Launching A Startup Digital Marketing Campaign On A Tight Budget

how to launch a digital marketing campaign tight budget

Beginnings are never easy in business. This counts double for startups. Everything is in short supply – resources, time and especially money. There are so many costs that you, as an owner, must think about – salaries, electricity bills, the Internet, taxes and the list goes on and on. So, by the time you come to your marketing budget, money has mostly already been either spent or reserved for something else. This is why you should consider launching a digital marketing campaign. However, this does not mean you won’t spend any money. It simply means you will be able to afford it and still get good a conversion rate. 

First Steps 

Before you even consider any form of digital marketing there are some things you need to do. 

First, determine your niche market and your typical customer. The truth is - you will need to narrow down your target audience in order to compete with established brands and businesses. The more specific you are about your market, the easier it will be to create a strategy that will fit that market. 

Next, always keep in mind that you will also need to establish yourself as a brand so make sure to follow the same branding theme across all of your platforms and channels. 

Some additional business money tips we can offer include – making a budget and sticking to it, getting business loans if needed, using free tools to help you and making sure you do not spend too much time exploring those same tools as time is money and there are a lot of them (Buffer, Buzzsumo, etc.).

Once you have established the budget, browse for tools that might be useful and remember to try them out before purchasing anything no matter how appealing the offer might seem. You can also just use the free ones. 

Nothing Beats Great Content

You must have heard the saying ‘Content is king’. In today’s marketing, this has been proven right over and over again. 

Your creativity is your most effective weapon. Use it to make your content and yourself stand out from your competition. Your website should be full of useful and quality content. You can hire someone to write it for you (which does not cost a lot) or, if you are comfortable with writing, do it yourself as you are, after all, knowledgeable about the subject. 

Also, make sure to include images in your posts. Nowadays, people are used to seeing pictures in posts so it is imperative to include a couple of them in your posts. Do not worry, there are a lot of sites where you can use royalty-free images (Pixabay for example), or you can use Canva or Slideshare to create presentations. Audio? No problem – there is Sound Cloud. For video, of course, choose YouTube. And all of these can be used for free. 

Your content should be spread across different channels because people have grown accustomed to accessing information in different ways. The good news is that a lot of the tools you can use are free (with limited options of course). Generating quality content requires only time and some patience. 

From Visitors To Subscribers 

One of the things your site should have is an email newsletter. The formula is very simple – give to get. You give your potential subscribers the opportunity to receive some of your content for free and you get their email addresses you can include on your mailing list so that you can, for example, notify them about special offers and events. 

A Call-to-Action button gives your visitors the freedom to decide if they want your content or not and enhances user experience. If you add more opt-ins, you’ll provide your visitors with a sense of control, which also increases user satisfaction. Please, try not to spam them and consider including an Unsubscribe option in order to avoid a bad reaction from people who no longer want to receive your content. 

Great content combined with a possibility to subscribe to a Newsletter is a great way to create your mailing list (you can use MailChimp to send emails but, of course, there are some limitations for free users). 

Promotion Via Social Media

You can further promote your content and your brand via different social media platforms. 

It is important to mention that you should pick your social media channel carefully. It is not wise to use too many of them and it can also be time-consuming. If you end up abandoning some of them (or all), it can, in the end, hurt your business as it gives an impression of inconsistency and lack of interest. 

This is where you will also need to identify your target audience. If your marketing effort is based on a B2B market, you should consider using either Twitter or LinkedIn. Facebook, on the other hand, is more oriented towards B2C market. 

If your products rely on their appearance, Instagram and Pinterest are the way to go. If they answer very specific needs, consider scanning Quora for opportunities to answer questions related to your niche and you might catch some good B2B opportunities there. 

Nevertheless, it is crucial to point out that your business’ social media accounts should be used wisely and not updated 10 times a day. When posting updates, make sure to have relevant content (an IT company publishing an image of a cup of coffee with caption ‘Enjoying the break with colleagues’ is not going to boost any sales.) 

Social media gives you an opportunity to interact and engage with your potential customers. You just need to listen or hire a part-time social media manager to handle that, which, when all benefits are considered, is not such a great cost. 

Another advantage of using social media is the fact that it is free to use so what more can you ask for? 

User Generated Content 

Another way to engage users is UGC. This is another strategy that engages your creativity. Think of a clever way you can make your users participate in your marketing scheme and reward them for that, of course. 

Let’s say you are selling some sort of custom mugs, for example. Make a contest on your site and share it on your social media platforms. Ask users to submit their own ideas for, let’s say, First Morning Coffee Mug. Have them share their entries on their social networks using a hashtag you have devised for the contest (make sure it’s unique) and ask them to vote for their designs/ideas. This way, your reach will definitely increase. 

Do not forget to reward the ‘winner’ and congratulate all the participants. This will improve user experience and increase brand loyalty

This, of course, can be done for any type of content. 

Master Your Marketing

We hope this article has given you some ideas and that you are ready to plan your marketing campaign. 

Starting a business is not easy. But today, with all the digital tools out there, digital marketing does not need a lot of investment – all it requires is some money, time and creativity. 



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I hope you enjoyed this article about launching a digital marketing campaign that gets your brand across online but on a tight budget.

Interested in more articles about digital marketing on a frugal budget?

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- Serve More Clients While Cutting Costs

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