In fact, growth hacking methods are one of the ways for businesses to focus on low-budget marketing hacks. This way, you can tap into alternate methods of growth that can help you drive up engagement and sales. Here are some of the best cost-effective strategies that you can use for product promotion.

1. Get Backlinks

Backlinks to your website are an indispensable marketing tool these days. The question is, from where do you get these backlinks? Needless to say, buying them is not a good idea, not only due to the limited budget but also because it's not a good practice. Instead, what you need to do is build partnerships with businesses and platforms that align with the interest of your target audience. For instance, let's say that your platform is offering writing services for students. You will need to identify which websites are usually visited by those looking up 'write an essay for me' on the search engine. This could be academic review sites, student blogs, and such. You can then reach out to these platforms and ask them to link back to your site. This will likely cost you time, but in return, you will be able to boost organic and relevant traffic to your site. 

2. Host A Virtual Event Or Webinar 

Virtual events and webinars have become an increasingly popular way for you to connect with your audience and for them to other people. Especially in the post-pandemic era, this is not only safer but also a more cost-effective marketing method. This also allows you to gain access to a wider viewer list crossing geographical boundaries. As the audience is always looking for educational content, a class or a webinar will be worth their time when compared to content marketing. It will also help create brand awareness while creating an authentic way to connect to people that are interested in your services. 

3. Tell Your Story 

These days, marketing is not only about the product but also about the team and the company behind it. Of course, you might not be able to hire a PR agency to spread the word. However, by putting in some research and time, you can find a journalist or a popular blogger who is interested in telling your story to their audience. If you are new to the market, you will need to create the right pitch for the reporter. So you will need to come up with a message that is relevant to your business and tells why your audience should care about your brand. You can also try platforms like Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to gain more exposure on the media. 

4. Build A Referral Programme  

Another way to encourage your existing users to promote your product is to set up a referral programme. This form of marketing can be automated and get your organic traffic without too much work. In other words, an affiliate programme can help you turn customers into a de facto marketing department. As you can see, this is definitely worth a try and will not cost you much. 

5. Work With An Email Marketing Strategy 

Email marketing is free and powerful, but it can be time-consuming to build your list and set it up to be efficient. However, once you start getting subscriptions, you should also make it a point to keep them engaged with regular content and add value. The data you keep can further help you target specific segments, such as abandoned carts and upselling producers. After all, we all might need a little nudge to finally place that order. 

6. Get User-Generated Content 

Content marketing can be an effective tool to promote your product. However, it can also be expensive, especially if you have to hire a team for the purpose. An alternative method would be to get more content from your existing users. In fact, user-generated content can add to the authenticity of your brand as well. You can motivate your clients and fans to tell their stories and experiences via social media. Then, share them to create more engagement. The chances are your users will appreciate this and try to come with more content. 

7. Engage On Social Media 

There is no need to emphasise the importance of social media in the digital marketing landscape. Everyone already knows it. The key advantage here is that there is little cost involved in expressing your brand's voice on these platforms. You can also cross-promote and generate content across such different networks as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and more. You can use these platforms to directly dialogue with your audience, provide customer service, and even get access to user-generated content. With consistency, collaboration and commitment, there is no reason why social media cannot become the best cost-effective tool for marketing. 

8. Create Google Business Page 

Although it might seem like an obvious strategy, you would be surprised how many new brands do not have a website and a Google Business Page. Creating these is crucial because the audience needs to funnel into somewhere. Even if you are successfully promoting your product, people are going to rely on Google to find your brand. This being said, make sure that you invest a few hours to set up your business page by providing general information and important links. 

Conclusion 

Marketing and advertising are already established and proven forms of promoting a business. That said, these are not the only ways for you to engage with your audience. If you can get creative and strategic, you can connect better with your potential customers. Invest in relationship-building and word-of-mouth marketing. Make sure that every customer you serve has a positive experience, and that alone can help boost your sales. By adopting the methods we discussed here, you will be able to reduce your marketing spend substantially.