For starters, a small business’ marketing differs heavily from a larger business because of one main factor, money. Budget is everything when marketing a small business, this means it is essential to find cost-effective ways to get word of your company out. Read below about some cost-effective ways to get market your small business.

1. Make a website. This should be obvious to most business owners by now. We live in a world reliant on technology, a time where people will search for your business on Google and if they cannot find anything they will move on to a business that does. If your business does not have a website for people to visit to learn more then you are losing more customers than you can imagine.
2. Optimize Social Media. Face it, social media is a huge part of almost everyone’s lives, even grandparents have a presence on Facebook. Social media is free to sign up and create a business page so you might as well take advantage of the fact that almost everyone uses it already. You can pay to have ads featured on social sites such as Facebook and Instagram. While it does not cost much to pay for these ads, it can be quite difficult to ensure that your ads are effective.
3. Use Google Adwords. Google Adwords can be very effective and while it costs money to use this service, you can easily manage this and choose what works best for your budget. Google Adwords is a service offered by Google, which allows someone to submit a short summary with specific keywords. Google will then place the ad in searches that they believe match the keywords best.
4. Invest in print marketing. Just because we live in a predominately technology-focused generation, this doesn’t mean that print marketing becomes obsolete. Print marketing can be a cost-effective way to market your business locally. Take advantage of ads in local newspapers or magazines, postcard mailers, and business cards. These are key for networking purposes and can be easily accomplished.
5. Join networking groups. Networking groups are local business professionals that meet every so often. This is another great and cost-effective way to spread the word about your small business.