9 Affordable App Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

Small businesses and startup apps don’t have a high marketing budget. When they are starting small, they want to avoid risk and invest in areas that promise guaranteed returns. Fortunately, there are smart ways to market your app to your customers without spending much on app marketing.

If you are looking for inexpensive marketing ideas to promote your business, you are at the right place. In this article, you will learn nine of such ideas. So without further ado, let’s get down to business!

9 Affordable Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

1. Invest a Few Bucks on Social Media Marketing

Whether you have a cloth shop or you’re running a restaurant, or you are a service provider in a particular area, you need social media presence to promote your business.

Social media marketing is for everyone. From small businesses to global brands, each of them pays special attention to their social media accounts. Facebook has over 2.85 billion active users worldwide; Instagram has one billion.

You can manage all your social media yourself, or hire an individual freelancer to do it for you. Social media marketing is quite inexpensive as compared to other marketing channels.

2. Use Brochures 

Though digital marketing is prevalent today, businesses still use brochures for marketing purposes. Especially when a business is new, for instance, a new pizza shop in the town, brochures help to connect with people who are not social media savvy.

Secondly, brochures are quite cheap. You can create a brochure yourself in MS Word or any other software of your choice, using the built-in templates, or hire a graphic designer to create one for you. You can get hundreds of prints ready in a day at a very affordable price.

3. Stay Active on LinkedIn

Don’t underestimate the power of networking. A single lead can bring you hundreds of permanent customers in the future. And LinkedIn is the best platform for networking.

Especially when you are a SaaS startup, a digital marketing agency, or a business whose presence matters on LinkedIn, create a business profile on LinkedIn. Share helpful content for people.

The platform has over 660 million registered users. And 90 million of these are senior-level influencers. Imagine one of them sharing your post, and appreciating your content.

4. A Simple, Yet Impressive Website

You need a website; there’s no other way around. Through a website you can promote your business to thousands of prospects, searching for the product/service you have.

Fortunately, today, you don’t need deep pockets to build a business website. With WordPress, you can create your website yourself within a couple of days -- even if you don’t know how to code.

Or, you can hire freelance developers to create a responsive website with basic functionalities. If your website tells what your business is about, how to connect with you, and where you operate, that’s enough!

5. Use Infographics 

Now then, when you have a social media presence, or a business website, you need content to impress the visitors. Besides text content, you can use the power of infographics to say more with fewer words.

More than 60% of B2B marketers are investing in infographics for content marketing. And more than 30% of these believe images are the most important form of content for their business.

6. Use Email Marketing to Engage with Your Audience

Email marketing offers a staggering ROI of up to 400%. Yes, you heard it right. On every single dollar spent on email marketing, you can expect an ROI of $4.

The best bit is, you don’t need any technical skills to send emails. There are various free tools available to automate your email marketing process. 

All you will have to do is write a series of welcome emails, thank you emails, and once in a week engage with subscribers by telling a personal story or experience.

7. Create YouTube Videos

Do you believe you have the expertise to become a leader in your industry? Do you think you can share content that can solve other people’s problems? Then create your YouTube channel. Show your authority by sharing useful content with people.

In the United States, YouTube is the second largest search engine. And it continues to become popular worldwide. People even look for medications and health advice on YouTube.

No matter what your business is about, give premium content to people and direct them to your website or social media.

8. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is quite flexible in terms of price. You can reach a worldwide-known athlete to promote your product( who will definitely charge you a hefty amount), or a mid-level local influencer( who is open to negotiation on price).

For small or medium businesses, influencer marketing can yield great results. People trust their favorite actors and athletes, or the activists and politicians they follow. If they are ready to vouch for your service or product, you can expect great results.

9. Put Magnets on the Company Car

Chances are you are already aware of this marketing practice. It's been around for quite a time now. Business owners ask employees to stick a magnetic sign on their cars. 

This way, they have a brand awareness campaign running on wheels. You can also try bumper stickers and window decals for this purpose. Generally, these are affordable and any business can use them.