Owning a small business usually means you’re operating on a smaller budget when it comes to your marketing and promotion. Unfortunately, some small business owners experiencing a rough patch or low sales tend to cut marketing and promotion to save money. This is a huge mistake that will have an even more devastating effect on your business. Even when times are tough, you cannot stop promoting your business. You might just have to be smarter about how you allocate the money. Here are some tips on how to make the most of a small marketing budget:

You have to actually have a marketing budget. You can’t spend absolutely no money on promotion and expect your business to be promoted. If you don’t do promotion, someone is your market will, and they will pull your customers away from you. No matter what the financial situation for your business is, sit down, look at the numbers and find some money to invest in promoting your business. And take it seriously, like the survival of your business relies on it, because it does.

Put more focus in email marketing and less on direct mail. While direct mail can still be an effective form of promotion, it’s not nearly as cost-effective as email marketing. Email marketing costs pennies compared to what you spend on printing and postage for a direct mail piece. And in most cases, email has a much higher ROI than direct mail. That means you can get more impressions and a higher ROI for a much smaller budget.

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