Maya, Brand Building Expert
If you’re like my clients, you probably don’t have access to unlimited funds for your marketing budget, am I right? Have you put the brakes on your marketing efforts because you aren’t sure how to market your business without spending loads of money?
It's scary, I know. When i just started out as the world's first Virtual Marketing Assistant I had tons of insecurities. "Will this work?", "Is this the right audience?", "Are these the right messages?", "Will I be able to drive the expected ROI?" and a whole lot more...
Henry Ford once said: “Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time”... I love that statement, but with limited funds, I had to learn (FAST) how to do more with less, and I found a bunch of super helpful ways to boost my marketing endeavors without breaking the bank, so I know you can do it too!
Don’t get me wrong; I made a LOT of mistakes before getting to where I am now, and I didn’t get here quickly. I’ll be transparent with you; I went through a stage of overspending on marketing because I wrongfully assumed that was the only way to go. Boy, was I wrong—big time. There are plenty of ways for you to bring awareness to your products or services, even on a tight budget.
I have seen incredible results with these methods in my own marketing efforts as well as with clients I’ve helped over the years, and I am now ready to share it with the world.
Here are 5 ways to boost your business at minimal cost!
1. Publish high-quality content
Okay, this one might sound obvious, but it must be said. Creating and publishing high-quality content is free – you can do it yourself! You don’t have to be a master storyteller to write about topics you are passionate about and relate to your audience.
Start by generating content that is exceptional yet simple to create.
You’re busy, I know, but the content you produce doesn’t have to take a long time to create, especially if you only plan to post a few times per week. Your content needs to be of value to the reader; it can be entertaining or educational, inspirational or funny, but it can’t be solely promotional.
It’s important to align your content with trending topics in your industry and to give your readers something to look forward to.
You’re probably thinking, “seriously? I’m a business owner, not a copywriter!” and you’re right. Getting started on content creation can be challenging, but don’t sweat it. I'm more than happy to take the load off and help you with your creative planning and content production.
Another good tip – you can repurpose and recycle content. You don’t always have to create new content for different platforms and channels. If you produce a piece of long-form video content, you use teasers and short clips on various platforms and for other purposes. If you write a few good blog posts - bundle them up into an e-book, or break each one down into headlines and create a carousel post. The possibilities are endless if you get a bit creative!
2. Infographics
Keeping your audience informed about your brand, products, or services is vital for the growth of your business. One of the easiest ways to do this is by creating infographics.
What are they?
I’m glad you asked!
Infographics are a powerful marketing tool that combines text and graphics to deliver a substantial amount of information in a simple, digestible format. They cost nothing to make, but they do require minimal design knowledge if you want them to look high-quality. Don’t let that stop you if you aren’t design-savvy – there are plenty of free design templates available online!
Infographics are significantly more visually appealing and easier to comprehend, especially for people who are scanning online. They are much more likely to stop when they see an infographic than if they see a bunch of text. Does that make sense?
Here's an example on collecting some key statistics and presenting them in a compelling infographic:
3. Stay active on social media
I know – the upkeep of your business pages on social media is super hard. It takes a village to come up with good ideas for posts every day, and it's really unrewarding as you don’t see much immediate effect of your actions (unlike paid media). Nevertheless, you still need to do it. Part of your brand’s credibility is how you appear on social media, how many followers you have, and how much engagement you get.
You can obtain this by posting good content on a consistent basis. You can also leverage social media to build an online community and overall utilize the platform’s reach by posting high-quality content that is targeted directly to your target audience.
For example - using social media channels to promote your blog drives additional traffic to your website, increasing your conversion rate exponentially.
Simply posting on social media isn’t enough, however. You need to engage in order to establish a loyal audience. How do you do this? It’s easy! You can request feedback on a product or service, run a poll or survey, tag existing consumers who posted reviews of your product or service, post teasers of long-form content, leverage trending hashtags, curate others’ quality content, and so much more.
Let me know if you need more ideas, and I’ll create weekly editorial calendars specifically for you so you never run out of content to post!
BTW - Don’t disregard the power of hashtags! They broaden your reach and reinforce your brand identity and message.
4. Take advantage of email marketing
You’re probably thinking - “what? Is this a blog post from the 1990s? Seriously – email marketing?”
Yes! Email Marketing can be super powerful if implemented correctly and will deliver ROI far greater than almost any other channel.
Not only is email marketing an excellent way to get new visitors engaged in your business, it sets you up for an affordable long-term path to leverage your prospects. It also helps you maintain a strong relationship with existing customers!
You might think it’s better to hop on the newest trends instead of relying on one of the oldest marketing methods. However, I can assure you it’s still around because email marketing has the highest conversion rate of any marketing practice.
Why is this?
There are dozens of different types of emails! From welcome emails (which average at a whopping 50% open rate), through thank you emails, order confirmations emails (60%!), to newsletters, special offers, promotions, gifts, contests, announcements, and many more - email gives you unlimited creative freedom to engage with clients and prospects.
For example, some of your subscribers are most likely already existing customers, so they are not only familiar with your brand but also support you! What better way to drive sales than by offering your subscribers an attractive deal on a product or service they are already interested in or a hint on a secret “coming soon” product launch that may strike their fancy?
While it’s always a good thing to make an effort to grow your subscriber list, you should also ensure you’re not neglecting existing customers. They are your most valuable audience, and never forget - The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60% – 70%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%. Existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products and spend 31% more when compared to new customers. (source: invesp)
So, take the time to provide them with ongoing value and special offers, and email is a great way to do that!
5. Take advantage of user-generated content
How much more likely are you to trust a brand when someone you know (or someone you can relate to) is the one posting about it?
Suppose you want to run a contest or giveaway to generate awareness about your new product or service. The best way to garner brand exposure is through user-generated content (or UGC).
What is UGC, you ask? Here’s an example:
You ask your followers on social media to post an image or graphic about them using your product with a personalized hashtag to enter the giveaway or contest. You’ll provide a deadline for the giveaway and grant the prize to the person whose post garners the most likes and shares, etc. If you do a good enough job and have a compelling offering for them, the result can be hundreds, if not thousands, of people posting about your brand online.
How amazing is that? Your brand gains a lot of credible exposure by only investing the cost of the reward!
To sum it up
As long as you create high-quality content that you can use across your marketing channels, engage with your followers, nurture existing subscribers, and have fun while you do it, you will see a considerable boost in your business!
I also know that running a business is extremely time & energy consuming, and that the last thing you wanna worry about is creating posts about #internationalpizzaday, but hey - that’s what I’m here for :) Reach out here at any time, and let me take your business’ marketing load off!