The importance of digital marketing in the modern era is undeniable. But most small businesses are working with a limited budget as well as few in-house resources. For a small business, traditional marketing endeavours can prove too costly. To give you a sense of what you can achieve with a smaller budget, we have compiled our best low-cost ideas to market your company with efficiency, precision and success.
Marketing for a Small Business
Traditional marketing is quickly becoming replaced by its digital counterparts. Types of marketing such as print, broadcast, direct mail and telephone can prove expensive and outdated. That is why effective digital marketing is a fantastic tool for any small businesses looking to grow, expand and succeed.
Social Media Management
Social media is a fantastic tool for marketing a small business. On top of that – it’s free! That being said, daily management of social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is crucial in harnessing their full power. Carefully conveying your brand tone and mission through your social media content is a great way to communicate directly with your followers and target audience.
So, take time to proactively engage with other users, fans and followers to really kick-start your social campaigns. Don’t fall into the trap of simply going through the motions of checking inboxes and posting generic content. Take time to build relationships with other users – join conversations, share relevant articles and provide value to your potential customers.
Website Services
For marketing your small business, a well-made website is extremely powerful. With more and more users than ever turning to search engines to find local businesses, it’s crucial to have a defined presence on the web. Even a simple website can encourage customers’ trust and legitimise your business. Remember to keep your basic information clear and easy to find from the homepage. Things such as your location, opening hours and contact information should be accurate and up to date. You may consider incorporating more sophisticated design features further down the line.
Further to this, you need your website to be visible when potential customers use search engines. Increasing search engine optimisation efforts ensure consistent traffic to your site. If you’re not sure how to get started, we have a fantastic web design and development team who provide a range of services. We also have experts in SEO who specialise in getting start-ups, entrepreneurs and small business’s websites noticed.
Marketing Engaging Content
One sure way to market your small business is to consistently produce and publish valuable content. As a method that only really costs your time- it’s a great way to engage and entertain your audience whilst building reputability and trust.
To get started: focus on your audience and what they value. As you create, publish and promote content- pay close attention to what works well and what doesn’t. To support this, your content marketing strategy should be fluid and flexible enough for alterations based on success rates. Not feeling confident in your content or strategy? We can take away the stress by conducting keyword research and producing search engine optimised content. Try outsourcing to us to ensure consistent results with every post.
Social Media Advertising
Once you’ve got your social channels up and running, it’s time to consider utilising paid advertising to support and promote your content. Social media platforms such as Facebook enable impressive targeted advertising, which can be customised to your specific business needs. For example, you can target an ad to a geographic area such as a certain radius of your business. Techniques like this ensure that you don’t waste money on advertising outside of your local customer base and utilise local customers attention.
Google Ads
Another fantastic tool called Google Ads gives smaller businesses the opportunity to compete with bigger competitors – bringing the crucial element of quality into play. The most cost-effective type of Google Ads is Pay Per Click (PPC). You only pay when a customer clicks your ad as opposed to paying for the display of the ad in the first place. With flexible pricing, real-time results and various payment methods – it’s a sure way to increase traffic to your site.
What’s better, if you’re not convinced by the results, you can cancel your campaign at any time with no attached fee. If the realm of paid advertising is something you find daunting, we provide full digital marketing packages which include paid advertising campaigns, taking the worry and stress out of it marketing your small business.
Getting Started
Hopefully, these tips have shed some light on the various cost-effective ways to market a small business. If not, we have a team of digital marketing experts who can continue your efforts and help grow your business. Why not get in touch to see how we can help.
