Last Updated on August 2, 2023 by David

Starting and growing a new business can be challenging, especially when it comes to marketing. 

With limited budgets, startups need affordable ways to get their brand out there and connect with customers. The good news is that effective marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. 

Here are five of the cheapest marketing platforms for startups to help maximize your reach while minimizing costs.

You may also like these 20 Innovative Marketing Ideas for Startups

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways for startups to build relationships with potential customers. 

Out of all the digital marketing channels, email marketing consistently provides one of the highest returns on investment. 

Email is a direct line of communication to subscribers who have already expressed interest in your brand by signing up to receive your messages.

Related: How to Build an Email Newsletter List that Converts

When used strategically, email marketing can help startups:

• Build deeper relationships with subscribers by providing valuable, relevant content rather than just sales pitches.
• Segment lists based on user attributes and behaviors to deliver more personalized, engaging messages
• Drive traffic to your website through links in the email content
• Promote new products, services, and content to interested subscribers
• Automate lead nurturing through signup forms, welcome emails, and autoresponder sequences
• Retarget website visitors through cart abandonment emails and browsing behavior triggers
• Offer exclusive discounts or sneak peeks only available to email subscribers
• Get feedback and survey customer needs to inform future product developments
• Establish your brand as an authority and helpful resource within your niche

The direct access to a targeted audience is what makes email a very affordable channel compared to other paid advertising options. 

As long as you avoid aggressive sales tactics and focus on serving your subscribers, email marketing can be an extremely effective growth lever for startups.

Using email newsletters and autoresponders allows you to directly reach people interested in your product or service. 

Popular email providers like Mailchimp, Sendinblue, and ConvertKit offer free tiers suitable for new businesses. 

You can segment your lists, create sign-up forms for your website, and design professional-looking emails without a huge marketing budget. 

Focus on providing value through helpful content rather than aggressive sales pitches.

Social Media Marketing 

Organic social media is an affordable option for startups to boost brand awareness and engagement. 

For startups looking to increase brand visibility and engagement, organic social media is a must-use marketing platform. 

By consistently posting valuable, relevant content and interacting with followers, startups can build awareness and connections without paying for advertising.

Some key benefits of organic social media marketing include:

• Share your expertise by posting tips, how-to advice, industry insights, and other educational content. This establishes your brand as a thought leader.
• Give followers a behind-the-scenes look at your products, office culture, and team through photos, videos, Stories, and Reels. This humanizes your brand.
• Respond to comments, questions, and feedback. This builds relationships with current and potential customers.
• Join in trending discussions and hashtags relevant to your industry. This expands your reach to interested audiences.
• Collaborate with influencers, partners, and others to co-create content. This builds credibility through trusted voices.
• Promote new content and offers through social posts. This drives traffic to your website.
• Retarget website visitors through pixel tracking and custom audiences. This brings users back to convert.

The social listening data also provides valuable market research to startups on pain points, competitor analysis, and customer needs. 

With a strategic organic social media presence, startups can make huge progress building their brand community.

Strategic use of social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn can help you reach and interact with your target audience. 

You can share valuable content, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and special offers without paying for ads. If you want to spend a little, most social platforms offer low-cost advertising options to help expand your organic reach. Just a few dollars per day can make a difference.

Content Marketing

Creating helpful blog posts, videos, and other content assets aligns well with startup budgets. 

Creating value-driven content is an affordable way for startups to attract and engage their target audience. 

Well-optimized blog posts, videos, podcasts, and other content assets can help establish brand authority and improve website visibility.

The major benefits of blogging and content creation for startups include:

• Share your knowledge and expertise on topics that resonate with your audience. This builds trust and credibility.
• Create SEO-optimized content that ranks for the keywords your customers search for. This drives organic traffic from search engines.
• Answer common customer questions in-depth through tutorials and guides. This reduces support requests and builds loyalty.
• Give potential customers the information they need to evaluate your products/services. Informative content will nurture leads in the sales funnel.
• Promote new content across email, social media, and other channels. This amplifies reach and engagement.
• Embed calls-to-action in blog posts to convert readers into subscribers or customers.
• Establish thought leadership and relevance in your niche. This boosts brand awareness.

Since content can be promoted across multiple platforms, startups maximize value from each piece of content. 

By adopting a consistent blogging and social media strategy, startups can grow and engage their audience without breaking the marketing budget.

Developing high-quality content and optimizing it for search can help drive organic traffic to your website. 

Promoting your content across social media and email newsletter lists enables you to recycle content without spending extra. 

Remember to focus on topics your audience cares about rather than aggressive keyword targeting. Useful, relevant content will earn trust and loyal followers.

Referral Programs

Referral marketing campaigns encourage existing customers to spread the word about your brand. This creates word-of-mouth promotion that startup budgets can’t always buy directly. 

Referral marketing is a powerful growth tactic for startups, leveraging word-of-mouth recommendations to acquire new customers. 

By incentivizing existing customers to refer friends and connections, startups can tap into new networks in a scalable way.

Some key advantages of referral programs for startups include:

• They capitalize on the trust people place in recommendations from those they know, amplifying credibility.
• Referrals allow startups to harness satisfied customers as brand ambassadors.
• Incentives and rewards increase motivation for referrers to actively share your brand.
• Tools like ReferralCandy and Ambassador provide easy-to-use platforms to launch and manage referral campaigns.
• Referral signups can be tracked to determine campaign ROI and optimize future efforts.
• Integration with CRM systems enables tracking referred customers’ lifetime value.
• Gratitude for referrers and sharing referral stories helps spur further word-of-mouth.
• Minimal upfront costs compared to other customer acquisition methods.

Referral marketing should be an ongoing strategy, incorporated into the entire customer lifecycle. This gives startups a growth channel that continuously works behind the scenes.

Offering incentives like discounts, free products, or cash bonuses gives referrers motivation to share your brand. Free tools like ReferralCandy or Ambassador make it easy to set up referral programs and track their success.

PR Outreach 

Earning press coverage through relevant media outlets helps raise credibility and awareness for your startup. You can create and distribute press releases related to company news, contribute guest articles to industry blogs, or pitch reporters on product reviews. 

Public relations should be a key part of any startup’s marketing strategy. Earning press coverage raises visibility, establishes credibility, and drives traffic in a cost-effective way. Startups can pursue PR opportunities by:

• Distributing press releases related to new product launches, funding announcements, partnership deals, awards, etc.
• Building relationships with reporters who cover your industry to pitch relevant story ideas.
• Securing guest article bylines in popular industry publications.
• Volunteering executives as sources for relevant news stories and journalist inquiries.
• Participating in interviews and contributing quotes for articles where applicable.
• Hosting press events, office tours, product demos, and media briefings.
• Sponsoring or attending high-profile conferences and events as a launchpad for media coverage.
• Leveraging visual content like videos, infographics, and photos to gain interest from media outlets.
• Monitoring press mentions and re-promoting favorable coverage through owned channels.

For early-stage startups, focusing on targetted niche and startup-specific media outlets can be most effective to build initial awareness. As your company grows, expanding into mainstream tech and business outlets will continue increasing your brand visibility. Maintaining strong media relationships and PR skills is crucial to scale awareness alongside startup growth.

Tips For Finding The Cheapest Marketing Platforms For Startups

Getting started with affordable marketing for your startup doesn’t have to be hard. Here are 5 tips for finding the cheapest marketing platforms for startups:

1. Evaluate free tiers of email marketing tools like Mailchimp, Sendinblue, and ConvertKit. They offer basic features to get started.
2. Leverage organic social media marketing on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to build engagement.
3. Start blogging on your own website, optimizing articles with SEO to drive organic search traffic.
4. Set up a referral program with incentives to motivate word-of-mouth, using free tools like ReferralCandy.
5. Build relationships with the media that cover startups and your industry to earn press mentions and coverage.

Conclusion

For startups interested in a full-service PR strategy without the agency costs, services like PRreach or Muck Rack offer more affordable options.

The great thing about these marketing platforms is that you can combine them together as you build momentum. 

With a little creativity and strategy, startups can grow successful brands even with the most limited budgets. 

Focus on high-value activities, test low-cost options, and don’t be afraid to try new marketing tactics as you expand your business.