How to promote your startup with no money

If you’re looking to promote your startup with no money, you might think that marketing requires a large budget, but it’s entirely possible to craft a marketing strategy that requires minimal investment while producing worthwhile results. The key is to have the right goals in mind and to understand which tools can help you achieve those goals.

Key Takeaways:

• Set your marketing goals before employing any technique.
• You can do the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) yourself at the early stages.
• Use social media to increase brand awareness.
• Use your email list to keep in touch with your clients.
• Reach your target audience using cross-promotion.

First of All, Set Your Goals!

Before you can build your strategy, you need a clear goal. What does your business want to accomplish? Many startup founders may assume they need to “do marketing” but don’t have a clear idea of what that means or why they are doing it.

Putting goals in place for what you are trying to achieve through your marketing efforts and understanding where you are in terms of product development can help ensure that you’re not just doing marketing for the sake of it. Whether you are trying to gauge the size of the market, test your proof of concept, drive people to your product, or scale your business, you need to know exactly why you’re marketing.

Do SEO Yourself

Some internet marketing agencies act as if Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a magical tool that only they can use and you should pay them a fortune to do it. This is absurd. You should probably hire a qualified agency when you have the money, but for now, you can make SEO work for you with a little common sense and initiative.

Use Social Media

Social media allows you to reach a large number of people and get your name out there. You can increase your startup’s online presence by using sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. However, startups must not view social media as a place to simply tweet or post about their brand. To get the most out of these platforms, you must use them strategically.

Email Your Customers

Email is one of the most effective forms of marketing you can undertake. And you know what’s awesome about that? It’s free! Customers who opt in to your email list are already interested in your product or services, they want to know more, and they think you might have the answers to their questions.

Cross-Promote

Cross-promotion is a set of activities designed to promote goods from various brands that don’t compete but have similar audiences. It assists with brand awareness, lead generation, sales acceleration, and product and service promotion. It allows you to partner with related businesses who can market your services, in exchange for marketing their services.