Powerful Ways to Market Your Business in a Limited Budget Here is what they suggest you can do to distribute a mere 5000 INR (or perhaps even less) while still having a robust marketing plan that can help you grow your business.

For the big brands equipped with huge marketing and advertising funds, one or even several hundred thousand is just a trifle in their monthly marketing budget. However, the story is utterly different for entrepreneurs and small business owners where every single hundred counts – and investments need to yield in real and immediate marketing ROI. But could a marketing strategy be accomplished with as little as 5000 rupees? It could – so say the experts. Here is what they suggest you can do to distribute a mere 5000 INR (or perhaps even less) while still having a robust marketing plan that can help you grow your business.

Entrepreneur got in touch with Harsh Shah, Co-founder, Fynd and Debasish Dutta, Managing Partner & Director (Projects) for Orange Corp, to get their views on marketing your small business on a shoestring budget. Here is what they shared-

Harsh Shah is the Co-founder of Fynd, a B2C online shopping platform founded in November 2015, and having the largest collection of products from all the biggest brands in India. They offer only the top quality products from some of the biggest brands in clothing, footwear, jewellery and accessories. Shah feels digital is the most recommended, practical and cost efficient yet effective strategy when it comes to marketing a business in a limited budget.

Digital is powerful while being economical

The success of any business is dependent not just on the business model and market conditions but also on how you do the marketing of your business. There are a plethora of examples in the market where a company has failed to get traction despite having a very strong concept. Two primary reasons for the same are either lack of funds for marketing (or) investing the funds in wrong marketing channels. Usually, the former one is a bigger problem for most of the start-ups. Though in the earlier times it was very difficult to conduct marketing activities on lower budgets, the evolution of internet has made things much easier now. Digital channels are the most powerful one which allows a person to market his business in budgets as low as 100 rupees. You reach out to a limited audience but the things start happening and you are able to generate awareness and get the initial set of customers.

Digital helps in making decisions on what have worked for you

Going digital further helps you measure the complete customer funnel from lead generation to on-boarding to finally converting to sales and thus you can calculate the ROI for each channel and make informed decisions on which channels have worked the best for you. And yes, there are various tools available in the market to help with the data capturing and analytics part of it. So, if you have a limited budget in hand and still want to get the balls rolling, then going digital (aided with the best analytics tool) is the answer for you.

Debashis Dutta takes care of the Venture Capital Investments & Advisory for Asia, Europe & US. Orange Corp is a Global Venture Capital and Management Consultancy firm with presence in 26 countries. His suggests:

Think of the value before spending on marketing

When you intend to spend on a marketing initiative for your business think of the perceived value you are going to derive from such spending. In case you are not sure and still want to make a try, you would need to see what your competitors are doing and whether that at all is making any sense.

Strategise according to target group

In case you are targeting customers at your locality or your city, small road shows do wonders in reaching to the target group. Take college students as your volunteers for such shows which will be done at a very economical cost and you will have an energetic group working for you to earn some pocket money.