When you're working with a limited marketing budget, it's all about being smart and strategic.
First things first, get to know your audience like they're your best friends. Understand who they are, what they want, and how they tick. This means diving into market research, crunching customer data, and even throwing in a few surveys and interviews.
The better you know your audience, the more effectively you can tailor your marketing efforts to reach them. If you don't know exactly who you are speaking to, you might waste hard earned cash and time speaking to the wrong people. If you haven't yet taken the time to find out who you are truly serving, finding out will save you lots of headaches down the line.
Dig deep and find out what keeps your audience up at night. Identify their pain points and challenges. Why? Because when you know what bothers them, you can create marketing messages that hit home. Tailor your efforts to address their needs, and you'll be on the right track.
Understanding their pain points not only helps you tailor your products or services to better meet these needs, but you will also find that your efforts yield a higher conversion rate. Combine that with knowing who you need to be speaking to, and any money you are spending becomes an investment into your success.
When funds are tight, you've got to be picky about where you spend your marketing Rands. Evaluate different channels based on reach, cost-effectiveness, and how well they let you target your audience. Email marketing, content marketing, social media, and SEO are all on the table. Also, consider teaming up with other businesses or influencers to expand your reach without blowing your budget.
Sometimes the best channels are not always the most costly ones, and every channel depends on the nature of your business and what you are selling. When you understand where your customers are, its easier to select the right channels. Posting on classifieds and Facebook pages can sometimes be a hit and miss and its effectiveness is largely based on timing. Carefully consider whether or not you are ok to waste your time, as sometimes a small investment in consistent and targeted advertising has a better yield despite the cost.
Content is king, especially when you're watching those Rands. If you are offering expertise, create videos, or create blog posts, if you are cooking food, whip your phone out and start snapping, or if you have a product, talk about it or show people how it works. Make your content valuable, make it relevant, and soon people will start taking note. And don't stop there, share it everywhere. Social media, email, it's all fair game. Invest your time in content marketing, and you'll see organic traffic and brand awareness grow without burning a hole in your pocket.
Content marketing is a great tool when you are on a budget, as it usually takes nothing more than some thought and a mobile phone. It may not be the fastest way to make sales, and you may be pressured to make bread, but over time, you will see your efforts pay off.
Speaking of social media, it's a powerhouse when it comes to cost-effective marketing. Develop a strategy that aligns with your goals and audience. Be where your audience is, share awesome content, and interact like there's no tomorrow. Experiment with different content types, track what works, and adjust your strategy as needed.
Remember, social media is not only about posting pictures, or quotes, its about engagement. You are looking to engage with people regarding your product, but don't be afraid to put yourself out there. People love to see the face behind a brand. It not only helps them build trust, but in some cases, you may even inspire others.
keep an eagle eye on your performance metrics. Use analytics tools to track website traffic, and engagement. This data is your compass. Optimize based on what's working and drop what's not. Regularly tweak your strategy based on the performance of your efforts. It's a cycle, measure, optimize, repeat.
Once you have all the above in a row, you have essentially built a low cost in-house marketing system. You might be ready to take your marketing to new levels and outsource some marketing to Agencies to help bolster your efforts, but just how much money should you be setting aside for your marketing.
To remain consistent in your efforts, it helps to have your marketing budget pre-allocated. For a small business, you are looking at around 7-8% of your total income, and for medium to large, anywhere between 3-7%. It's easy to look at this as an expense, but once you have an understanding of your conversion rates, its as simple as spending 50c to make a R2.
Larger businesses do not only look at it this way. They consider the intrinsic value of attaining a customer, as marketing to someone who has already bought is cheaper and has a higher conversion rate, which means that over time you will make the R600 back. If you can adopt a long term outlook such as this, you will find that the cost of acquisition was in fact a big win. Keep in mind, conversion rates vary depending on the price of your product as well as how involved the purchase process is, but that is a story for another post.
So, there you have it! Tight budget, no problem. Just be strategic, know your audience, use the right channels, invest in content, rock social media, and keep tweaking based on what the numbers tell you, until you are ready to turn it up a notch.