Marketing with no budget: what to do when you can't afford ads

Most advice assumes an ad budget. If you do not have one, the honest position is this: you will trade time instead of money, and it will be slower — but the channels you build this way are usually more durable than the ones you rent.

Be genuinely useful in public

Answer the questions your customers ask, in the places they ask them. Publicly, for free, without a pitch. It compounds — people who were helped by you remember when they need to buy.

Write things that keep working

A post on social is dead in two days. An article answering a question people search for keeps bringing people in for years. It is slow to start and it does not stop.

Write down the ten questions you are asked most, and answer one properly each week.

Make your customers your channel

Ask for referrals directly — most owners never do. Make it worth their while with a discount or a commission, and give them something easy to forward. A referral link that tracks and pays automatically turns goodwill into a measurable channel.

Partner with people who serve the same customer

Find businesses selling something different to the same person and cross-promote. It costs nothing and both sides get access to a warm audience.

Show the work

Behind-the-scenes content outperforms polished promotion almost everywhere, and costs nothing but a phone. People buy from people.

Measure even without spending

Free channels still cost your time — and time is the scarcer resource.

Track where visitors come from so you can stop doing the things that produce nothing. SalesGit records the source, campaign and device behind each visit, which is usually enough to tell you which two channels deserve all your effort.

Start here: how to get your first 100 customers.