Businesses are looking to connect with customers and stretch their marketing dollars.
While having a limited marketing budget can make the job harder, there are ways to accomplish that objective.
Whether it’s the end of the month and you’ve spent every penny or you were working with a small budget to begin with, there are solutions.
Below are strategies to implement when your budget is tight or even completely spent.
Expand Your Online Presence
Establishing your online presence and regularly reviewing it to ensure that presence is as effective as possible is one of the most important things you can do to market your business.
Content marketing
One of the best ways to market your brand with a tight budget is content marketing.
If you’re not using content marketing yet, get started by writing articles that provide real value and information for customers about pain points they are currently experiencing.
Find and publish valuable content in publications that are read by your customers.
If you already use content marketing, spend some time reviewing your strategy.
When was the last time you reviewed social media to see where your customers are active and what pain points they are currently experiencing?
Have you dedicated an hour a month to locate one or two new publications that might be of interest?
Crowdsourcing
A trend in the industry is sharing user-generated content via crowdsourcing campaigns.
Whether it’s an article, a video, or a photo, companies ask users to submit content for the company to publish or republish.
Restaurants will often stand a card on the table suggesting diners submit photos of themselves at the restaurant using a certain hashtag on social media in return for a free dessert.
Crowdsourcing expands your company’s online presence and identifies potential new marketing channels and leads essentially for free, while helping customers bond with your brand at the same time.
Blog
Blogs are an effective tool for developing organic traffic for your website.
If you don’t have one, create one. Begin by posting items like:
Content marketing articles you wrote in the above step
Frequently Asked Questions
A personalized behind-the-scenes peek into how your business works
Infographics, videos, and video demos about your product. Also consider posting these items on other platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube.
Guest blogs
Guest blogs are a smart way to reach new audiences. You can accept guest submissions for your blog and offer to guest blog on community, customer, or industry sites.
If you already have a blog, when was the last time you posted?
Although Google’s algorithm is undeniably difficult to decode, it is widely accepted that Google prefers fresh content. Google also prefers old posts that have been recently updated, so if you’re short on time or out of ideas, don’t be afraid to update an old post or repurpose your content.
Podcasts
People love podcasts. Podcasts are personal and effective in developing brand reputation.
When you use podcasts to diversify your marketing strategy, you increase the connection with your customers.
Not sure how to start? Repurpose content from articles you’ve written or blogs you’ve posted. Interview a customer or an employee. Listen to other successful podcasts and follow their lead. For example, listen to How I Built This and interview your company’s founder to tell the story of how your business got its start.
Social media
Social media is the primary channel used by Gen Z to learn about new brands and products.
Social media helps brands connect with audiences, build brand loyalty, and share company messaging about events, background, and culture. As we have recently discovered, during times of crisis, social media can be a lifeline to remain connected with customers.
And the best part – it’s inexpensive.
So, review your presence and make sure you are appropriately active on channels like:
YouTube
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Webinars
At the heart of today’s marketing strategies should be presenting solutions for consumer problems. Their pain points should drive marketing activity.
Businesses that operate with this methodology will be successful in their marketing efforts.
Webinars help provide such solutions:
The outreach to announce the webinar puts your businesses at the top of mind for your customers even for a brief few seconds.
A cost-effective email drip campaign after the event can drive business.
When companies host a webinar, they can connect and interact with customers and leads around the globe.
When properly designed, webinars can establish your company as a knowledgeable industry leader.