Smaller companies need to deal with some fierce competition, especially since the rise of entrepreneurship has empowered people to kick-start their businesses with greater ease, which simply means more fish in the sea. Another common small business issue includes struggling with limited financial capabilities. Investing in the right department at the right time can mean the difference between enabling growth and submerging your business in debt.
Marketing is often the segment that suffers, so smaller businesses are always in search of different, low-cost ways to advertise their presence more effectively. That said, some tried and tested methods will give you the biggest bang for your limited buck, and you’ll still be able to retain your financial stability without jeopardizing your cash flow in the process.
Here are a few ideas to add to your marketing strategy, no matter the industry you come from.
Get more social
For businesses with limited resources, getting something out of thin air is often precisely what it takes to increase brand awareness and customer engagement. The only way to do just that only with a few bucks up your sleeve and some creativity would be social networks. Optimizing your content for social media, posting different content formats such as live videos, stories, images, animated content, polls, and the like, allows you to engage with your followers more than ever for little to no monetary investment.
Some posts do need to be sponsored, hence the need for some funds for your social media campaigns, but it’s up to you to determine when you need to bring out the big social guns and boost your social posts, when you know that it will deliver measurable results.
Paid Google ads for the best ROI
Generating traffic and qualifying leads go hand in hand with a single marketing tactic: paid ads. Whenever you search for something, the first several results are often the most informative and helpful for your query. Why? Google sees to it that you always get your results prioritized according to relevance and available information, and paid advertising is by far the simplest, most direct way to get your brand where you need it to be in your customers’ search results.
While paid ads do require an investment, you control the amount, frequency, and content of your ads, landing pages where you want to take your visitors, and other vital components of these campaigns. To do it right, make sure that managing your AdWords campaigns includes proper keyword research and implementation throughout the content, proper targeting, and monitoring. By selecting the right keywords, you’ll ensure that your target audience will be able to see your ad, thereby drastically increasing your chances of converting your visitors into buyers. That simply means that the ROI for these paid campaigns on Google allows you to stay in control of your budget while you reap the rewards of your advertising efforts.
Empower customer referrals
Yes, reviews are the go-to variety of word of mouth for all digital businesses. They’ll do wonders for your reputation, engagement rates, and Google will love you for posting them and encouraging them. You can go a step further and create a customer referral program that will help entice your customers to behave like true brand ambassadors and support your business actively.
By offering a free month of your subscription or services, or a hefty discount for some of your products, you can ask them to refer your business to someone they know who will benefit from your offers. So, it’s a win-win-win!
Educate your audience
When was the last time you organized a lecture at a local networking event, or invited your customers and vendors for a fun and educational online workshop? Your skills, experience, and knowledge all mean something to others, and by sharing what you have, you get the opportunity to talk about your brand in a different environment and from a different, less sales-y perspective.
Add to that, the subscriptions from such events alone are enough to help you increase brand awareness and get more people talking about you, especially if you offer free e-books, and the summary of your presentation afterwards. Not to mention that a more long-term benefit of such efforts will help you build your brand’s image into one of leadership and trust.
Some of the largest corporations and businesses rely precisely on these strategies to position themselves better, not just in the SERPs, but in the minds and hearts of their customers. These marketing and advertising tactics are more than just digital solutions – they have the potential to help you skyrocket your brand’s reputation and preserve your funds for more costly projects down the road while you safely invest in these methods with a high ROI.
