No budget, no money.  That can equal a great marketing program!  WHAT????  Really,  Marketing, PR and Social Media can all be done well with little or no money – as long as you have a solid plan.  I am living proof of this.

 I AM just a small town girl – for real.  I have spent the last 20+ years marketing a small Southern California mountain resort destination on very little and sometimes absolutely NO money.  Over the years we have successfully held our own in the Southern California tourism market against destinations with huge, multi-million dollar marketing budgets.  It really just takes a sound strategy.

I haven’t done only destination marketing on a small budget though.  Over the years I have marketed entities, with very little or no money such as a resort retail shopping center, a resort hotel, a school district, a yearly summer concert series, countless small businesses, a ton of events and a start up theatre company to name a few.

I have found that there is a definite “road map” if you will that needs to be followed in order to have a successful, low budget, marketing program and now, with the advent of social media, it is even easier to market with little or no budget.  This road map is constantly being reviewed, refined and tweaked as there will always be bumps, potholes, detours and new tips to getting to your final destination.   My roadmap began because our small town needed to be marketed in order to sustain our local economy which is made up almost exclusively by small businesses.   Our problem was (and still is) that we are unincorporated, which means there are no tax dollars to be able to market with.  We virtually have no discretionary marketing dollars and it has been my job to figure out how to find solutions to market and compete with the big Southern California destinations with no money.

It has always been a challenge, but it has always been totally FUN too.  If it wasn’t fun, I never would have done this for the better part of my adult life.

Most small businesses are overwhelmed with Marketing, PR and Social Media.  This is where I come in!  Here are 4 reasons that I hope will entice you to follow my blog:

*    I have been marketing with little or no money and competing successfully with entities that have huge budgets for over 20 years.

*    I am in the trenches, the same as you, day in and day out, walking the walk, talking the talk – marketing with virtually no money.

*    I know what it takes to run successful Marketing, PR and Social Media programs – and have a track record to prove it.

*    This blog is a two-way street – the goal is to share and engage.  To do marketing properly (and especially with no budget) you have to continually learn, continually speak to people, never stop looking for new, cutting-edge angles to generate interest.  I hope that we can work together and all talk about what works, ask questions and contribute new ideas.  

I was raised in a small town, lived a big city life for a few years, but realized I am just a small town girl at heart.  My marketing niche is those of you who are small but think big.  Those who don’t have the big bucks, but are excited to learn to market your business, event, whatever, successfully.

Marketing, PR and Social Media are fun, but I want you to understand, that to do it effectively it is definitely TIME CONSUMING (especially in the beginning months) and requires continual EFFORT.  I want to help cut down on your time and provide you with an ongoing road map of things to do, ways to do them and the encouragement to make your marketing program successful. 

I have lists of things to blog about as we read and work through our roadmaps, but this is only going to work if we discuss what you want to talk about too with regard to small budget marketing!  So let’s get going!  Here’s my first question to you to engage you in this blog:

            What do YOU want to talk about regarding marketing with no budget?  We can put together a list of your thoughts, ideas and questions to go along with mine.        

When I was thinking about what to call this blog the following thoughts went through my head and if you are a fan of classic rock, you can see how my idea evolved….  We are on this Journey together.  I am just a small town girl with big time marketing experience and while there are always bumps in the road ~ don’t stop believing. You can and will exceed your marketing expectations if you really put more time and effort into your Marketing, PR and Social Media program than money.