To determine how much you have to spend in marketing a product or service would be very much depending on the budget available from your business. There is no specific formula that you have to follow in identifying the marketing budget, it is normally determined by how far you want the name of your product to be spread. A multinational organization can spend up to a million dollar in marketing a product but a small business may only need few hundred to few thousand of dollars to market the product.

There are a number of ways to advertise your product but the most popular advertising media nowadays is through internet. Some of the business still prefers to advertise through flyer printing, television ads, radio ads and so on, which method to use is up to your preference.

A good marketing budget is not only to determine how much money to be spent but the business owner or the marketing team should know also how the money will be spent. Generally, a simple marketing budget structure can be categorized into the budget spent for each of the advertising medium. The more detail the breakdown is, the more in-depth you will get to know about your available budget. You should also know the performance of every single advertising medium and determine which give you the best ROI.

A good marketing budget will give you a detail overview of the budget to be spent, this is important to prevent over budget as a result of poor planning. However, budgets are always fluid, you should always allow some wiggle room in the budget to cope with the unforeseen incidents.

If you are running a small business, you probably do not have much money to spend on marketing. That is fine, many small businesses are not taking full advantage of the many opportunities they have for marketing their business in basic methods that will not cost them big money to implement.

There are several things you can do to leverage your current contact points with prospects and customers that require some initial effort to produce but go a long way in promoting your business. Here are some useful methods that you can follow:

1. Business Cards

Your business can have a virtual billboard that promotes your business with less than $30 on business card printing. But there are not many business owners about this fantastic way to promote their business. When you have decided to order the business cards, think about how you can fully utilize the space effectively. You can include your business website’s URL at the back of the business card so that the receiver is able to access the additional information from the website. There is also business card that I have even with coupons attached on the back, this gives the receiver an encouragement to have your business card useful at all times.

2. Invoices

Invoice can be a very good marketing tool in promoting your business, product or service. It can be served as a valuable touch point to show appreciation to your customers and alert them to learn about other things that offered by your company. Some of the more effective messaging to encourage your customer to come back might be, “Thank you for buying product A from us. To learn more about our future updates on similar product, please check our company website frequently”. This simple message can increase awareness of your customer and get them to take notice.

3. Emails

There are no other better things that can compete with your marketing tactic by having a list of prospect and customer emails. Customers or prospects who offer their email address usually would like to get useful information from you. It will be perfect if you can encourage them to provide you with their email address. As a point of appreciation, you can always provide a small gift like a table calendar with your business’s detail on it. Once you have obtained the email list, communicate with them on a regular basis and provide them with useful information that is related to the product of service offered by your company, this indirectly encourage them to do more business with you. If the prospect or customer who is satisfied with the information provided, they are likely to forward your emails to their friend or family, thus, you stand a chance to get more customers.

4. Thank You Notes

There are many small businesses are very effective at communicating with their customers. These businesses use every sale as a path to promote their business or thanks to their customers. I do not foresee why could not do the same. When you make a sale and are shipping a product to the customer, slot in a short thank you note that shows your appreciation and willingness to hear from the customer, and you can also includes the latest catalog or flyer along with the shipment.

5. Online Coupons or Offers

Offer coupons or discounts in your website for new customers can drive considerable response rates. You can also provide discount to existing customers but just to be clear and differentiate the offer is for which group of customers.

6. Free Samples

Everybody like freebies, thus provide free samples is one of the most effective and successful marketing tactics nowadays. Even though you are running business in service sector, offering up a method for prospective buyers to try for free can lead to increased trials and conversions. If the prospects like the service or product, they are more likely to become your customer.

7. Encourage Referrals

Small businesses that leverage the power of referrals experience strong business expansion. When there are other peoples promoting your product or service to a prospect, it is like having a sales team who work for your company. These referrals are even more effective because the prospect is being encouraged to buy from an existing customer; this is similar to word of mouth marketing.

Your business does not need to spend big money on marketing if you follow the right path. Implement some or all of the tips above to see the power of effective small business marketing.