I was reading a post at Linkedin and answered following:
Lets try and understand the issues:
My credentials: Since 2003 in this field, senior member at WMW, SEOMOZ .... I think I know my stuff.
#1: Marketing was only for businesses that had money for marketing, SMEs generally restricted themselves with yellow pages and small ads here and there. Now with Digital Marketing they have a chance to market. Still they don;t have money, they want to try. They won't be able to pay more than this.
#2:There is no upper budget or lower budget for marketing. Its all about what you can do with it. A $250 is generally 5 to 10 hours in US and generally 20 to 30 hours in outsourced market. Within than 25 hours what you do will is completely with you.
#3: Old strategies are read irrespective what you pay for, even paying higher will not change, choosing right team will make the difference.
There are businesses that need more time, even with smaller amount of time you can make a difference. What you can do with very less amount:
1) Guerrilla marketing - Even the CTO of SEOMOZ started mingle2.com and did something at structure level ... you can help with structural SEO (Generally for clients with large set of pages)
2) Advice right
3) Google Local Marketing ... get listed and rank, we have been able to do good at this.
4) Local Ranking ... with very limited affords we could rank for local keywords and it brings good sales
5) Conversion optimization ... it helps in generating more sales within less amount.
6) & much more.
Its all about how much hours and where you are putting in, focus on real goals ... don't go for ranking, traffic etc if sales matters for you. Hire for sales.
Again you need to set the goals for marketing right:
1) Sales ... Put X get Y type
2) Organic Growth for sales... most of the small clients do want it, they are somehow sold this
3) Branding for sales ... again its not for small budget
Much more can be said about these.