It stinks to high heavens whenever your online marketing campaigns flop, doesn’t it? This is especially true if you’ve spent thousands of dollars just to set everything up, only to see a handful of shares, leads, and sales out of your efforts.

Not only is the experience a frustrating one, but the experience can be so traumatic and debilitating, to the point where other entrepreneurs just hang their gloves. Well, I don’t want us to dig deep on that rabbit hole right now. Instead of talking about how things can go terribly wrong for people who are marketing their businesses online, I’d like us to focus on the flip side of the coin instead.

I’d like to share with you three marketing strategies that are so effective and affordable, that you’ll surely want to add them to your online marketing arsenal.

Let’s hop right in.

Warning: These Effective Marketing Strategies Are So Affordable, They’re Addictive

1. Use the Posterboy Formula
I came across this marketing strategy from Bryan Harris of VideoFruit.

The first time I read it, I couldn’t help but be excited at giving it a try because of how reliable the concept is.

Here’s the gist of how the strategy works:

Step 1: Follow an influencer. You can join their email list, follow their blog, or their social media profiles.

Step 2: Take note of the strategies, tips, and advice that they’re sharing with their community.

Step 3: Follow/use their advice.

Step 4: Reach out to them, and tell them these 5 things: a) You followed their advice, b) You’ve gotten amazing results from following their tips, c) Thank them for sharing their expert tips, d) Offer to write a case study about how you used their advice and the incredible results that you’ve gotten from it, e) Tell them that they can publish the case study that you’ve written on their blog so their community can see first-hand how amazing their tips are.

Now that you’ve seen the condensed version of the Poster Boy formula, what are your thoughts about it?

The strategy looks pretty solid, huh?

I used the approach in the past, and it gave me a huge spike in online traffic and the email sign ups I’ve gotten came in droves.

The best part is, I didn’t spend a single cent to execute the strategy. Though I will tell you that it took me quite some time to complete it since I had to document every single thing that happened while I was using the influencer’s tips.

Before you start using the Posterboy Formula, consider these important points first:

Include your failures as well. If you include the failures, challenges, or frustrations that you faced, it will make the case study all the more real to the influencer and their readers.

Don’t lie to the influencers. If you tell them that you used their tips, make sure that you did, in fact, use them. If you tell them that you’ve gotten amazing results out of their strategies, then make sure that you did, in fact, get remarkable results.

Lying to the influencers can cause you problems down the line. That being said, don’t even think about manipulating them.

Be sincere.

Nurture the relationship. Once you’re done using the strategy, you’d have built a level of connection with the influencer. Be sure to grow that relationship.

2. Start A Blog
With how advanced the internet has become, creating a blog for your business has become so easy that you can create one in less than an hour. Not only that, blogs are astoundingly affordable as well. With less than a hundred dollars, you can buy a professional-looking WordPress theme, a decent hosting, and buy your own domain name.

Having said that, there’s virtually no reason for any business owner not to have their own blogs.

Here’s the thing, blogs are incredibly versatile and functional making them one of the best (if not the best) marketing tool a business owner can possess online.

Whether you’re looking to get more leads, sales, or build strategic relationships with other industry leaders, you can do so with the help of your blog.

These are some of the ways that you can use your blog to grow your business:

Publish value-packed and keyword optimized content regularly so you can rank higher in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) for high traffic keywords.

You can create sales pages so you can convert your web traffic into actual paying customers.

You can add your products on your blog so your customers can purchase them online.

You can add discount coupons on your blog’s sidebar so you can entice your readers to buy your products, even if they didn’t plan on doing so originally.

You can create affiliate programs for your web visitors.

Of course, I’m just scratching the surface with the points that I shared above. With how handy a blog is, you can easily turn it into an online cash cow to help you generate more business.

3. Strategic Partnerships
Feature industry experts on your community. This is the gist of the strategy:

Look for several influencers in your industry.

Send them an outreach message asking if you could feature them on your website.

You can offer to feature them through an interview via podcast, webinar, or even a text-based interview (among other methods).

Once the interview is done, ask them to share the interview through their blogs or their social media profiles. There’s a good chance that they’ll do this even without you asking. After All, they are the highlight of the interview, so there’s no reason for them not to share it with their community.

Keep in touch. Nourish your relationship with them.

One of the almost sure-fire ways to skyrocket your business online in the shortest amount of time is to have an influencer endorse you. Or at the very least, mention your brand or share your content with their community.

I know what you’re thinking, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “There’s no way the influencers would help me. Not only are they busy, but I’m a nobody. Also, if they decide to work with me by any stroke of luck, I’m almost 100% sure they’ll ask for hefty fees.”

I promise you. While there is certainly some truth in what you’re thinking about, you are not entirely correct.

If you’ll give this strategy a shot and start reaching out to the influencers, you’ll be amazed at how some of them will actually reply and decide to collaborate with you.

While who you are certainly matters (to some extent), you need to realize that their judgments aren’t solely based on whether or not the person reaching out to them is a well-known figure.

More than the identity of the individual reaching out to them, the most important point that the influencers want addressed is how they can benefit from the collaboration. It’s because of this that you need to address this point carefully. Do a bit of research and look for the influencer’s needs or wants. You can then tailor your interview pitch based on that.
What’s next?

What are some of the best marketing strategies that you’ve in the past that aren’t just effective, but are affordable as well?

Please take the time to share your strategies in the comments section below. Cheers!

*This is a guest post. Thoughts are those of the writer.