Tweeting Your Own Horn: Marketing on a Shoestring Budget

Here are some of the tips, tricks and tools we’re using to tell our story for less than $50 a month…

Okay we admit it. We’ve made our fair share of marketing mistakes through the years. Here are a few “highlights” from the archives:

• Handing out hundreds of our flagship product as “freebies”
• Spending thousands on print ads that sold nothing
• Selling cheap at conferences only to lose money and lots of sleep
• Donating and discounting service work for empty promises and vapor projects

We’ve grown to see these as unexpected opportunities for changing the way we tell our story. They’ve pushed us to creatively think up “out of the box” and “there is no box” solutions for our marketing.

Marketing in three categories: Showing, Listening and Sharing.
We think about each marketing effort as falling into one of three categories: showing, listening and sharing. This is great for developing an efficient marketing calendar and for monitoring activities to keep your marketing well balanced.

Showing
These are the opportunities you have to show your value through your work and insights.

• Thought Leadership: Write and speak about things that offer new ways of thinking and raise questions about industry related items.
• Online Portfolios: Having a gallery of your latest work gives potential clients a sense of your style and experience with specific industries. There are many free options to choose from online such as Behance, Coroflot and Carbonmade.
• Speaking: Speaking at conferences is great for networking with other leaders and targeting a specific niche.
• Blog Posts: You’re not limited to posting only company related items. Educate, inspire and entertain.
• News Releases: Same rules for content as above. These are great for generating organic traffic, inbound links and better keyword ranking. Since these solutions typically cost, spread out releases monthly/quarterly according to your budget.

Listening
In this category you’re finding out what people are talking about online.

• Google Analytics: Analytics is a free solution for gaining insight into your website traffic.
• Google Reader: Reader is a free online tool that uses RSS feeds for reading news, blogs and more all in one place. We use it combined with Google Alerts for monitoring important keywords.

Sharing
These are marketing opportunities you have to give back.

• Rewards: If you have products, offer discounts or freebies through your various modes of communication.
• Inspiration: Many creatives share photos, sketches, quotes, etc. that inspire them and in turn they inspire others. We just setup an art blog for our studio for that specific purpose.
• Process Transparency: Showing how you approach creative challenges in your field (design, animation, marketing, etc.) is a useful educational tool.
• Donate Work: If there’s a cause you support, consider giving your time and talent to it. It can be a rewarding process and a fresh break from your normal production.