When money’s tight, marketing is often the first area of a budget to be cut (and don’t us marketers know it?!).
While this is an understandable decision, it can have disastrous results.
Traditional advertising can be costly, but you don’t have to go down this route.
When a professional helps build your foundations, digital marketing can often be managed by your in-house staff. This cost-effective solution will ultimately grow your budget.
In this guest post, Chelsea Lamb, founder of Business Pop.net, explains how you can develop a great marketing strategy for your business on a relatively modest budget.
Chelsea is the resident tech specialist at Business Pop, and her goal is to demystify some of the technical aspects of business ownership and entrepreneurship.
Here are her tips.
Find funding for your marketing efforts
You may need some additional funds to get your marketing efforts started, so consider it a strategic investment.
Try applying for small grants first because this is money that you will not have to repay. But if you determine that you need a loan, do your research first.
Potential lenders will check your credit report, so ensure that your score is high enough for them to consider you as a reliable potential lender. If your score is low, pursue other options.
As time goes on and your business grows, there may come a need to acquire more funds, so be sure to keep your sales and marketing files and documents organised.
Chances are, you’ll be required to share files with lenders or grantors, which is where digitising documents is ideal.
PDFs are often the preferred format for a number of reasons, including the ability to quickly download and view files on virtually any device. And by using this tool will split a PDF, you can separate pages of a larger PDF for specific parties to see.
Learn about SEO
Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is the process of optimising your website’s content so that it ranks highly on search engines when potential customers research terms related to your products or services.
The process of SEO is complex and can be done by a professional, but learning a few basic concepts can help you keep your company’s website appearing high in search results.
Page One Power points out that key concepts and keywords are important and should be featured throughout the page, although having them in the domain name itself may not be so helpful.
Linking to pages with related content and trusted sources can also increase the likelihood of your webpage appearing near the top of the search results.
If nobody within your business has this type of skill, you could hire a consultant to help with optimisation. But you don’t need to spend silly money — as explained above, learning the basics will stand you in good stead.
Use social media
You don’t have to use all social media sites, but think about which one(s) are most likely to be relevant for your target customers and focus on establishing a presence for your company there.
Social media is free (unless you choose to invest in more targeted ads), and a great way to interact with existing and potential clients.
You can do this with engaging content, coupons, contests, links to industry-related articles, and free giveaways.
Promoting a budget-friendly event that you’re hosting is another way to use social media.
Other common methods for promoting events include creating promotional videos, press releases, and guest speaking on a podcast.
Don’t underestimate the use of humour, which visitors to your page are more likely to share with others.
Don't underestimate the power of email
You might think that email marketing is old school and less effective than social media or your company web page. However, statistics tell a different story. Heckford notes that the average return on investment (ROI) for one pound invested in email marketing is £25. No other form of advertising has this success rate.
Email is useful because your audience can access it from mobile devices, so it goes with them. Regular emails to your customers letting them know about sales and special offers can be automated, reducing the workload on employees, too.
Create thought-provoking blog posts
You can create blog posts for your company’s web page or offer them to other businesses as a part of cross-promotion.
The content should be a bit broader than simply touting your own company’s goods or services, although these can be mentioned. Useful information applicable across the industry is important, as well as season-specific tips, such as gift ideas or recipes.
Showing you understand and empathise with your readers goes a long way. Your content should be geared to their needs and written primarily in the second person — think more “you” and less “we”.
A blog is a great place to sponsor a contest and even let clients or prospects chime in with their own experiences. The more you can engage your audience, the better.
You may be able to add sponsors in support of your blog, and it’s a great way to get information out to your target demographic. It can also improve your SEO results.
Reconsider the structure of your business
If your business took a hit during the early years of the pandemic or has been on hold for other reasons, you might want to consider restructuring the organisation.
Becoming a private limited company (Ltd) can protect you and your assets, as well as streamline paperwork, and offer tax advantages.
Although you could hire a lawyer to set this up on your behalf, you can also start an Ltd by yourself or hire a formation service to do it less expensively.
Get started on a successful marketing strategy
Marketing your business matters, and doing this digitally can save you time and money.
Much of the work can be done by your in-house staff, and some of it can be automated. It doesn’t have to be an expensive, complicated process.
The use of blogs, web pages, social media, email, and SEO can help your company stay on the cutting edge and in the minds of your customers.
Thanks to Chelsea for her insights. If you need help with the above, including blog posts, SEO, or content strategy, drop me an email at fourninemarketing@gmail.com :)
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