One of the biggest challenges when marketing a small business is finding the money for it. They say you have to spend money to make money, but that makes life incredibly difficult when your company is on a small budget. This is why marketing tends to be the first thing on the chopping block during a financial crisis. Unfortunately, however, you can’t just ditch marketing altogether, or you won’t get your name out there, and sales will start to plummet. Thankfully, there are several low-cost ideas you could try. Here are five to consider.

Publish Interesting Content

The importance of interesting content shouldn’t ever be forgotten. It boosts your search engine optimization, gives potential customers a reason to visit your site, and allows you to build a community in the comments section. Of course, you could spend a lot of money hiring someone to create this content for you, but it’s much cheaper to do it yourself. Even if you’re not that great at writing, you should have too much trouble writing a blog post or two.

Attend an Event

Hosting business events and conferences is a great way to get your name out there and give something back to others in your industry. Unfortunately, they’re difficult to organize and can get quite pricey. Because of this, you may want to consider hiring a booth at a conference instead, like IFA 2019, for example. This way you can still network and increase recognition of your brand, and also have time to attend talks and have some fun.

Use Social Media

In the tech-savvy world we live in, you can’t afford to neglect your social media. A large portion of your target market will have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, so you need to ensure that you do too and that you’re using them the best you can. This means posting regular updates and responding to every comment you receive. You should also consider hosting contents or investing in social media advertising. This is fairly cheap but can see great results.

Brand Your Vehicle

As you drive around each day, your car will be seen by hundreds of people, so it makes sense to turn it into a tool for advertising. As long as your vehicle isn’t too old or beat up, you should print your logo on the back, sides, or windows of your car. This could mean using a vinyl sticker, window decal, or removable magnet signs. You could also consider a full paint job, but this will cost you a bit more.

Enter Business Awards

Most industries have awards you can enter your business into, often for free, so do some research and find a few that suit your. If you win, you’ll be awarded a badge that you can stick on your website. These boost the credibility of your brand, and, as such, tend to increase sales. You also usually get a shout out over social media, which will also boost recognition of your brand and should improve sales.

Marketing on a budget isn’t always easy, but, hopefully, some of the low-cost ideas listed above will help you out.