Marketing is one of the most expensive costs in any business. For businesses on a budget, it can be quite tough to market your services. However, even if you’re on a budget, marketing is still essential to your business success.

These five tips will help you save money on your marketing, so you can still bring in new customers without having to spend an arm and a leg.

==> Tip #1: Outsource Graphic Design on Fiverr

If you hire a graphic designer in your local area, it’s not unusual for them to charge $80 to $200 an hour.

On the other hand, a highly competent graphic designer online might charge just $25 to $50 an hour. And you can find a freelancer on Fiverr for just $5.

Graphic design is a global skill, so people with great artistic talent from countries like the Philippines or India can participate on Elance, even if their English skills aren’t top-notch. You get a great bargain, while still getting great design.

==> Tip #2: Do as Much as Possible Yourself

Don’t hire someone to write your copy. Don’t hire someone to do your online advertising. Try to learn and do everything you can yourself.

Of course, if you don’t have the skill for something at all, you have to go outside. It doesn’t make sense to build a skill you’ll only use occasionally, like PHP programming.  And, if you don’t know your way around Photoshop, you’re probably going to have to outsource graphic design. But a skill like copywriting is worth developing and will improve your results no matter what business you are.

Do everything you can yourself, then pay as little as you can for everything else.

==> Tip #3: Market Online rather Than Offline

Marketing online is both less expensive and more trackable than offline marketing.

If you wanted to produce an offline radio commercial or TV commercial, you could easily be looking at tens of thousands of dollars in production and advertising costs.

On the other hand, online you’re only looking at a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars to get a PPC campaign off the ground.

==> Tip #4: Invest in Targeting

Let’s say you’re doing a facebook ads campaign. You’ve set your budget to $50 per week. Make sure you know your target market really well so you can make sure your ad even more targeted – for instance, by targeting a specific income bracket. (just like if you are strapped for time with your marketing, you don’t need to be on Twitter if your target market doesn’t hang out there…aka 20-somethings and super geeky early tech adoptes)

This is a good idea. It might seem like it won’t make of a difference but, in reality your increased ROI will almost always pay for itself. Invest in targeting, even (or especially) when you’re on a budget.

==> Tip #5: Don’t Be Cheap with Working Campaigns

If a marketing strategy or campaign is profitable, don’t be cheap. As soon as a campaign proves itself profitable, crank it up and pour as much money as you can into it.

Why? Because you know for a fact that you’re going to see more money back as a result.

Set budgets for testing campaigns that are unproven, but crank up campaigns that are producing a positive ROI.

And now I would like to invite you to claim your copy of my new audio training “3 Mistakes Business Owners Make That STOP Them Getting More Clients … And How You Can Avoid Them” when you visit http://www.EndMarketingOverwhelm.com/3-mistakes

You’ll learn the 3 common mistakes most business owners make that keep them from getting more clients and powerful, but easy to implement, strategies to avoid them, recoup more of your time, and learn how to spend it more wisely to get more clients and more results.

From Deanna Maio – Business Growth & Marketing Strategist at http://www.DeannaMaio.com.