Innovation doesn’t always require big budgets. All of the mention tactics are true. For me, driving innovation on a limited budget and a small team starts with defining what we’re truly aiming to solve for, then team can focus their creativity and efforts more effectively. Collaboration is crucial, but that only succeeds if you have built an environment where a team feels like active participants and you ignite passion about the project, it fuels the kind of innovative thinking that makes a real impact. Building some momentum with small, impactful projects that can build confidence towards larger goals without straining resources.

On a shoestring budget, it is essential (1) to have a very clear definition of the problem you are looking to solve, because it allows you to make the next move: (2) prioritize the right efforts. To innovate, doing that, you need to (3) freely brainstorm solutions to the defined problem, (4) select the best fits with your brand's positioning, and (5) adapt these solutions to your budget.

I have worked with such companies and I have to agree with all of the three methods mentioned above, in addition to them, here are some more: Collaborating with social media influencers who work in the same area helps getting the right target audience. Most of the softwares have a free package that can do most of the job for you. Maintaining a good social media engagement is very essential for agencies or brands that do not have a high budget and making content is not a very difficult thing to do in today's time, we have lot of platforms and softwares that can make our work easier, one such well-known platform is Canva.

All three but collaboration is a key; diving into your team’s experience, whatever that may be, to find insights and ideas. Always delivers.

Do most of the heavy lifting yourself. What exactly are you requesting the agency to do for you? The leaner you can be with your external requirements the more internal budget your going to have for revenue driving initiatives. Sometimes we fail to leverage & nurture the talent internally to seek that innovation.