Marketing is often seen as expensive, and something that only big corporate companies can afford to do. This used to be the case, but in this day and age, it is more than possible for you to market on a budget to grow your business. And, content is king when it comes to marketing on a budget. Here are some tools to get you started.
Distribute Videos
You really don’t need to spend a ton of money to create video content. All you need is a decent camera and a microphone. Record Skype interviews, download video sequences (which are often free through creative commons), or do an explainer video to demonstrate how cool your product is. Use Spark or Canva (which or free), or other video creation products to turn even static images into cool professional-looking videos. Video has higher conversion and click-through rates on social and even in paid search, which is really reasonable if you know what you’re doing.
Video is extremely versatile, and there are endless options available. You can post your videos to YouTube, then share them like crazy to get engagement that amplifies your message. You can even embed them on your website. When you do this, you increase customer trust and you also show customers and prospective customers that you are a professional. You can essentially do a video on anything, as long as it shows your video in a positive light.
Infographics
Building an infographic is easy and many sites help you create infographics for free. You just need to make sure that you design them well. Visuals are much more appealing, and they are way easier to comprehend. If your site has a lot of text then you can use them to improve the quality of your content, and you can also drive more links as well. The only thing that you have to do here is to ensure the acts and figures you use are up to date. Nobody likes to see research that is from 1999 on their site because it has little value in today’s market. Of course, infographics aren’t for everyone, and you really do need to base the choices you make on your business niche. If you work in the healthcare industry and need some additional help with this then you can boost your revenue with Patient Prism.
Take a look at this infographic, for instance. It not only provides a great example of an infographic, but is relevant to our discussion of using content to market on a budget.
Publish High-Quality Content
This tactic should be super obvious, but a lot of businesses fail to do it right. Publishing great content is free because you can write it yourself and incorporate other tools, such as video and infographics to spruce up your content. Even if you were to hire a professional, you’ll soon see that it’s still a great tool to market on a budget. Content marketing boosts SEO so you show up more often and higher in users’ searches, positions you as an authority, and drives prospective customers to your website, where they might buy from you.
The key to using content marketing to drive growth is to publish valuable content on a consistent basis. It’s a good idea to post blogs to your site and it is also good if you can post at least twice per week. If you are at capacity and can’t afford to write any content then you can hire a freelancer, or even assign the task to one of your employees.
Instagram is one of the best channels for you to market your business, especially if you want to reach younger consumers. The best thing about this platform is that it has over 500 million users. It is super easy to post content on Instagram too, however, as a mobile platform, you’ll need to have images on a mobile device.
You don’t have to spend hours writing a post, because you can’t include a bunch of words with your image, and you also don’t have to worry about refining it and adding useful information either. Companies across the world are only just starting to see what an important marketing tool this can be, so now is a good time for you to really get ahead of them and start reeling in those leads for yourself.
Email Subscribers
Email marketing may well be the most effective and inexpensive tool to market on a budget. If you already collect email addresses, then you have to take advantage of this tool. A growing subscriber list is great news because it shows that your customers are actively interested in what you have to say.
It’s more expensive to try to sell new customers, and it’s way harder too. If you want to make the most out of the email list you have, then you might want to send your customers deals, discounts, and even promotional codes for certain items. When you do this, you encourage them to come back to your site and you also remind them who you are. If you send out valuable content, such as discount codes then it also decreases the chance of your customers unsubscribing from you as well.
Paid advertising
Search, display, and social advertising open an entire world of promotion that costs a fraction of what traditional ads (ie. TV, radio) cost. PPC (paid search) essentially means your ad shows up when users enter search terms related to your product and you pay for every click that your business gets. Display advertising is similar, except the ad shows up on websites, videos, and other independent content that supports advertising.
The best thing about this is that you only pay for the leads that you generate, and you can even put a cap on this as well to stop you from overspending. If you need some help with this then there are plenty of marketing companies out there who can give you a good idea of what you need to do. You also have to make sure that you track your results online, as this will show you how efficient your marketing is.
Social includes advertising on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (for business to business), and other social networks. Again, the low cost makes this a great tool to market on a budget.
There really are many ways you can market on a budget, and by taking the above tips into account, you can be sure to do it on a budget and without breaking the bank. If you need some additional support, then there are plenty of marketing companies out there who can help you to get the result you need.
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Hausman and Associates, the publisher of MKT Maven, is a full-service marketing agency operating at the intersection of marketing and digital media. Check out our full range of services.
