The Low Cost of High Visibility: How to Effectively Market on a Budget
We’ve all been there, facing a financial shortage and needing to see through an outreach campaign. What can be done when the client wants to market their services but doesn’t have the means? The most important thing to remember is that if there is a will there is a way, in our modern day we can advertise and market almost for free; will it be worthy of a Super Bowl spot? Perhaps not, but the message is out there.
If there is a will, there is a way, regardless of the budget.
When starting MendEd, I didn’t have much funds to do much, much less buy large advertisement campaigns. One of my first clients wanted to spread their music and build their clothing brand to sell their merchandise. I knew I couldn’t buy ads on Google or Spotify to build their image- there was no budget at all! Despite these shortcomings, there was a plan of attack I managed to devise:
Word of mouth: There’s nothing that spreads faster than gossip, and when people talk others listen. Using effective communication I talked up the multifaceted nature of this artist, the quality of their music, and the durability of their clothing (it helped to have them be DJing while I did this, while wearing one of their branded shirts). People were impressed, people were intrigued, and in the end, those interested became customers buying merchandise.
QR Codes and LinkTree: Don’t underestimate the holdovers from the COVID pandemic, the QR codes. Despite being the adversary to every restaurant goer, QR codes can be powerful in advertising your client. Attaching a QR code that is big enough to see from a car window to a bus stop or other allowed surface can attract onlooker’s attention and lead interested individuals to your site. In this case, using a LinkTree QR code was beneficial as the code led to a site where the artist had their: Spotify page, artist page, website, and online store.
Application fixation: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and there are a lot of eyes on apps like Instagram and TikTok. These two apps can be effective in creating short-form content like videos or recordings, exactly what I used them for. At first, the views and likes were low, and conversions even lower, yet, we persisted. Eventually, we began to break 1K views, then 5K, and then the clicks to their site came, and eventually sales. While it’s difficult to throw yourself out there, expecting a viral video from the get-go, the key is to keep doing it. Which brings us to….
Consistency: While all these approaches can vary in results, the determining factor is the consistency you tie to your approach. You’re more likely to get results if you keep marketing and selling yourself over months than if you stop after a week of trying. The more you keep at it, the more likely it is that you’ll see results. The good thing is that these approaches are essentially free, the most you’ll spend is printing some QR codes on paper, but I’m sure your local library can help you out, or Kinkos for $10.
