Working on a budget is part and parcel of owning and running a small business.

Sometimes that means you have to get creative in order to reach out to people. If you’re running a local business there are plenty of ways for you to reach out to local customers and find your target audience.

Here are just a few ways to market your local business while working on a budget.

Social media

For small businesses, social media is the stuff of magic. It allows you to easily find your target audience and tailor shared content just for them.

For local businesses getting involved in regional business hours is a perfect way of getting seen by other businesses in your region. While they may not be your target audience, networking with other local businesses is a vital part of becoming an established company within your region.

Press releases

If you’re a young start up reaching milestones or striving to make a difference to your community, there’s a strong chance that your local press will want to cover your story.

Create a press release and send it to local newspapers and regional news sites. If it doesn’t get picked up you can always simply feature it on your own website and share it on social!

Mobile friendly

Having a mobile friendly website is a huge deal. A survey earlier this year reported that Brits are the most likely to shop on a smartphone, so having an optimised website could be your ticket to an extra sale.

Being mobile friendly will increase the amount of traffic coming to your website; a big deal if you want your business to be as easy to market as possible.

You can check how mobile friendly your site with Google here.

Email marketing

Building up an email client base is the ideal way of reaching your target audience and increasing your business’ local presence.

All you need to do is sign up to a free email marketing service (we like MailChimp) and get creating. Email templates make it easy to quickly put together a simple newsletter and include the latest information for your business.

Get charitable

Hosting, sponsoring or attending local charitable events can be a great way to get the name of your company out there and seen at many local events.

This may even get you some great coverage in the local press – exactly what you need at the early stages of your business.

Have you got other ways local businesses can get seen locally? Share your ideas in the comment section below!