Sales and Marketing - Jen Jordan
Jen Jordan brings a wealth of life and leadership experiences to her writing. After 10 years creating a variety of content for a nonprofit, Jen decided to establish her own writing business. She specializes in creating high quality blog and website content for small businesses. When she's not writing, Jen is a competitive triathlete with a goal of completing a triathlon in all 50 states.
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Small Business Marketing Strategies Almost Any Business Can AffordMany small businesses are accustomed to operating on a shoestring marketing budget. There’s skill and strategy in stretching every penny as far as it will go. In times of financial uncertainty or when you need to "tighten the budget," some think it’s wise to pause all marketing efforts to preserve cash. Others say the better approach is to increase marketing to bring in more customers. Whether you need affordable marketing strategies or want to expand your existing marketing efforts, we identified five marketing strategies that will fit almost any budget. 1. Social media is a high-traffic, low-cost advertising strategy Nearly everyone is on at least one social media platform. Your small business should have a presence there, too. While it’s free to maintain a page for your business, you can pay for targeted advertising if your budget allows. One free and effective way to leverage social media for marketing is to encourage customers to leave reviews on your profiles. Whether they leave Google reviews or Facebook reviews, potential customers often like to read reviews before making a purchase. You can also use your social media platforms to share new products and services, answer FAQs, update followers about discounts or events, and more. All for free! 2. Customer referral programs are cost-effective marketing strategies Customer referral programs reward your current customers for recommending you to their friends and family. Your customers appreciate the incentive to recommend a product they like, and you gain a new client before it costs you a dime. For example, a lawn care company might offer 50% off a week of service for every referral that turns into a customer. Some small businesses even offer increasing incentives for more referrals. For example, they might offer $20 off for the first referral, $30 for the second, and so on. That incentivizes your best customers to continue introducing new customers to your business. 3. SEO Content Marketing Search Engine Optimization aims to increase organic traffic to your website from search engines like Google. Google "ranks" content to decide what shows up higher in the search results. SEO content marketing can produce an excellent return on investment for small businesses, and it tends to be a reliable strategy that works over the long term. A free tool like Ubersuggest is a convenient SEO analyzer to assess your website and compare it to your competitors. 4. Don’t overlook your email subscriber list for free marketing An active email list is a valuable marketing tool for any small business. Whether you send weekly or monthly emails, keep your subscribers informed about upcoming events and opportunities, product or service descriptions, "how-to" guides, and much more. While it might not be an instant-result strategy, offering consistent, high-quality email content will surely build trust and get people shopping. Emails are also easy to share with friends and family, especially when there’s valuable information inside. 5. Encourage user-generated content (UGC) Many companies of all shapes and sizes are leveraging social media for free marketing through user-generated content. For example, it’s easy to run a contest where you ask your followers to post a video or photo using one of your products and a custom hashtag. Then on a predetermined day, select one post to win the prize. Some businesses award the post with the most likes; others choose randomly or use some other criteria to select the winner. However you decide to run the contest, you’ll have potentially thousands of people posting about your product or business on social media. This brings valuable exposure to new audiences, and many consumers say user-generated content is more memorable than other types of content. Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. There are many creative and strategic ways to promote your small business on a shoestring budget. Incorporate these low-budget marketing strategies into your overall plan so you can market your business without breaking the bank. Then, as your business grows, continue investing in the methods that bring the most return on investment. Works Cited https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/ https://blog.loomly.com/digital-marketing-on-a-budget/ https://www.spectrio.com/marketing/the-best-low-budget-marketing-ideas-for-small-businesses/ https://www.socialpilot.co/blog/small-budget-marketing-ideas-for-businesses https://www.quicksprout.com/marketing-on-a-budget/ |
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