trapped in rut race for 8 years, he struggled through careers and lost confidence.
On edges to give up for good. One day, he decided to show up and started on LinkedIn where he started studying FREE online courses plus making sales noise.
The above changed his life and now offering proper strategic guidance and direction with customized brand solutions to 2x clients and revenue growth to purposeful startups and small businesses.
