This Is How To Plan Your Digital Marketing Campaign!
Thanks to the internet, many companies have been able to grow significantly by taking their business online and promoting the products and services they provide their customers with on websites, blogs and, of course, on social media channels. Unfortunately, as more companies are starting to utilize the internet, competition is also on the rise. This also means that marketers often have to increase the amount of money they set aside for their internet marketing budget since they have to compete against an ever-growing number of competitors.
Start-up companies and small businesses often do not have a budget that allows them to take their competitors head-on; thus these companies usually need to utilize methods that allow them to still get their share of customers without having to spend thousands of dollars each month on digital advertising campaigns. Luckily, it is possible to execute a functional and successful digital marketing campaign without a large budget, but there are some pointers and steps that need to be followed for such a campaign to be effective and not end up being a waste of both time and money.
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Step-By-Step Digital Marketing Guide For Companies On A Tight Budget
Even though it may not seem like your business stands a chance against the competitors when you look at how much paid advertising options to tend to cost lately, it is still possible to reach thousands of customers and become successful in the digital world when you do not have a significantly large budget to spend on advertising. From utilizing social media platforms to distributing content in a smart way, let’s discuss a step-by-step method for crafting the perfect digital marketing campaign if your budget won’t allow you to bid on hundred dollar clicks.
Step 1: Decide On A Marketing Budget
Even though you are already aware of the fact that you need to initiate a digital marketing campaign on a tight budget, it is important to have a clear number in mind when talking about this particular “budget.” Going into such a marketing strategy blindly is probably the worst idea and could end up costing you much more than you would expect to pay. Thus, the very first step you need to take before you even think about how you would like to compile your marketing plan is to decide on how much money you can spend on the campaign. You are working on a budget, that part has already been made clear – so it does not matter if it sounds significantly small. Many people have had success in the digital work with budgets that go as low as under $100. The important part here is to get a definite amount that you can work with before you proceed.
Step 2: Spend Time And Effort On Content Creation
When you are working on a very small budget, then you will have to do a lot of the work yourself to become successful. The hard work will pay off once your marketing campaigns start to get you more sales, but for now, focus on investing some of your time into your marketing strategy. If you have already spent some time researching content and digital marketing, then you have probably come across the phrase “content is king.” This phrase has quite a lot of meaning to it – especially to those who do not have a lot to spend on their digital marketing budget.
Scrunch explains that content is good for ranking higher in search engines, which is perfect for running an online business without a budget to spend on paid-per-click advertising. They also report that content encourages visitors to engagement with your brand and may also be helpful in generating new leads, which can then be converted to sales. Thus, it is important to create new content to distribute on your blog, as well as on other channels, such as social media platforms and other blogs that accept guest posts. Create as much quality and relevant content as you possibly can when you are only starting out – this will surely pay off as frequently posting content will help to keep your blog “alive” and may also help more people discover your website in search engines.
Step 3: Focus On Building An E-Mail List
In today’s digital world, businesses know that they cannot truly become successful without utilizing some e-mail marketing strategy. E-mail marketing is useful for any marketer and any business, regardless of the purpose your website serves and regardless of the products or services your brand offers its customers. The sooner you start to implement a list building technique into your digital marketing strategy, the better you will be able to reap the rewards that this particular marketing tactic has for your business.
Inbound Rocket explains that most businesses find e-mail marketing to be more effective in customer acquisition than social media marketing and that it is a much more cost-effective method of advertising when compared to other strategies such as Google AdWords. Furthermore, e-mail marketing allows for your business to send out personalized messages to prospects; thus making it much easier to turn a subscriber into a loyal customer.
It is definitely not hard to implement a list building strategy into your marketing model. It does not even have to cost you any money at all. While many professional autoresponders and e-mail software are available on the internet, such as Aweber and GetResponse, it is important to know that there are many ways to obtain such features without having to pay those expensive monthly fees that are usually associated with this software. TinyLetter, for example, is a 100% free marketing software that is easy to use and offers everything you might need to start building your list. If your official website is powered by WordPress, then you can also look at a free plugin called MailPoet, an e-mail marketing suite that offers an all-in-one solution to getting you set up and ready to start building your list.
Step 4: Make Use Of Influencers In Your Niche
Influencer marketing and social media outreach campaigns are becoming very popular and, even though they are certainly not new techniques utilized by brands to promote their products and services, the internet has redefined the way we utilize influencers. Thanks to the internet, there is no need to only turn to celebrities when looking to launch an influencer marketing campaign anymore, and there is also no need to spend millions of dollars on such a campaign. In fact, Sprout Social reports that small businesses can now utilize micro influencers within their niche for less than $100 per post published on their blogs or social media accounts.
The hardest part of an effective influencer marketing campaign is usually finding the right influencer in your niche to utilize for the campaign – the right influencer would be one that can help you reach people who will be interested in what your company has to offer them, but also one that can offer you the campaign at an affordable cost since you are on a low budget. Social Media Examiner recommends taking a look at hashtags in your niche, looking at your list of fans and utilizing some third-party tools, such as BuzzSumo, to help you discover micro-influencers in your niche that may be both useful and affordable.
Step 5: Don’t Be Afraid Of Paid Advertising Campaigns
Since our article is about launching a digital marketing campaign on a small budget and not for free, we also want to focus on the fact that many businesses tend to automatically assume that they are unable to afford paid advertising campaigns when they are only getting started, with PPC (paid-per-click) campaigns being the most popular. The truth is, there is a very good chance that you can afford such a campaign without realizing it. The key is to find a particular platform that can provide you with an affordable advertising campaign, but also effective results at the same time.
Google AdWords tend to become more expensive as new companies join up and increase the average bid for the top positions when bidding on keywords, but you need to realize that Google AdWords is not the only effective marketing platform out there. Facebook Ads, for example, have helped millions of people obtain an excellent return on their investment, and you can invest as little as $1 to $5 per day if you are only getting started to do some experimenting and find the perfect ad sets that work for your business.
Conclusion
Marketing is one of the most important factors of a successful business. In the modern world, most companies find that internet marketing plays a more significant part in their ability to attract new customers than offline marketing, but with an ever-increasing number of competitors also joining the digital world, it can be quite expensive to place your business in front of the others in your industry. In this guide, we have outlined some essential steps that need to be taken by business owners looking to launch an effective digital marketing campaign on a tight budget.
Author Bio:
Stevan Mcgrath is a digital marketing professional who possesses expertise in brand design and development. Stevan is passionate about utilizing his diverse skill sets for new and innovative online marketing strategies. He has worked as a freelancer and a contributor to ProvenSEO. Despite having a wide influential reach, he seeks client satisfaction as his topmost priority. He also writes blog posts on recent digital marketing trends. To know his work and more details you can follow him on facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google+.