How to Leverage a Limited Marketing Budget Post COVID

The age-old expression – money makes the world go ‘round. This is as true in marketing as it is in any category. The more money you have to put into your strategy, the better a chance you will reach a larger audience. Here’s the thing: while that is true, it’s not the only way to go about it. Some very successful campaigns can be created with a limited marketing budget and unlimited creativity.

Businesses across the globe, large and small, are finding themselves with cut marketing budgets. This widespread need to get thrifty with your promotion means that you need to skip the fancy bells and whistles and focus back into the core value you can offer – clear and helpful information, solutions to your audience’s specific problems, and spreading the values and beliefs of your brand through action. In the end, this thought process can tighten up andimprove your marketing strategy for the long-term. 

Whether you are starting a new business with limited resources, or have a surprise budget slice, there are tons of ways to create solid and effective marketing strategies with a limited marketing budget that doesn’t break the bank.

Understand your revenue channel strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities

If you haven’t heard about SWOT analysis, now is a great time to become acquainted with this organization method. We all have thoughts swarming in our heads during a strategy pivot to meet a limited marketing budget’s needs. A lack of thought organization and analysis can make our new budget plan flustered and half-baked.

A SWOT analysis will categorize all of your thoughts and help you identify the next steps. By separating all the players if the strategy pivot into Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats, and Opportunities, you can create your clear path forward.

Understanding your weaknesses and threats to your budget will help you cut corners and let go of practices that aren’t essential to your marketing strategy.

Understanding your strengths and opportunities will give you a to-do list of tasks to tackle, and areas for efficient and dependable growth.

When you consciously weigh the opportunities at your fingertips and decide the right marketing trends for your company, you will create a clear, no-frills plan that still yields results. 

Set up effective conversion tracking and revenue prioritization

Using your SWOT Analysis and conversion data tracking, you can shape your path going forward. Understanding where your money is the most productive is the first step to minimizing wasted spend and maximizing budget efficiency.

For example: if you can see a lot of conversions coming from your social ads, and very little from your Google ads, you may decide to focus on social ads and put more money into the revenue channel that is working. But to be able to come to that conclusion, the first step is setting up conversion tracking.

Conversion tracking will help you identify and prioritize your organic, paid, direct, and referral traffic sources. Platforms like Google Analytics and tools like the Facebook Pixel will help you track your customers from the first website visit to the big purchase. So, you can see where your conversions are coming from.

Content marketing

Content marketing can be the single-most valuable task you take on when creating a marketing strategy with a limited budget.

Leveraging content is the best way to establish domain authority and prove to your audience you are an expert in your field. Creating consistent content will improve your site visibility, so your audience can easily find you online. A piece of quality content that solves a problem for your audience could be a strong revenue driver for years to come. And that just scratches the surface of the benefits of content creation.

Content comes in many forms, and you have the freedom to focus on the media that works best for your company. Whether you want to write blogs, create white papers, make a podcast, create videos, or design infographics, the key is to just start creating.

You can even switch up WHERE that content is created. Your website blog can bring you the most direct benefits, but if you want to start smaller, you can:

• Write guests posts for partner and affiliate companies
• Publish content on LinkedIn
• Publish content on Medium

All of these are great opportunities to demonstrate your expertise, and seal the deal with a link back to your website.

Not everything will be a winner, but with persistence, time, and effort, you will eventually see the benefits of content marketing.

Leverage Partners and Affiliates

By working with partner companies, you can combine resources to reach new followers. I know this isn’t an option for all businesses or situations – but it is a great way to extend your reach when relevant. If you are a local business with a strong connection to your community, chances are some businesses would be open to joining forces.

This can get your content in front of new audiences, gain new links to your site, and have another trusted company singing your praises. (Of course, you want to make sure you partner in which you want to sing praises right back.)

For example, Food services industries partnering with local events can increase local PR opportunities, or offering discount cards that neighboring businesses can offer can increase local brand awareness.

Crowdsourced content

We can’t all hire professional photographers and models to curate perfect social and digital content. That’s where your followers can come in.

Highlight crowdsourced content on your social feeds. People love to get recognition for their efforts. The more you share follower content with a gracious shout out, the more likely people will interact and send content.

If you like this idea but don’t currently have people sending in content, it may take a push to get that train moving. Host product picture contests, challenges, create hashtags to use and give them a reason to get involved.

Video content

Video content is the ultimate multitasker when it comes to value out of budget. Quality video looks amazing on web pages, in social feeds, in ads, or wherever you want to be seen.

Not only do videos look great, but they also tend to get higher engagement than static photos. In general, videos get 21.2% more engagement than single-image posts and 18.6% more engagement than carousel posts. Adding any type of video strategy would be a good experiment for increasing follower reach and interactions.

While quality video content was once unattainable for small marketing budgets, advances in technology and viewer preferences have turned the tables. All you need now is a smartphone and a good idea. Gone are the days where impeccably-curated videos are preferred on social. Social Media users would rather see honest communication over scripted lines.

There are tons of engaging ideas for video content – from product demos to interview conversations to Q + As. Hop in front of the camera and test them all!

Giveaways

If your business just isn’t getting the online attention it deserves, try creating a contest or giveaway campaign. Giveaways are a great way to gain natural traction because there is a large incentive for your followers to engage with your content. Social media contests are a great way to boost product awareness, get more social shares, and boost your pool of followers.

The key is to make sure you have a plan in place to keep those followers interested after the contest ends. Whether it’s a post-contest consolation discount or shout-outs to contestants, use your now-boosted platform to delight your new followers.

Focus on the free third-party platform content

Being visible on third-party platforms are essential to overall website visibility and brand trust. The less consistent and visible your online information is, the less you are trusted but google and humans alike.

While you need to pay to be present on many third-party platforms, there are opportunities where your brand can have a presence for free. Your social media accounts, yellow pages, Google My Business Profile and review platforms should all have the most updated and consistent information across the board. While this can seem nit-picky, you can see real results from improving your business website visibility.

Use link outreach

Link building is an SEO strategy that gets other websites to link to your website. Strong backlinks are still one of the most productive ways to improve your SEO and website visibility.

The best way to go about this is to ask yourself:

What do I want to rank for?

Then, type that into google. Look through the results for realistic linking opportunities. Chances are, you won’t get a link from the New York Times. But, a small local blogger? Maybe.

Reach out to these existing websites, articles, blog posts to request a link. this can take some time and most won’t answer, but if you do this regularly you will eventually find success.

Community involvement and local PR

Best way to get free PR? Get involved, and give back. Whether that’s with your time, resources, connections, or expertise, you have something to offer to a cause.

Keep your finger to the pulse of your community for opportunities in which your company’s value could be needed. Work with charities that support a cause related to your business. This is a way to stay relevant and in front of your community without a fancy expensive ad campaign.

Whether you are trying to ramp up after the COVID-19 pandemic or want to find a permanently thrifty communication strategy, it is possible to create a successful marketing strategy without a huge marketing spend. If you need help getting your limited marketing budget strategy in fighting shape, reach out to our team!