5 Lowest Cost Marketing Strategies - Part 1

When you're trying to get as many leads as possible and your budget is very small, you need to get as much leverage as possible from the money you spend.

Here are the 5 lowest cost marketing strategies - all of which work well in the U.S. We'll do 3 in this post and 2 in the next.

1. Referrals

Referrals are the single most effective and lowest cost marketing strategy you can employ. They close faster than other leads, and the sales tend to be higher amounts.

If you already have customers in the U.S., you can ask for referrals from them. (Most people hate asking for referrals, but it can be easier than you think. This blog post has some tips: 4 Ways to Get More Referrals)

If you don't have customers yet, you can still get referrals. Whenever you talk to someone - whether that person is a prospect, prospective business partner, prospective employee, someone who is trying to sell you ad space, or anyone involved in the industry whatsoever - you can ask them if they know of anyone who might be interested in using your software.

In fact, people who are trying to sell you something or who are interested in partnering with you or working with you can be excellent referral sources.

Another way to get referrals is to bring referrals to someone who might be able to refer business back. This is the law of reciprocity at work. Do a favor for someone - they'll do a favor back if they can.

2. Nurture program

Also called drip marketing, nurture programs are typically seen as a way to stay in contact with people who have contacted you but are not yet ready to step into the sales cycle - or as a way to keep educating people and stay in touch through a long sales cycle.

But nurture programs are also excellent for people you want to become prospects.

In other words, people who have never contacted you, but who you think would be a good fit for your software.

Build a short list - maybe 100 or 200 prospects with a lot of potential - and start contacting them.

But... The trick is to not just contact them once and then forget about them. You want to contact them on a regular basis - and send them useful information (not just information about buying your software).

There's more information about nurture programs here: Start a Nurture Program.

3. Pay-per-click ads

Google AdWords can be very inexpensive - and they reach people who are actively searching for the solution to a problem.

One trick to keeping the cost low is to use long-tail keywords. In other words, don't advertise on the most obvious phrases. Those are likely to be very expensive.

Look for 3- and 4-word phrases that accurately describe the problem your prospects are trying to solve. Or some of the solutions they might be looking for.

Not sure what phrases to use?

Search on the most obvious phrases (CRM software, for example, or change management software). Then go to whatever discussion forums come up and see what phrases people are actually using when they post. Lots of times you'll find really good phrases.

Google and the other search engines also offer keyword tools that will suggest phrases and tell you how much competition is available. Here's one:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
And you can check out what phrases competitors are using with SpyFu.

In the next post... 2 more low-cost and very effective marketing strategies...