Is your marketing budget stretched or rapidly reaching nil? If you're a small business then you may be struggling to get attention with the dollars that you have... help is here! Before you have to slash-and-burn the budget have a read through these tips.

6 ways to save more money on your marketing:

1. Concentrate on word of mouth referrals. Even with the rise of Twitter and thousands of other social media sites, word of mouth is still the most trusted form of advertising, so make sure it's working for you. According to this Global Trust in Advertising Report 92% of people trust recommendations from people they know, while only 33% trust online banner ads. How do you encourage word of mouth? By giving an amazing service/experience to the patients/clients that you do have. If they receive incredible service then they'll soon tell others - they may even review you online (which is another whole blog post).

2. Figure out what you can get for free. Want a free website? How about a survey tool, or heavy-duty analytics for your website? The amount of marketing tools and products that are listed online are astounding - you simply have to know where to look. You can start with survey monkey, google analytics and mailchimp to name just a few.

3. Hire a freelancer. If you're currently using a contractor for any sort of marketing work (think: graphic design, website development). Then you need to know about Fiverr. This website is chock-full with freelancers that are waiting to bid on any job that you post up. I've used it to source very reasonably-priced graphic designers and video teams - both here in New Zealand and on the other side of the world.

4. Skip the yellow pages ads. In my humble opinion Yellow Pages ads - at least the printed versions - are a waste of your hard-earned marketing dollars. In fact, I'd encourage you to look closely at any high print advertising spends that are in your budget and check that you are getting a good ROI on these. My advice would be to take this money and invest it in advertising that you can directly measure: Pay Per Click Ads (PPC for those in the know). Products like Google Adwords or Facebook Advertising are a good options for small businesses and it means you can track to the very last cent what worked and what results you got.

6. Use marketing mediums that only require your time. Thanks to the digital world there are plenty of free or what I call your-time-only ways to promote your business. Why not look at replacing a paid channel like a print advert with a your-time-only one? Here are a few examples: Twitter account, Facebook page, Business Blog, DIY-video on YouTube, or a enewsletter.

Got a money-saving tip that we've missed off? Leave a note in the comments below.