Every dollar matters to entrepreneurs and small company owners, and marketing initiatives must yield a tangible and rapid return on investment.
One hundred bucks is a drop in the bucket for huge firms with large marketing and advertising expenditures. However, for entrepreneurs and small company owners, every dollar matters, and investments must provide a tangible and fast return on investment.
There are methods to implement a marketing strategy for as little as $100, and here are six examples of how to implement a low-cost yet effective marketing strategy for your company's success.
Do some market research.
Cost: $0
The more effort you devote to defining not just your target markets, but also the attributes that characterize your ideal buyer types, the better you will be able to:
With laser-like accuracy, focus your marketing efforts.
To attract and engage probable consumers, fine-tune your marketing communications.
Keep in mind that all-star teams don't only study their own game plans; they also look at what their opponents are doing to see if there are any possibilities to defeat them. Going head-to-head with a competitor in areas where they are stronger or more well-established might result in a loss, but if you spend time evaluating the competitive field to seek for their areas of weakness or market gaps, you can find possibilities where your company has the best potential to thrive.
Make email your go-to weapon.
Cost: $20 to $50 per month (up to 5,000 contacts) using email marketing services like Constant Contact or Campaigner.
There's a reason email marketing is high on our list of small company and startup recommendations: it works. Regardless of sector or company size, email marketing is the approach that provides the best return on marketing dollars spent, according to marketers across the board. According to ExactTarget.com's 50 Email Marketing Tips and Stats for 2014, marketers got a $44.25 return on investment for every $1 spent on email marketing.
Boost the pace of your lineup
Monthly cost: $9 (or less)
The more quickly you can engage, entice, and convert your audience, the better. The majority of customers begin their search for a business, product, or service on the internet. Furthermore, in many circumstances, internet research has supplanted the conventional purchasing cycle, to the point that a customer is virtually (or totally) completed with the purchase process by the time they contact a salesperson for information.
To guarantee that visitors to your website can quickly and easily access the information that will most likely convert them from browser to purchase, make sure your website can recognize the sort of device they're using. In only a few minutes, you may have a semi-customized mobile version of your website.
Make it appealing to a large audience.
Cost: $0
Many small company owners rely on word of mouth as their major marketing strategy, but this isn't always the case. According to the GE Capital Retail Bank's second annual Major Purchase Shopper Study, 81 percent of customers look online before going to a shop to make large purchases, and may spend two to three months gathering the information they need to make a decision.
Even when it comes to small-ticket products or the types of small companies that a customer is likely to buy from on a regular basis, the Internet is frequently the first stop before making a purchase. According to a Mobile Search Moments analysis, more over half of mobile queries (55 percent) resulted in conversions within one hour. (This is just another compelling reason to invest in mobile-friendly web design.)
Whether your products or services are high-ticket or low-cost, the conclusion is the same: small business owners and entrepreneurs who conduct keyword research and build out their websites using search engine optimization (SEO) best practices will likely be rewarded with higher rankings in organic search results. In other words, they should see an increase in website traffic as a result of their company listings being displayed directly in front of potential purchasers.
Be social in a strategic way.
The cost is between $40 and $70 each month.
You may put your company, product, or service in front of thousands of people of your target demographic each month if you spend that $40 on sponsored posts on Facebook or LinkedIn. Even a tiny investment in social media marketing may result in hundreds of new social media followers, increased online traffic, and brand exposure. The idea is to generate bottom-line revenues that can be attributed back to early social media involvement.
Social media platforms have done small business marketers a huge favor because of their popularity with consumers (Facebook) and business customers (LinkedIn). They've created demographics tools you can use to put your advertising and posts straight on the feeds of folks who fulfill your target buyer type criteria, as well as allowing you to establish a budget for sponsoring a post or page.
Boost your team's performance
Cost: $0
For entrepreneurs, startups, and small business owners who have yet to build out huge contact databases, forming informal alliances with other firms for the goal of cross-promoting or marketing collectively may be incredibly advantageous. Sharing connections and collaborating with other business owners whose target audiences are similar to yours may help you establish brand recognition and expand your company more faster than you could on your alone.
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Salty Red Dog Marketing, LLC is a marketing agency in Red Bank, NJ, Westport, CT, and everywhere in between. We service businesses with marketing strategies, digital marketing, social media, and consultations.
Contact: info@saltyreddogmarketing.com
Phone: NJ: (732) 802-6205 // CT: (203) 429-9671