To a certain extent, modern marketing methods have levelled the playing field between the big players and smaller businesses. Nowadays, for example, expensive TV advertising isn’t necessary in order to become a household name. Digital marketing methods help you to use your budget in a way that targets the people you are most likely to sell to, helping you to get better returns from the time, effort, and money you spend. If all this is relatively new to you, then this article is for you. Find out how to market your small business for less with our overview.
1. Websites Don’t Have to be Expensive
Did you know that you can build a free business website? You don’t even have to know how to code. Choose a template and populate it using a free website builder. However, if you want to have your own custom domain name, you will have to pay a small subscription fee. It’s worth doing, however. While you will be happy with the savings on website design, you do want to create a professional impression.
Now that you have a website, it’s time to drive traffic to it. Your first goal is to be found in an organic search. That’s when people ask google to show them what businesses are available in their area. Achieve this by ensuring that your content is relevant to your audience and by discussing topics they might search for.
2. You Absolutely Should Use Google’s Business Listings
Try it. Search for a type of business and use the term “near me” or add the name of your town. What do you see? Business names, addresses, opening hours and contact details are offered by the search engine. People can even navigate to a business’s premises using Google Maps. It’s easy to claim your business listing on Google, and it will help you to get customers who might not otherwise have known about your business.
3. Target the Correct Social Media Platforms
Another way to drive traffic to your website or business premises is to raise awareness on social media. There are simply too many platforms for you to work effectively on all of them. So, think about the type of customers you are looking for and which social media platforms will best present your products.
For example, Instagram is all about the eye candy, and it’s a great place to reach audiences if your business can be reflected in attractive imagery. Fashion, beauty, and travel are examples of businesses that are likely to do well with Instagram. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is great for B2B concerns because it’s a platform for business professionals. Be sure to drive traffic to your website. Once you have people there, try to generate leads by offering newsletter subscriptions, discount coupons, or competition entries.
4. Offer Free Information That Will Help Your Online Followers
A lot of your activities so far have been for the sake of lead generation. Leads are people who are genuinely interested in what you do, and they’re hot prospects for a sale. Now it’s time to start selling. But you won’t try a hard-sell, in-your-face approach. Instead, you’ll use content marketing to offer them helpful information for free.
For example, an accountant can interest his or her following by discussing some of the trickier elements of tax law in newsletters. More in-depth information will be available on the website.
But can giving your professional secrets away for free be profitable? Yes it can! While your readers now understand your specialty better, it’s still not their speciality. They may still feel unsure of doing it right, or they may simply lack time. What they need is an expert, and thanks to you, they now know where to find one!
5. Use Targeted Advertising
Before the advent of the internet, advertising was a rather hit-and-miss business. That made it expensive. You couldn’t be absolutely sure that your audience would even see your ads and a lot of people who did see them weren’t really in your market demographic.
Now, you can use pay-per-click advertising or social media advertising to specifically target the most relevant audience for your business, and the more you narrow it down to your ideal customer, the more your audience shrinks and the cheaper your advertising becomes.
Sometimes, Less Really Can be More
The cool thing about online marketing is that a low budget, used wisely, can generate better results than a high budget used in an unfocussed way. Less really can be more, and you truly can compete effectively against bigger businesses. So, if you thought brand building and marketing were only for those with big budgets, think again! Now, get out there and make yourself famous!
