You have a tight budget but that doesn’t mean that you don’t still have a business to run. You have expenses, employees, and obligations just like any other business.
You have to make ends meet and that means generating leads for sales and keeping your pipeline filled — even when you don’t have a big budget to invest in marketing and sales improvements.
Many early-stage companies find themselves in this position. It’s a bit of a which came first, chicken-or-egg type of scenario. You need revenue to grow your marketing and sales budgets, but to do that you need to attract new leads.
Your only choice is to go toward low-cost guerilla tactics that require a bit of a more hands-on approach from you or your team.
Learn the Cold Emailing Game
When you don’t have the budget to invest in large-scale marketing and advertising campaigns, you have to use the tools that are available to you.
Your goal with any advertising campaign is to get your product, company, or services in front of your target audience.
With a budget you can get your advertisements in front of thousands of people in a matter of hours, but cold email campaigns allow you to connect with your ideal clients with very small budgets.
It doesn’t cost anything to send an email to a decision maker that would find value in your products.
Cold emailing is perhaps the most “guerilla” of all tactics. It’s truly a way for companies to find clients and get off of the ground without having to dedicate large budgets to the effort.
At the very least, you’ll need to invest in a solution for finding emails within certain companies (there are dozens of these tools out there today including Snov.io, and Hunter).
Study cold email strategies that others have used to land clients and try out your own ideas. With enough time and testing, you’ll be able to find strategies that work for promoting your own business.
Monitor and Offer Help on Social Media
Social media is one big conversation. Right now, your ideal clients are out there discussing solutions like yours and looking for opinions from similar people on the options that are available to them.
These discussions present the perfect opportunity for you to make a connection.
There are many tools out there that can help you to monitor discussions on social media. Even something as simple as Google Alerts can be a big help in finding and monitoring discussions online.
Use these discussions as an opportunity to jump in and build a connection. If it makes sense, pitch your services, but don’t feel like you need to pitch to everyone you come across on social media. You don’t want to come across as desperate.
Build Your LinkedIn Reputation
For B2B companies there are few online platforms with more relevance for generating leads for sales than LinkedIn.
LinkedIn provides a big pool of professionals and businesses for you to interact with and grow your network. Those same conversations that you should jump into on other social networks are even more prevalent on LinkedIn.
But more than that, LinkedIn provides a network of excellent prospects for B2B businesses that you can use to generate leads for sales and grow genuine relationships with your target audience.
Establishing a legitimate presence on LinkedIn by providing genuine value allows you to establish relationships that will benefit you and keep your pipeline filled.
Source: Neil Patel
Build a Strong Referral Network
If you aren’t leveraging your current clients and customers to find new business, you should start immediately.
Word of mouth marketing is the primary factor behind 20-50% of purchasing decisions. B2B companies with referrals see a 70% higher conversion rate and close sales 69% faster.
The easiest way to generate leads for sales is to use your current customers to identify new opportunities and establish connections.
Attend Networking Events
For B2B companies, there are few activities that are more worthwhile than attending a networking event and establishing real-life relationships with your ideal clients.
Attending a networking event can be helpful for referral marketing too, as entrepreneurs may be willing to recommend you to their friends even if they themselves are not using your services.
Reach Out to Former Clients and Prospects
Every B2B company has previous clients that fell by the wayside and canceled your service or moved in a different direction. Since that time, maybe their needs have changed and they have a need for your product again.
At the very least, it never hurts to ask. Try reaching out to former clients and interested prospects that you haven’t spoken to in a long time to see if there is a genuine need for your products as a low-cost way to generate leads.
Publish Thought Leadership Content
One of the best choices that you can make for getting in front of your target audience is to create high-value content that genuinely provides thought leadership on industry subjects that your target clients are interested in.
By publishing high-value content and bringing your unique experience and viewpoints to the table, you put yourself in a position to establish yourself as an authority within your industry and establish connections with your ideal clients.
While this is more of a long-term strategy, it is a low-cost high-effort way to generate sales leads.
Be Creative, Try New Things
If you don’t have the budget for marketing and advertising campaigns, you’re going to have to find creative ways to generate leads.
You’ll have to get your hands dirty and find innovative ways to get your business (and yourself) in front of your ideal clients.
Strategies like monitoring and reaching out on social media, cold emailing ideal clients, and publishing content to establish your company as an authority in your industry can position you to impress and catch the eye of your ideal clients.
It’s important that if you don’t have a budget for promotion that you are willing to get your hands dirty and grow your presence through guerilla tactics.
