Although there are a lot of benefits to being a small business, having the time and money to come up with an epic social media marketing strategy isn’t one. But, don’t let that get you down because you can create an actional online marketing plan even on a shoestring. Here are some things to help you with that:

Be the Follower

As a small business, it’s followers you’re looking to find, but it might be a better idea, for now, to start following people. Why? Because if you start following your target audience on platforms like Twitter and Instagram, then at least some of them will start following you back. If you can then provide them with interesting content – something to make them stick around – your following will begin to grow.

Use Mannequins Not Models

If you want to market on social media, and it’s clothing that you have to sell, it can be rather expensive for you to hire models to show off your goods, which is why you might want to consider using props from the mannequin shop instead. Obviously, if you have any photogenic friends who’d be willing to throw you a bone that’s great, but when you’re starting out, mannequins are fine. When you have more money, you can start hiring the occasional model to make things a bit more dynamic.

Document Your Progress

Documenting your progress is a great way to gain followers. What I mean by this is that you should try to blog or post about the day to day goings on and ups and downs of life as a small business. This will get you more respect, and be more interesting to more people than a few promotional posts fired off willy-nilly. It’ll also help to build more respect for your brand.

Be Quick to Engage

As you start to gain followers, you will start to get comments too. It’s important if you want to make your business look good, that you reply to these comments quickly and engage with your audience on their level as much as you can. Thank people for mentioning you, answer their questions about your products and even just shoot the breeze. Do this, and you’ll look better than all of those businesses who automate their responses, or even worse, ignore their audience completely.

Get in Touch with Niche Influencers

One of the most effective ways to market your small business on a shoestring is by getting to know influencers in your niche. These are people who already have a huge audience and who talk about the same kind of things you’re selling. If you can get them to mention you in a positive light, chances are your follower numbers will soar and you’ll start selling a lot more.

Run a Contest

Running a contest or giveaway is a great way to get more people in your target audience to follow you, share your links and generally engage with you, and you don’t even have to offer anything particularly expensive for it to work. A bundle of your products or even a modest Amazon gift card will suffice.

Here’s to more social media success!