Marketing Tips For Businesses With A Shoe String Budget

With the increasing popularity of online portals, high-impact marketing is becoming more and more accessible even for those with a limited budget. With the right marketing tips, you can make your shoestring budget work for you.

Create a Marketing Strategy

This is the first key step you should take when working on a marketing campaign. This is especially essential if you are on a budget. Having a clear strategy will help you stay focused and will keep you from incurring unnecessary expenses. Moreover, your budget should be aligned with your marketing goals. The planning you do beforehand will help you make sure that you are on the right track and are actually getting returns for your marketing efforts. It will also give you leeway to change course if you see that you are not getting the bang for your buck.

Identify Market Segmentation/Audience Targeting

A critical part of your marketing strategy is determining the right target customer. As you are working on a minimal budget, it is important that you reach the right people from the get-go. One of the ways you can do this is by narrowing your audience down to a small and super targeted niche market. This may require thorough research, but it is effective. A highly targeted market is not only easier to reach and access, but they also tend to convert more. This will help ensure low-budget but high-impact marketing efforts.

Highlight Content Marketing

Among the best marketing tips, you will get is that which asks you to focus on content marketing strategies. Blogging will help you create a space in the World Wide Web for your business. You can then use this space to assert your credibility and win the trust of your prospective customers. Do make sure that you are creating high-quality content, as this will speak volumes to the kind of products or services you provide. Also, ensure that your content caters to your predetermined target audience. You would not want your message to fall on deaf ears.

Embrace Social Media Marketing

Great content will only take you so far. You would also need to make sure that it reaches your intended audience. The best way to do this is by using social media. It is where practically everybody is hanging out. Make sure that you choose the right platform for your target audience, as social media marketing can eat up time, efforts, even money. Case in point, Pinterest is known to capture a target demographic made up of outgoing and motivated young women. If your product seeks to speak to this market, then it’s best to focus more on this social media platform.

Focus on Viral Marketing

More than just writing great content and taking a dive into social media, you also have to make sure that people would want to share your stuff on these platforms. The more people share your post, that more audience it reaches. So how can you make your content more shareable? You can start by giving your audience an incentive for sharing. You may create a contest, by which people can enter by sharing your content. You can get creative with this one!

Don’t Ignore Traditional Media

One of the ways you can create a buzz even on a small budget is by making yourself newsworthy. Make the big media want to talk about you. This way, you can cash in on their wide audience without shelling out money. Take it from “Pete the Plumber”. He found out a child’s red wagon was stolen. He went to the child’s rescue, carrying a brand new wagon in his superhero-painted van. He became the talk of the town, drawing media attention. This resulted in a lot of free, high-value publicity.

Try Guest Blogging

Another great way to tap into other media/news sites/blogs’ huge audience is by creating a guest blog. Offer to provide high-quality content, and get the chance to reach a large audience, even benefit from a high-value link back to your site. If you choose the right site and create the right content, you are bound to see massive returns. AJ Agrawal, a marketer, and entrepreneur has successfully used guest blogging to generate newsletter sign-ups, get new coaching clients, and make book sales.

Reach out to the Influencers

You may also work with influencers who can effectively tap into your target market. This narrows down your efforts to building relationships with only a few key people, who can then work on reaching your greater target audience. You will benefit from the arrangement’s synergistic effect.

All About Customer-Centric Marketing

One of the ways you can ensure success on social media is by being truly likable. And you can achieve this by being relatable. This is actually one of the advantages you have over big corporations, which tend to have many offices in several locations with large teams. It is harder for people to connect to and relate with huge brands. There is more leeway for your small business to be relatable. Tell your story. Give your employees some exposure, and get your audience involved in your community. Social media platforms are meant to be personal and engaging. Use this to your advantage, and create real relationships with your target audience.

Word of Mouth Marketing

Another cost-effective way you can reach more prospective customers is through word of mouth. You can achieve this my creating an army of satisfied customers. This is something you can attain by providing a customer experience that is worth talking about and sharing. You can further feed on your customers’ amazing experience by providing them with an incentive to share good reviews. You can put a referral program in place that rewards people for promoting your products or services. You can make this more cost effective by providing freebies instead of monetary commissions.

Whatever type of business you run and no matter how limited your budget, you can run an effective marketing campaign if you know the right strategy for your business.