6 ways you can market your small business with little to no money
Let’s face it – it’s the digital revolution coming in and everything is going virtual. The further development of information technology has made it a prerequisite for businesses to operate successfully by gaining an operable sphere of influence. This is because everybody’s doing it (online presence), even your business’s competitors. Digital marketing is a growing strategy and skill with advent of the 4th industrial revolution and it has benefits for your business amongst which are:
- Increasing customer loyalty with frequent communications
- Targeting the right audience
- Large Return on Investment
- Accurate Measurement of Results et cetera.
There are different types of digital marketing, namely; Pay-per-click (PPC), Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing and Mobile Marketing among many more. What all these have in common is that they mostly require money in order to generate audience engagement and acquisition optimally.
According to statista.com, the marketing spend for the e-commerce giant Amazon was between USD 20 billion and USD 25 billion in 2020. The trend depicted in the graph below even shows a steep rise in the budget when compared to the annual spend for the year 2014 (which is just under USD 5 billion). Ofcourse, there needs to be a consideration for company scale and budget scale direct proportionality. Regardless, digital marketing can be a huge money muncher especially for someone who is just starting up with a small business. There are means to the question: How can a small business do digital marketing with little to no money?
Here are 6 ways
- Blog
Blogging is an effective marketing tool that requires no money because it involves the regular publishing of content online. The content itself is audience-specific in terms of subject matter, and it generates interest and engagement. A blog is not only a great purveyor of content to your audience, it also links your target audience to your website thus generating natural traffic to your website. It is pull marketing at work.
According to Laja, P. (2020), “ A study of 2300 HubSpot customers revealed that businesses that blog witness their monthly leads rise by 126% more than those who don’t”. This is unfailing proof that blogging is a free digital marketing tool.
Additionally, blogging is an efficient Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tool.
By – 1.) using a keyword (a phrase typed in a search query that leads to your site in search engine results) as the title of your post and 2.) repeating the same keyword in the body of your post – you can generate the same type of traffic as your competitors. الدمبلة
Blogging is an effective marketing tool that offers value without money through building a natural interest and engagement from a community of like-minded consumers of content.
- Social Media Forums
This strategy is similar to blogging by being a link-creator between your business and your audience through content-sharing means.
However, in this situation you join groups such as ones on Facebook and LinkedIn where there are experts and enthusiasts who talk about topics that are related/relevant to your field. This form of marketing is not direct like paid search marketing, email marketing for example and therefore it is not ideal to promote through spamming and trash-talking.
Instead, use the social media forum to join the conversation it is centered around and start adding value. Social currency will lead to monetary currency, because as you participate and gain popularity on the platform, all you need to do is add a link to your website on your profile thus leading to natural traffic to your website.
The Benefits of these forums are:
- Connecting with like-minded business people (Business-to-Business lead generation)
- Connecting with your business’s relevant target audience (Business-to-Customer lead generation)
- Educating you more about the ins and outs of business in general/ ins and outs relevant to your business.
- Generate natural traffic to your website.
- Cross-promotion
Cross-promotion is a cheaper form of digital marketing where businesses market each other’s brands on their respective social media platforms. This marketing strategy may involve little to no money, but only works if both parties are more or less within the same industry. This is because both parties share the same target audience and don’t compete with each other.
Cross-promotion is a good deal for businesses that are just starting out with little capital and want to gain some credibility and brand awareness. Both parties can give good mention of each other on social platforms through email marketing, exchanging of knowledge and skills and even outsourcing services from each other. casino777
This relationship can lead to benefits such as:
- Generating more leads
- Increased brand awareness
- Audience growth
- Improved brand reputation
A few things to consider when forming a cross-promotion partnership are:
- Setting clear in your partnerships by setting clear KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
- Choosing the right partner is crucial because a business with a bad reputation or a business in the wrong industry will hinder your marketing progress.
- It will be advantageous to select the relevant channels for information dissemination especially with consideration towards your business partner’s brand language, which can influence chosen medium of communication.
- Run a Poll/Contest on a Regular Basis
Running Poll or survey is a great way to get your audience engaged and feel involved. Them answering that survey will give them a voice and will give you an idea of who they are and what they want from you. Running a contest in conjunction or separate from the poll can also generate interest and engagement with your brand. Having them win and obtain a reward as a result of winning will give your brand a link to reward, abundance and joy.
Running a contest on your social platforms will improve your brand’s image and create viral potential for your brand, thus improving the odds of conversion through people buying into what you do.
- Start a Podcast
Starting a podcast is cheap, but ROI is big. It is also a good way to humanize your brand – giving it a personal appeal to your customers. رياضه البولو You can use a podcast as a public platform to let people know what you are all about by sharing what you know and what other people know by inviting them to talk: these people could be business people, entertainers, social media influencers and politicians. A good website to start a podcast is podcasts.spotify.com .
You can shape your podcast around your brand’s image through subject matter, articulation and overall conduct and attain and retain relevant audiences to follow your cause.
- Host a Webinar
Hosting a webinar is another interactive way to get customers for your brand. You can offer value by offering a training program that is based on the skills that you possess i.e. education on how to start a blog. This is a good way as well to find a relevant primary audience to offer your goods and/or services.
According to digital.com (2020), “Adobe claims a 19% conversion rate from webinars…”.
A webinar is a good strategy to:
- Generate Leads
- Generate Sales
- Build a relationship with your customers