Marketing is at the backbone of your business’ success. It is used to inform target clients about your brand, products, and services. The end goal of marketing is to increase the client base of a business. Without proper marketing, your business will not grow as much as you would want it to. However, marketing is not cheap. It can take up a huge chunk of the business’ operational costs. It is challenging for business owners to come up with great marketing strategies that cost less. This is not to say that it is impossible. Here are a few tips you will find useful. With the following, you can decrease the cost of marketing and increase your client base.
Make Use of Free Platforms
Social media sites will not cost anything to join. You can easily create a page on Facebook. Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok. These pages can then be used to draw the attention of potential followers through interesting content. Post about what you have to offer and engage with your followers. To grow your following, consider working with influencers and encourage those who follow you to share your content. Choose influencers with a medium-sized following relevant to your product niche.
Creating a website is another great way to market your business at affordable rates. Fill your website with search engine optimized content and you will get even higher returns on investment. The importance of SEO in a business website cannot be overstated. The higher you can get your site to rank on google the more leads and conversions you will have. The bottom line for investing in SEO is an increase in sales.
Guest posting on websites belonging to businesses that complement yours is free. Use this to give readers valuable information while at the same time promoting your business to a new audience. Remember that you also need to allow guest posts on your blogs for others to allow you to post on theirs. Offline, encourage other businesses to refer clients to you and promise to do the same.
Email Marketing and Mass Texting are a Gold Mine
Putting up billboards and advertising on TV or print media is costly. Not only that, but it is losing popularity to digital mediums. On the other hand, email marketing and mass texting are affordable marketing methods. They do not need a lot of infrastructure or professional know-how to carry out. Choose your target properly and you will get a high return on investment.
For these cheap methods to work, you need to get good marketing software. A reliable email marketing program will send out regular emails to a set mailing list. It needs to be fast and enable easy customization of the emails. This is a perfect method for sending out newsletters and promotional content. You can even personalize messages to make your customers feel addressed.
Mass texting requires reliable sms software. Get one that allows you to send short messages, MMS, or other kinds of messages as per your needs. Through texting, you can inform clients about new products, offers or give useful information. If you would like to allow clients to respond via text, get software that supports two-way communication. SMS management services are very easy to use and deliver messages fast. It is especially ideal for sending time-sensitive messages if you have promotions.
DIY vs Outsourced Marketing
As a business trying to save money on marketing, these are your best options. Hiring a group of professional marketers should be your eventual goal but this can be costly. Start off by doing the marketing yourself or hire a couple of people to help out. Alternatively, outsource to a marketing agency. Sometimes investing the money in an agency is cheaper in the long run than trying to do everything yourself or with a handful of people.
Outsourcing is a good choice because professionals will be working on this and you can do other important things. Plus, it is way cheaper than hiring a team of in-house marketers. DIY on the other hand is cheap because there is no extra fee to be paid. It will take lots of effort to succeed though, especially if you have no background in marketing. Take time to research and read about the various marketing methods.
Encourage Existing Clients to Market You
An existing client already knows why you are the best. For this reason, they are ideal marketers. They can tell their relatives and friends why they recommend you. When posting on social media, encourage followers to share your posts. Also, talk to those buying from you (online or at the physical store) to share their experiences with others.
Ask clients to give you a review on Google My Business about their experience working with you. Potential leads will see these reviews and use them to base their decision on whether or not to hire you. It helps your site’s local SEO, and you can use these reviews as testimonials.
From time to time, give incentives to clients who refer others. You may give free gift items, discounts, or cash rewards. If you are a service provider, consider an offer where you offer your service free of charge if a client comes with a specified number of people. You could also run a promotion for those who refer clients to you. Take advantage of the word of mouth marketing!
Conclusion
Your business can save money on marketing by using free and cheap marketing strategies. There is plenty to reap from these methods but it needs to be done right. Put in lots of effort and you will get high returns on investment.
