If he was down to his last dollar, Bill Gates once said he would spend it on advertising and PR. And he certainly makes sense! After all, people will not purchase your products and services if they don’t know anything about your brand. Thankfully, you can rely on affordable media production, like a free video maker, for creating your video ads and other digital images.
Thus, even with minimal resources or during times of recession, you must never stop promoting your business. It’s the only way to generate leads, create conversions, and increase sales. If you’ve got a small marketing budget, you just need to make smarter choices to stretch your pennies. With the following tips, you can make the most out of your limited advertising budget.
Craft a Budget Plan for the Long Haul
For starters, allot a minimum budget you can spend every year on advertising. After all, working with zero dollars means you have nothing to stretch. If you allocate no resources for marketing, you will struggle. Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail. For best results, do the following:
- Don’t blow your budget on short-term methods like sponsoring events.
- Cease buying ads randomly as they provide temporary benefits.
- Create a yearly plan that efficiently allocates funds following seasonal factors.
Having a yearly plan means you can make forecasts and set strategies. For example, you can plan when to rev up your ad campaigns. Fire up your free video maker and pay for boosted postings when you expect low sales and revenues. This will help you optimize your budget efficiently based on what you need.
Utilize Social Media Marketing for Exposure and Engagement
Your customers hang out online. Thus, if you want your messages to be seen and heard, you need to release them on the right platforms. Today, over 5 billion people own mobile devices. Within it are at least two social media apps they constantly check every single day. If you don’t leverage these astounding figures, you are missing out on opportunities.
Best of all, social media marketing is super affordable. Even if you have a limited budget, you can create free accounts and start posting messages. Use your free video maker to create collages and slideshows that attract attention without breaking the bank. Notably, even sponsored ads cost so much less than traditional marketing rates. Thus, it would help to:
- Set up an IG and FB Business Page
- Use Twitter to share promotions
- Establish a LinkedIn account
- Consider a YouTube channel
- Add share buttons to your website
- Set up a free blog that serves as resources for customers
Get to Know the Target Market For Better Results
Apart from finding out where most of your target market hang out, you need to identify your target market. When you know who they are and what makes them tick, you can conserve your resources. Understanding your prospects and existing clients means creating effective messages that deliver good results.
For example, creating short videos for your millennial clients with your free video maker work best on Twitter. After all, this app is primarily a text-based platform. Meanwhile, if you have older clients who love long-form content, releasing in-depth explainers or product demos on Youtube or FB works better.
Paying attention to the recipient of your marketing message assures efficiency. Doing this streamlines your social media strategy. You won’t spread yourself too thin or struggle to maintain tons of accounts that add pressure. Therefore, you can concentrate on specific efforts that bring in concrete and better results.
Invest a Little and Don’t Rely Merely on Organic Content
If you just keep on posting organic content, you will get left behind by your competitors. To illustrate, ordinary Facebook postings do not deliver the best results. After all, FB changed its algorithms, so only a certain portion of your followers see your posts. Thus, it would work better to pay for FB ads and boost posts.
Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about the money because social media rates are highly affordable. You can even use helpful tools like a free video maker to create your ad. There’s no need to pay for a professional to conceptualize and produce the video. You can do it all on your own. Later, you can just post the ad on your profile and pay for boosts. Choose settings that target your client demographic for the best results.
Foster Strategic Alliances that Bring a Wider Reach
You must work on fostering strategic alliances with other brands that target the same customers but aren’t your direct competitors. Through this, you can help each other cross-promote for free. For example, a wedding photographer can help advertise for dress designers or cake makers. Doing so will expand the business and open a wider audience base without breaking the bank.
Here are some effective suggestions for finding connections:
- Write a free blog guest post
- Speak to a trade association
- Create a formal article for a trade publication
- Join the chamber of commerce
Invest Efforts into Email Marketing
Finally, for a cheap and effective strategy, conduct email marketing. You can capture addresses via a form on your website. Another method is getting information as customers checkout or click off your site. Make sure your message clearly states the value you offer to ensure client patronage.
You must capitalize on your existing client list to send messages. After all, they are warm leads who are ready to convert. Aside from the usual updates and promotions, you can use your free video maker to create clickable GIFS for your email. Email messages that have the word video on the subject line possess higher click-through rates. If you don’t want your message to go to the junk folder, providing external links to your YouTube site or an embedded video on your landing page brings favourable results.
The Final Wrap Up
Never disregard marketing even if you have few resources. Doing so proves detrimental for your business. Always remember, with a little bit of planning and creativity, you can create effective marketing campaigns that fit your limited budget.