It’s great to start a new ecommerce business because, at last, you can finally turn into a reality something that you have always wanted to do for ages. However, you’re also worried. That is why, after you put all of your stuff in order, you realise that you have significantly less money for marketing than you thought you would.
Well, good news for you are coming up. Marketing is not about the money as it is creativity and how one convinces people. You already have all what it takes for the successful ecommerce marketing of your small business. Use the low budget ecommerce marketing ideas highlighted here and you will clearly see your business grow.
11 low budget ecommerce marketing ideas
Ecommerce businesses can leverage a number of inexpensive ways of letting the public know of their brands in order to attract more clients. Most of these strategies can be implemented at the same time and this is the beauty of it because when implementing the strategies, startups are likely to benefit enormously at a very small cost.
Here are some low budget ecommerce marketing ideas:
1. Sign up for a Google My Business absolutely for free
To local businesses in particular, a Google Business Profile is one of the most viable free marketing tools out there. A crucial element of your ecommerce marketing kit it enables your business to appear on Google Maps, the local listings in Google Search, and as the business information card on the right side panel when people search for your company’s name.
But in order for this listing to appear in this search or Google Maps, this Business Profile must be optimised, and in order to optimise it, you have to own the Business Profile which you can verify on Google Business.
2. Often social media can be used as a tool to educate the general public about a particular brand.
It is a good way through which you can create awareness and market yourself to a larger populace. In this model, you can use social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin for your ecommerce startup business.
Specifically, 87% of marketers have some type of positive sentiment regarding social media marketing for ecommerce small businesses.
But it shouldn’t be seen just as a way for startups who only tweet or post about their brand. To fully utilise these platforms you have to plans well in order to maximise its usage.
For instance, you could develop Facebook contests, where people upload pictures with a view of winning something connected with your product or service. It also enable you to get a lot of engagement on the post and at the same time gain a lot of followers to your page.
You can also dedicate a contest and provide the results in your product, which will definitely create some noise about your brand.
3. CONTESTS – Run this for a week or a month or donate the prize
People like to be winners so an excellent, low cost method of the promotion of your brand is offering people something they would like to have: this could be a product or service from your company or just something everybody wants. If you work it this way, people will do something to get to your page (for example like and share your page or subscribe to your newsletter or simply give you their email address and you will reap big without spending a dime).
4. I get the real feeling that you need to get your logo out into the real world.
Social media shares are great and all, but don’t forget to promote your ecommerce brand IRL too! Magazine or newspaper features, business cards, print advertising and corporate branding at events are all good initiatives – and need not be costly. Here follows some ideas of great and creative offline guerilla marketing strategies for ecommerce business.
5. Use hashtags!
Another free method of extending the popularisation zone is to include hashtags in your materials, indicating them in social networking platforms, for sure, in Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, but it is also possible to use it in Facebook and LinkedIn.
Using broad or trending hashtag can be of benefit in reinforcing your identity but it should not be done in its entirety. These are the less general (or better said specific, sort of like the long-tail keywords) have their use when offering resources or advice. Local hashtags are very important if you are in an offlinestore. Oh yes, and that’s not forgetting about custom hashtags! there must be a combination of hashtag types you use in your posts so they could reach people for whom it is intended.
6. Contribute articles to other relevant blogs
Guest blogging is among the most effective low budget ecommerce marketing ideas, which give you access to the new audience while offering the blog a good content.
Another type of content that startups can create is to approach other bloggers in the same ecommerce niche and ask them if they would like posting a guest post from them on the subject matter of choice. If the blogger is interested you can send your article to be published on their site.
In turn, startups should for the hope of getting some traffic from the site they had their guest blog on. If it was a good post it could go viral and bring a lot of traffic to the site in a small span of time.
7. Launch a PPC campaign
Paid advertisement is yet another cheap way that may give ecommerce startups the exposure they need especially if run through Google Adwords or Facebook.
You have to be wise enough when spending money on your ecommerce startup’s paid ads but then again, if you identified the rights keywords to target, it is going to be worth it.
8. Offer something for free
Another technique of marketing your ecommerce store and creating awareness about your products or services is through giving out objects — even though this is not a place where you get to sell your products or service. Unless people want to win something from you, then they’ll have to share your ecommerce platform with friends.
For this strategy to be effective, the cost of the giveaway item should be fairly reasonable and should not be unrelated to the kind of business you are operating (for example if you are selling funny T-shirts, don’t give away Shoes).
9. Create a video
When you have an ecommerce brand, videos are the most effective way to make individuals aware of it. A good idea is to make use of videos in your startup ecommerce marketing plan because this way among other things you communicate with your audiences who will be motivated to share the brand with other people on social media.
With videos, you are also able to create awareness of the type of industry you are in as well as why a potential client should need your product or service. As a result of watching this video, they may consider shopping from your ecommerce store due to appreciation.
10. Write an informative blog
Blogs are good for ecommerce content marketing, and what is more, it is quite easy to take a blog post to the top of Google to get more and more traffic from people searching for something related to your products that you offering.
According to the survey, 81% of consumers use internet to search information before purchasing anything. A blog post should not be written like your next errand in the list because it is actually a tool for marketing. Always think about the audience, and also don’t forget about their questions.
11. Host an Event
While people will remember your ecommerce store name by means of flyer and business cards they can pick at the event, it will be much easier to recall the name to people who have met you in person.
By attending such events you will also be able to network and make contacts which is excellent for ecommerce business advertising.
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