Being a local business owner nowadays can be an adventure. There are so many opportunities and tools you can use to promote your business, that it sometimes becomes overwhelming. The online world allows you to try almost anything to make your business more popular and let your customers know about you with inexpensive digital marketing strategies.
However, there is one big obstacle that stays in the way of local businesses’ marketing strategies. This obstacle is called money.
Creating a successful marketing strategy with a low budget is not an easy task. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you use an expensive or cheap marketing strategy.
What matters is to choose that strategy that works best for you. How much money you spend is up to you.
You do your calculations and decide how much you can invest in your marketing strategy. This article is going to present you the top 5 inexpensive digital marketing strategies that can help your local business move forward.
Statistics showed that in 2014, 82% of the startups in the US were self-funded. This means that you are not alone in this adventure of making your business known with an inexpensive marketing strategy.
If you want your business to survive, you need to draw an efficient budget. There are many areas where you need to focus and allocate budget for.
Therefore, if you can use some very efficient digital marketing strategies and save money at the same time, why not give it a try?
Focus on great content
Most probably you already know that great content can make the difference in the market. And, if you do it yourself, then it won’t cost you any money. But, where can you publish this great content?
You can start by creating a blog. Statistics say that blogs are one of the most trusted online resources for people nowadays.
What is more, creating a blog post should take between 1 and 3 hours on average. For example, you can start by creating top 10 lists or best practices for your industry and share them with your readers.
When people are reaching your website, they are looking for a solution to their problem. Therefore, your content should focus on the problems your products or services can solve.
What is more, there is no better writer for your blog than you who knows everything about your products and can inspire your customers with your passion and dedication.
You can also translate your content into multiple languages using PickWriters, one of the top translation companies, and thus target even more customers.
Inexpensive digital marketing strategies … record short videos
There are 4 billion video views on Facebook alone every day. So, can you imagine what does this mean for your local business? You can create instructional videos where you present the best features of your products and let customers know about you.
Even though creating a professional video on YouTube can cost you a lot of money, this doesn’t mean that you cannot attract your audience in another way.
You can use a simple camera or your smartphone to record short videos and post them on Facebook. Your viewers will appreciate your originality and the fact that you are a simple person just like them.
What is more, you can also use the Facebook Live feature. This is how you will let your followers know about the things that happen in your business in real time.
Participate in forums
This is a very efficient, yet inexpensive method to build trust around your business. Besides social media platforms, there are several other websites where you can spread the word about your brand and get involved in interesting conversations.
For example, you can try Reddit and Tumblr. By becoming an active member on forums, people will see that you are a serious entrepreneur and you have a word to say in your industry.
By answering the questions posted on different blogs, you will show that you are an expert in what you are doing.
Therefore, people will start considering you an important figure in your area of expertise, and thus you will increase your brand awareness.
What does it cost you? Apart from the time spent and a bit of openness, this is an inexpensive digital marketing strategy.
Guest post on other blogs
If you already have a blog, this doesn’t mean that this is the only place where you should write. Once you become better at writing, you can start sharing your knowledge on other blogs too.
This is how you will build backlinks and become well-known thanks to search algorithms.
There are many blogs open to collaborating with other bloggers on different topics, giving them the opportunity to write a few phrases about themselves and their business.
Writing is not an easy task. Apart from being creative, you should also produce original content. Also, your content should be clear and engaging.
Therefore, you will need to organize your schedule so that you have enough time to focus on this task.
However, this effort will pay off very soon as this is an efficient method to get your business on the map.
Inexpensive digital marketing strategies … be active on social media
Whether we are talking about Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter, each of these social media platforms has millions of users accessing them every day.
So, creating a business profile and staying active on social media is a good marketing strategy. What is more, creating a profile on social media is free.
By sharing valuable content and engaging in conversations, will make people follow you and share your content. This is how you will make your business more visible.
From all the social media platforms, LinkedIn is under-utilized, even though it has immense potential.
If you already have a LinkedIn profile and you use it to add connections, now it is time to take your profile to the next level.
By joining various groups and starting conversations with your connections, you will build your brand and promote your services.
Not all the business owners can afford to hire a marketing specialist to handle the marketing strategy and build some reputation on their brand. There are many cheaper methods you can use to gain more traction on your brand.
The bottom line
This article comes as an answer to all your fears about the money you need to spend to make yourself known on the market. Use the strategies mentioned above, and you will see that all your efforts will pay off.
Kristin Savage nourishes, sparks and empowers using the magic of a word. Along with pursuing her degree in Creative Writing, Kristin was gaining experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in marketing strategy for publishers and authors. Now she had found herself as a freelance writer.
She observes with a special interest how the latest achievements in media and technology help to grow readership and revenue and shares her opinion. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing created by remarkable customer service. And put it to good use.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative marketing strategies. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
13 Extraordinary Marketing Lessons from Taylor Swift
Learning from 2 of the Best Marketing Strategy Case Studies
Visual Content … 13 Remarkable Marketing Examples to Study
7 Secrets to the Lego Blog Marketing Campaigns … Effective Marketing?
14 Jaw-Dropping Guerilla Marketing Lessons and Examples
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.