How to promote your business on a small budget

You don’t need a huge marketing budget to get your business noticed. Some of the marketing activities I recommend to smaller businesses cost very little – or nothing apart from your time.

I originally wrote this article several years ago when lots of businesses were having to cut their marketing budgets. I’ve updated it because the tools available have changed considerably since then, but the basic principle hasn’t: if money is tight, concentrate on the things most likely to put your business in front of the right people rather than trying to do everything.

Here are some places I’d start.

1. Make more of your Google Business Profile

If you provide services locally or have premises customers visit, a Google Business Profile is one of the first things I’d look at.

It’s free and can help your business appear when people search on Google and Google Maps for businesses like yours in the area.

Make sure the basic info is complete and accurate, choose the most appropriate business categories, add your services, photos and opening hours where relevant and keep everything up to date.

Reviews are important too. If you’ve got happy customers, ask them if they’d mind leaving one rather than waiting and hoping they’ll think of it themselves.

I’ve come across businesses spending money on other forms of marketing while barely touching their Google Business Profile, even though potential customers are already using Google to look for exactly what they provide.

2. Improve the website you’ve already got

You don’t always need a new website to improve your marketing.

Have a proper look at the one you’ve already got. Make sure it explains what you do now, your main services easy to find, it gives people good reasons to choose you, it has your reviews displayed, it shows off examples of your work and it has clear way to get in touch.

I’ve recently done exactly this with my own website. The old Belluber website wasn’t broken, but it was more than 10 years old and no longer represented the business particularly well. In my case I decided to redesign it, but sometimes changing the content, structure, calls to action and a few design elements is enough.

If you’re doing the work yourself, many of those improvements cost nothing but your time.

See: How to review your website: 15 things to check in 2026

3. Ask your existing customers for reviews and referrals

It’s easy to spend all your time looking for new people while forgetting about the customers who already know and trust you.

If somebody is happy with what you’ve done, ask for a review. Reviews give potential customers some reassurance that other people have had a good experience with you, and Google reviews can also be seen when people find your business through Google.

Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals. You don’t need a complicated referral scheme – just saying “If you know anyone else who might need help with this, I’d really appreciate you passing my details on” can be enough.

Also make sure existing customers actually know everything you do. They can’t recommend you for a service they don’t realise you provide.

4. Use social media with a purpose

Setting up social media accounts is free. The expensive bit can be the amount of time you end up spending on them!

You don’t need to be on every platform or post several times a day. Choose the places where the people you want to reach are most likely to be and concentrate on creating content that’s relevant to them.

Show examples of your work, answer customer questions, share useful advice, talk about problems you’ve solved and give people an idea of the person or people behind the business.

Don’t forget the social bit though! Commenting on other people’s posts and joining conversations can be just as useful as constantly publishing your own content.

5. Build relationships on LinkedIn

For B2B businesses, LinkedIn can be useful for much more than posting content and hoping somebody sees it.

You can use it to connect with potential customers, people who could refer work to you and other useful business contacts.

I’m a big believer in looking beyond the obvious potential customer too. In my case, a graphic designer or a business coach may regularly come across businesses that need my services and they may be in a position to make an introduction.

You can build those relationships manually without spending anything. The important thing is not to connect with somebody and immediately hit them with a sales pitch. Start conversations, take an interest in what they do and give people a reason to remember you.

I provide this as a service to clients who don’t have the time (or knowledge of how) to do it.

6. Create useful content from what you already know

You probably know far more than you realise that could be turned into useful marketing content.

Think about the questions customers ask you, mistakes you regularly see, things people misunderstand about your industry and advice you find yourself giving often.

One subject could become a blog article, several social media posts, an FAQ, a newsletter and perhaps a short video.

You don’t need to keep inventing completely new things to talk about. I’m updating old Belluber articles at the moment for exactly that reason – some of the original articles are still useful but need bringing up to date, and others contain ideas I can reuse in a more relevant way.

7. Use AI to help you create content (but don’t copy and paste it!)

AI has made it much easier for small businesses to create marketing content without paying somebody to write every word for them.

You can use tools such as ChatGPT to generate ideas, create a first draft, turn an article into social posts, suggest FAQs or help organise information you’ve already got.

But don’t just type “write me a LinkedIn post about my business” and publish whatever comes back. Give it information about your business, customers, services and how you like to communicate, then thoroughly edit the result and add your own examples and opinions.

Otherwise you risk saving money on content but ending up sounding exactly like everybody else using AI!

If you’d like some help with this, take a look at my AI Content Prompt Toolkit, which I’ve created to help businesses get more useful and less generic content from AI.

8. Keep in touch with people

Not everybody who comes across your business is ready to buy there and then. An occasional email newsletter is a low-cost way to keep in touch with customers and other contacts. You can include useful advice, news, recent work, new services or content you’ve published.

You don’t have to send one every week. I’d rather receive an occasional email containing something useful than another newsletter sent because somebody’s marketing plan says Thursday is newsletter day.

Staying visible means there’s a better chance people will remember you when they do need what you offer.

9. Network without spending a fortune

Networking doesn’t have to mean paying for expensive memberships or going to breakfast meetings several times a week.

Look at what’s available locally and within your industry. There could be free or inexpensive business events, workshops, online groups and informal networking opportunities.

Also think about the people you’ve already met. Former clients, suppliers, professional contacts and people you’ve worked with in the past can all be part of your network.

I’ve had business come from people I’ve known for years, which is another reason I think keeping in touch matters so much.

10. Turn one customer into more marketing

When you finish a good piece of work, don’t just invoice the customer and move on to the next job. Could you ask for a review? Turn the work into a case study? Take some photographs? Share the result on social media?

One piece of client work can give you several useful bits of marketing content as well as the possibility of repeat work and referrals.

Obviously, get the customer’s permission before sharing anything that isn’t already public.

11. Measure what’s actually bringing you business

When your marketing budget is limited, this becomes even more important.

Ask new customers how they found you. Look at your website analytics and Google Search Console. Keep track of where enquiries come from.

You might find out that something you’ve been spending money on produces hardly anything, but a free Google Business Profile or referrals from existing customers are generating good enquiries.

Don’t keep paying for marketing because you’ve always done it. If something isn’t working, find out why and decide whether it needs improving or if your time and money would be better spent somewhere else.

You don’t have to do all of this at once

If you’re running a business, finding time for marketing can be as much of a problem as finding the money for it.

I’d pick two or three things from this list that are most relevant to your business and do those properly first.

For a local business, that might be improving your Google Business Profile, asking for more reviews and sorting out your website. For a B2B company, it might be LinkedIn, keeping in touch with existing contacts and creating useful content.

Once those things are working consistently, you can add more.