Running a business is hard work. You have to continually make sales. There are expenses that need paying each month. There’s the requirement to keep reaching new customers and appeal to them with your products and services. You must balance the books, ensuring the business is both profitable and providing you with a steady paycheck to cover personal bills.
The list goes on and on.
One of the most challenging aspects is operating within a tight budget. As the saying goes, you need to spend money to make money. Yet if there’s little in the way of cash available to invest, doing that is difficult – but not impossible. With a splash of creativity, it’s possible to stretch your budget and achieve your lofty business goals.
This is particularly the case with marketing. There are many different avenues to traverse with digital marketing. Some are expensive and can blow through a major budget within a matter of days. Others, however, allow you to promote your products or services without spending anything except your time.
If you’re not quite sure where to start when marketing on a budget, this guide will demonstrate how to increase visibility while spending minimally.
The use of AI marketing
Before covering specific marketing options, one point to remember is that technology continues to evolve and improve. Not only does technology become affordable for businesses of all sizes, but it also results in greater performance for companies that know how to harness it correctly. This is the situation with AI marketing.
As the name suggests, AI marketing is used to automate processes. With the correct incorporation of machine learning, it means employees aren’t required to analyze data, complete time-consuming processes, or even produce creative content. It can transform your entire marketing efforts and help you to perform at scale.
Still not convinced that AI marketing should play a role in your budget-focused strategy? Persado has put together a comprehensive guide answering the question why use AI marketing for your business?
Social media is one of the best marketing tactics available for a number of reasons. One of the biggest is that a small business with a minimal budget can stand toe to toe with the big boys and come out on top. Rather than rewarding those with the deepest pockets, social media is a place where creativity comes out on top.
However, there are a few points to consider when making social media work for your business. First of all, you have to pick the platforms you want to focus on. Whether it’s a social media staple like Facebook or a recent breakthrough star such as TikTok, you have to think about which are best for your company.
Ultimately, you have limited time to focus exclusively on social media marketing. You might want to get your business onto every platform that’s available, but it simply isn’t a viable approach. Creating an account is easy, sure, but populating it with regular content is necessary to make it worthwhile – and that’s difficult. Now multiply that difficulty tenfold if you’re trying to do it across an assortment of platforms.
Once you have settled on one, two, three social media platforms, the focus turns to content creation. The right content has the ability to go viral, massively expanding your brand’s visibility almost instantly. Here are a few aspects to remember when producing quality content that hits the mark with social media users:
- Be visual: On the likes of TikTok and Instagram, this is a given. Yet when using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, it’s important to incorporate visual content – images, videos, GIFs, etc. – into your content efforts. This will always catch the eye more than just a text-based post.
- Follow the trends: Trending topics are topics people are currently following. If you incorporate your content into these trends, it has the potential to show up in new – and profitable – areas and expand your reach.
- Trigger emotions: If you unlock a strong emotional reaction across your audience, this can result in content engagement skyrocketing.
SEO
SEO is a long-term process. It’s also a marketing tactic that demands you put in continual, considerable effort before it bears fruit. Yet neither point means you have to inject stacks of cash into your SEO campaigns. Sure, a big budget helps – but it’s not imperative.
For instance, there are various free tools that allow you to conduct keyword research. Even if you cannot spare the time to produce SEO content on your own, it’s possible to hire an agency or freelancer to do this without breaking the bank. You also don’t have to spend money to acquire backlinks. You can reach out to website owners in your niche, offering to produce content for their site in exchange for a link that points back to your content.
If you run a small local business, performing a local SEO campaign can also be done for free. Simply sign up for a Google Business Profile, add your business details, and you’re up and running. Of course, the more time and effort you put into your local SEO efforts, the more you will ultimately be rewarded with organic search traffic.
Produce first-class content
Yes, this is easier said than done. Yet quality content has the ability to significantly improve your standing and authority within your industry. Along with appealing to Google and further enhancing your SEO efforts, quality content is shared by others – and the resulting snowball effect can see your brand visibility explode.
High-quality content doesn’t necessarily have to be a blog post or article. It can also take the form of a video, infographic, eBook, and so on. Whichever direction you take, remember that educating your audience is a priority.
If you’re struggling to think about what type of content to produce, take a closer look at what your competition are uploading. Parroting their content won’t get you anywhere, but it can serve as inspiration in terms of what works – and what doesn’t – when appealing to your audience. Tip collections, top ten lists, best practices, how-to guides, and so on are all safe bets as the framework for your content.
