Marketing for your small business on a limited budget is tough. However, with the array of digital marketing avenues available today, it’s easier than ever for small businesses to executive successful marketing strategies without an exorbitant budget. What’s the key to success? Creating a solid strategy for your marketing campaigns that include email blasts, blog posts, and video and social media content to get the most bang for your buck. Three tips to getting the most out of your marketing budget include:

• Freemium All the Way: Using Social Media Wisely
• Quality Over Quantity: Concentrating on Publishing High-Quality Content
• Email Marketing is One of Your Best Tools in the Toolbox: Treating Your Email Subscription Lists Like GOLD

Freemium All the Way: Using Social Media Wisely

Yes, social media’s been around for a while now and most marketers know that incorporating social media into a business’s overall marketing strategy is necessary for success. In fact, 77% of small businesses in the US use social media for marketing, sales, and customer service. If you’re part of the 23% of businesses that aren’t, that needs to be corrected ASAP.

Social media is great for distributing a constant stream of helpful, educational, and entertaining content and videos to your customers, fans, and followers. With the plethora of platforms available, the thought of creating and publishing relevant content for all of them can seem daunting. While large companies and corporations have a presence on every social platform, small businesses should focus on the platforms used most often by their target audience. The best place to start is with Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. 

Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube

Facebook is still considered the powerhouse social media platform. Not only has it been around the longest, but it also, according to a study conducted by ViSenze, has the greatest influence on customers’ buying decisions. 

Because Instagram focuses on pictures and videos, most businesses find posting to the platform less intimidating compared to the other platforms. That doesn’t mean, however, that your Instagram posts should be any less thought out. Instagram has more than 1 billion monthly active users and more than 500 million active daily stories. Your Instagram strategy needs to be tight in order to successfully reach your target audience. 

YouTube, as we mentioned a couple of months ago, is – for all intents and purposes – a video content search extension of Google. So, creating a YouTube channel for your video content is a must. Not only does this help increase your SEO ranking, but YouTube’s analytics can help you identify the types of video content your target audience responds to best.

Once you become more familiar and comfortable with each of the platforms mentioned above, you can elevate your social media game and try using Facebook Live, IGTV, and Instagram Stories to connect more directly with your audience.       

Quality Over Quantity: Concentrating on Publishing High-Quality Content

When you’re scrolling through your social feeds, it’s easy to see just how much new content is posted daily. You might be intimidated to try to break through the noise or be tempted to post more frequently as opposed to concentrating on creating high-quality content even if that means posting less frequently.   so your content gains traction with your target audience. You might be tempted to post more frequently as opposed to concentrating on creative extremely high-quality content and posting less frequently. That’s the opposite of what you should do.

One of the most time-consuming aspects of digital marketing is the time needed to create high-quality content, but it helps your audience see you as a credible source of expertise and thought-leaders for your industry. Producing high-quality content, especially on your website’s blog, is also a great way to improve your SEO ranking. 

Email Marketing is One of Your Best Tools in the Toolbox: Treating Your Email Subscription Lists Like GOLD

In addition to your social media and video marketing efforts, it’s important not to overlook incorporating email marketing into your overall strategy. Email subscription lists are one of the easiest ways to market to your customers. Creating a weekly or monthly newsletter choc-full of quality content is a great way to keep your business top-of-mind with your target audience and customers. 

Establishing your digital marketing strategy doesn’t have to be expensive in order to be effective. By creating high-quality email, blog, social media, and video content, you can build clout for your business and become a thought-leader for your target audience to turn to for industry-specific information.