Companies are facing all sorts of challenges, and in today’s fiercely competitive market, every pound counts. But despite a difficult economy, it’s still important to spend money on quality marketing approaches, otherwise your presence will fall by the wayside, and you will struggle to compete with your rivals.
The question is, which marketing approaches are likely to improve your brand visibility and generate the most customers?
Here are the ten best uses of a business marketing budget if you’re eager to generate sustainable results from your investment, based on our experience in countless clients’ businesses (and with our own ventures, too).
Online marketing ideas
If you’re not promoting your business digitally, you’ll quickly be left behind.
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Content marketing
Creating high-quality content for your audiences – whether in the form of blogs, videos, educational resources, or something else entirely – will help to build trust, authority, and engagement. Consistent content creation can improve search engine rankings, generate organic traffic, and nurture leads over time, so there are multiple advantages to spending money in this area.
Best of all, carefully thought-out content will remain valuable long after it’s created. Evergreen pieces, such as guides, tutorials, and FAQs, can generate continuous traffic and leads to your website without any ongoing costs, so its long-term ROI can be very impressive indeed.
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Organic search engine optimisation (SEO)
Investing in SEO – which is the practice of increasing your website’s rankings in the major search engines – will ensure that your products and services can be found by potential buyers, even if they have never heard of your business before.
It takes a while to achieve those all-important first-page positions in the organic search results, but once you’ve established your website as a force to be reckoned with, you will consistently attract qualified visitors to your platform without the recurring costs of paid advertising.
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Email marketing
Email marketing is one of the highest-ROI marketing channels available, and it’s easy to implement for even the smallest of businesses. Building an email list allows you to nurture relationships, promote products, and connect with customers on a personal level. Regular engagement keeps your brand top-of-mind and promotes customer loyalty and repeat business.
Plus, once they have been set up, email campaigns are automated and low-cost, so they are not a burden on staff.
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Social media marketing
Social media platforms allow you to engage directly with your target audience, build brand awareness, and foster a sense of community among the people who are interested in what you can offer. Paid social media advertising can help amplify your reach and drive traffic to your website.
Organic social media builds brand visibility and loyalty over time, while well-targeted paid ads generate immediate traffic and leads. With careful audience targeting, the cost of acquisition can decrease over time as your brand grows. Even if you have started posting content to your social media channels, we would recommend increasing your activity across these channels to reap bigger rewards.
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Customer reviews
Positive testimonials serve as powerful social proof. Kind words direct from the mouths of your customers will help to build credibility and trust with prospective customers – and there’s proof that actively asking for and promoting reviews can significantly influence buying decisions. In fact, it’s well known that good reviews can lead to increased conversion rates, customer retention, and lower acquisition costs, particularly for new customers.
Offline marketing ideas
It’s important to carve out a strong presence on the web, but offline activities are just as essential to finding new opportunities and generating those all-important sales.
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Joining local networking groups
Building relationships with other businesses, local influencers, or industry leaders can lead to referrals, collaborations, and word-of-mouth marketing – all of which will happen naturally over time as trust in you and your business increases. Setting up partnerships with others also enables you to tap into an established audience, boosting your reach in the process.
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Event sponsorships
Sponsoring or participating in local events (think community fairs, charitable raffles, industry conferences and trade shows) will help to raise awareness of your brand and establish a sense of goodwill. This marketing approach is even more impactful if the focus of the event links in naturally with your mission as a business.
To make sure you get a great ROI from sponsorship arrangements, it’s best to establish a long-term relationship with your collaborator(s) rather than spreading your support too thinly.
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Print advertising
Advertising in local newspapers, magazines, or community bulletins is effective if you want to target a specific geographic area (and avoid potentially wasting your resources on reaching people who can’t, or won’t, buy from you). Just be sure to research your options thoroughly and place your ads in publications that are relevant to your products or services.
Print ads also provide you with the chance to connect with audiences that aren’t active online.
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Branded merchandise
Distributing branded promotional items, like pens, tote bags, desk calendars or apparel, will keep your business top-of-mind for customers.
Unlike one-time print, TV or radio ads, promotional products have a long shelf life. They are likely to be left in the homes and businesses of your target customers, acting as an ever-present reminder of what you can do for them.
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Direct mail campaigns
When carried out strategically, direct mail campaigns can be a highly targeted and personalised way of reaching specific customer segments with timely messaging. These types of mail-outs are especially effective for local businesses, as tailored offers or promotions are more likely to capture attention in a less crowded space compared to digital ads. They don’t need to be expensive, either – be sure to shop around for competitive printing quotes and order larger quantities of marketing collateral for the best savings.
As outsourced finance directors, we have worked with hundreds of companies in various stages of their business’s growth. One thing we have experienced time and time again is that it rarely pays to hold back on marketing spend – even when cash flow is tight. If you want to start or increase your marketing efforts but are concerned that you don’t have the funds to support a meaningful promotional strategy, get in touch. We may be able to assist you.