Small businesses tend to be on tight budgets. No matter how tight your budget, however, you need to make sure to set funds aside for digital marketing. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to stick to a budget with your digital marketing strategy. The following tips should help you do just that.
1. Make Your Free Google Business Profile
Google Business Profiles are completely free and are essential to digital marketing. Once you claim your free listing, you will ensure that your company shows up when people search for you on Google. Your business will also show up on Google Maps.
Take this to the next level by optimizing your Business Profile. This will help ensure your Business Profile shows up higher on the search results page. If you’re not sure how to do this, talk to your local didital marketing professional.
2. Use Social Media to Your Advantage
There are both free and paid ways to use social media in your digital marketing. Ads are the classic paid option, but it only costs you time to use social media in other ways. Start by making sure that you have a business page on the major social media platforms. Even if you aren’t active on them, claim your page and set up your basic contact information.
Doing this will make it much easier for potential clients to find you. It will also prevent someone else from claiming the account with your business name and causing confusion.
Once you have your social media pages set up, focus on a few platforms. Decide which ones to focus on based on which platforms your customers spend the most time on.
Use your social media pages to promote your blog posts as well as sales, and engage with current customers and potential ones on these platforms. You can ask for feedback or run polls. You can comment on relevant topics or even join hashtags.
Tag People and Brands
To make the most of social media, consider tagging people as well as brands. Maybe you and another local business agree to promote each other, so you occasionally tag each other in posts. This lets you both expand your audiences.
Or if you have brand influencers or even excellent customers, tag them in your posts. Remember that tagging another profile will extend your reach, as people who follow that profile may see your post.
Of course, you should also encourage people to tag your business in their posts.
Use Hashtags
As mentioned, incorporating hashtags into your social media posts can be an excellent tool. Hashtags help you expand your reach.
You can also use hashtags to weigh in on trends or events. For example, if your city is hosting a major sporting event, make a post about that, complete with the hashtag. It could be as simple as rooting for your home team, or you could mention how your products or services would improve the experience of event-goers.
3. Use Local SEO
Technically, local SEO is completely free if you do it yourself. That being said, it will take time away from other responsibilities. Because of this, some small businesses will want to outsource their Local SEO to a digital marketing professional.
If you want to start with SEO on your own, look for location-based keywords and create blog posts or landing pages that focus on your local neighborhood. Another part of local SEO is claiming your profile in online directories.
Local SEO is a long-game. It can take 6-12 months to see any improvements, but in the long run it can definitely be worth it.
4. Use Email Marketing
No digital marketing plan is complete without email marketing, and you can make this surprisingly budget-friendly. Yes, you will need an email marketing tool or system of some sort to make email marketing feasible, but you may not need very many features.
A small investment in email marketing can deliver significant results by communicating with your leads and customers to keep your brand top of mind.
5. Apply for Awards
If your business has earned awards, use that to your advantage in your marketing. Display the award logos on your website and social media.
Take this to the next level and apply to various business awards that you think you could win. After all, this increases your chances of winning one.
Conclusion
Even if your small business is on a tight budget, you will still have plenty of digital marketing strategies at your disposal. The above tips can help you make the most of limited funds, helping your bottom line while growing your business.
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