Even with a limited budget you can market your business effectively. There are many strategies and tactics that you can implement to promote your business without spending a lot of money, such as:

Segment and know your target audience well, to offer them personalized and relevant solutions

Segmenting and knowing your target audience well means identifying and analyzing your business's potential customers, according to their characteristics, needs, preferences and behaviors. This allows you to offer them personalized and relevant solutions, that is, products or services that adapt to their problems, desires, expectations and values.

For example, if the business is a clothing store, the target audience can be segmented and known according to some criteria such as gender, age, style, purchasing power, location, purchasing frequency, etc. Thus, they can be offered personalized and relevant solutions, such as clothes that fit them well, that they like, that fit their budget, that are available in their area, that make them feel comfortable, etc.

Segmenting and knowing the target audience well is a very important marketing strategy, because it helps improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, establish differentiation with the competition, optimize resources and increase sales.

Use word-of-mouth marketing, which is the most powerful and cheapest, and is based on customer satisfaction and recommendation

Word of mouth marketing is the actions you take to motivate others to spontaneously talk about your products, services or brand. Word of mouth marketing also refers to the actions of those who share their experiences and recommend others on your behalf.

Word of mouth marketing is more powerful and cheaper than traditional advertising because:

1- Build trust: People believe suggestions made by their friends and family more than paid ads.

2- Create virality – People spread the news by word of mouth, expanding the reach and visibility of your brand.

3- Promote loyalty: people who recommend your brand feel more committed and satisfied with it, and tend to repeat the purchase.

An example of successful word-of-mouth marketing is Dropbox, a cloud storage platform that offered free extra space to users who invited their contacts to sign up. Thus, it managed to increase its user base from 100,000 to 4 million in 15 months.

To ensure customer satisfaction and earn recommendations, you must offer a good experience throughout the purchasing process, from the first contact to after-sales service. Some ways to achieve this are:

1- Offer a quality product or service that meets the needs and expectations of customers.

2- Provide excellent customer service that is fast, friendly and efficient.

3- Request feedback from customers, to know their opinion and improve the offer.

4- Thank customers for their preference, and offer them incentives or benefits for recommending your brand.

Take advantage of guerrilla marketing, which consists of carrying out creative, original and surprising actions that generate impact and memory in the public

Guerrilla marketing is an advertising strategy that uses unconventional and surprising tactics to capture the attention and interest of potential customers. It differs from traditional marketing, which is based on massive and expensive media, such as television, radio or newspapers. Guerrilla marketing focuses on public spaces and events, where actions are carried out that generate impact and memory in the public, and that are spread by word of mouth and through social networks.

The origin of guerrilla marketing dates back to 1984, when advertising executive Jay Conrad Levinson coined the term in his book “Guerrilla Marketing.” Levinson was inspired by guerrilla warfare, a form of irregular combat that uses surprise and mobility to attack the enemy. In the same way, guerrilla marketing seeks to surprise and mobilize the target audience with creative and ingenious actions.

Guerrilla marketing actions can be of different types, depending on the objective, medium and format used. Some examples are:

1- Ambient marketing: consists of taking advantage of the urban environment to integrate the advertising message in an original and striking way. For example, a paint brand that transforms a pedestrian crossing into a rainbow, or a chewing gum brand that turns a streetlight into a giant balloon.

2- Flash mob : consists of gathering a group of people in a public place to carry out a short, coordinated action, usually involving music, dance or theater. For example, a clothing brand that organizes an impromptu parade at a train station, or a beverage brand that makes a group of people dressed in red dance in a square.

3- Street art: consists of using street art, such as graffiti, muralism or stencils , to transmit the advertising message in an artistic and subversive way. For example, a sneaker brand that paints footprints on the walls, or a book brand that creates a mural with literary quotes.

4- Stealth marketing: consists of promoting the product or service covertly, without the public realizing that it is an advertising action. For example, a camera brand that gives its products to tourists so they can use and recommend them, or a car brand that leaves its vehicles parked in strategic places with signs inviting them to try them.

The above are just a few examples of guerrilla marketing, but there are many more. The important thing is that the actions are creative, original and surprising, that they generate impact and memory in the public, and that they adjust to the budget and the target audience of the business.

Create a unique value proposition that differentiates your business from the competition and highlights its benefits and advantages

A unique value proposition is the value promise you make to potential customers, explaining how the product or service can meet their needs in a superior way than competitors. It is more than a simple description of what is offered: it is the specific solution that the business provides to a customer's problem or desire, and that makes it different and better than the rest.

To create a unique value proposition, you must follow the following steps:

1- Identify and analyze your target audience, segmenting the market according to their characteristics, needs, preferences and behaviors.

2- Define and communicate the benefits and added values that your product or service offers to the customer, highlighting how it solves their problems, improves their situation or satisfies their desires.

3- Study and compare your competition, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, and looking for the opportunities and threats that exist in the market.

4- Differentiate yourself from the competition, highlighting your competitive advantage, that is, what makes you unique and better than others, and that the client values and recognizes.

5- Write and present your unique value proposition, using clear, simple and persuasive language, which captures the customer's attention and interest, and motivates them to choose your product or service.

To determine if you have achieved differentiation from the competition, you must measure the impact and effectiveness of your unique value proposition, using different methods and tools, such as:

1- Carry out satisfaction and loyalty surveys with your customers, to find out their opinion and perception about your product or service, and about your value proposition.

2- Monitor and analyze conversion and sales metrics to verify if your value proposition has influenced the behavior and purchasing decision of your customers.

3- Observe and evaluate the reactions and comments of your customers on social networks, to know if your value proposition has generated engagement and virality.

4- Compare and contrast your value proposition with that of your competitors, to see if you have managed to differentiate yourself and position yourself in the market.