Zero Budget Digital Marketing – Tips and Tricks

COVID-19 has led to the slashing of marketing budgets across industries. Many traditional media advertisers are now going digital and the ones who were already on digital are seeking cost-saving measures. The good news is that the first step towards Digital Marketing can be taken almost at no cost. In this article, we will explore some Zero Budget Digital Marketing Tips and Tricks.

For a lot of companies, especially small and medium scale, it’s their first major jump on the digital bandwagon. For first-timers, there is confusion on the spends one should budget and at the same time ROI to be expected. To everyone who is battling with budgets or know-how, here are few tips and tricks to shine on the digital medium without spending a bomb on digital media buying. The only prerequisite towards a gradual implementation of Zero Budget Digital Marketing strategy is that one needs to be patient and religiously devote time and effort to build a robust everlasting online presence.

9 Tips and Tricks to implement Zero Budget Digital Marketing

1. Improve Content Marketing: Generally underrated, content marketing is an effective way to shine on Google rankings. Start a blog section on your company website, if not already. Regular blogging gets consumer attention which evolves into solving customer queries and later pitching in your products and services. This is one of the most effective Zero Budget Digital Marketing tools which at most of the times stay underutilized by companies.
2. Start a Podcast: Podcasting has been gaining immense traction off-late. Start a podcast in your niche, host it on a popular posting service and stick to a schedule. Soon you will have many lending their ears. One a loyal audience is in place, you can subtly plugin products/services keeping the content sound.
3. Offer Free Trials: Free trials are a great bait for fence-sitters. If dealing into digital products, it’s a no brainer that you should let the potential customer step into your world and experience the value which the product offers. Though not really at Zero Budget Digital Marketing Trick as there can be a notional cost for many organizations, still you do not need to spend out of your pocket. 
4. Collaborations: Collaborate with blogs and websites in your niche and tap into their audience. You may offer more valuable giveaways as on offer on that particular website. It’s a win-win for both.
5. Trigger User-Generated Content: There is no better metric today on digital than engagement. Opening up a campaign to invite crowdsourcing can bring in exponential reach and impressions.
6. Optimize Your Social Media: Treat your social media handles are your own media channel. Nurture them and gradually build an audience for today and for the future.
7. Plan a Webinar: Most brands have already taken this route during COVID times as most of the experts are available locked in their homes. Pick up a niche and schedule a webinar with an industry expert. However, arranging a webinar is one part, getting the audience for it is another. You may promote the webinar with the points stated above – Content Marketing, Social Media, Podcasts, Collaborations etc-
8. Optimize Online Directory Listings: Optimizing listings on Google, Facebook, Instagram with complete information like address, phone number, timings etc can do wonders.
9. Enhance your SEO: Organic SEO is the most effective of people finding you and your business. SEO is more about patience and skills as you cannot pay Google to rank higher. Utilise the lockdown to slowly and gradually optimizing both technical and on-page SEO.

Majority of Marketing professionals are upskilling themselves with Digital Marketing courses but are they really worth is something where opinions differ. Though few of the points stated above might sound minuscule, but when all of them come together on the digital ecosystem, it will work wonders.  None of the actions listed entails any out-of-pocket spends and is purely a Zero Budget Digital Marketing strategy, but requires significant time investments which I believe a lot of marketers could be surplus on amidst this pandemic.