Preparing the funds for a startup business may already empty your pockets, but the sad truth is that you still need money for the marketing campaigns. It is great that you’ve set up your small business and it is up and running, but how can you attract customers to your shop or make sales if you won’t run a marketing campaign?
Personal loans for fair credit might help you with the funds, but you are still operating on a tight budget. You don’t have to fret because it is possible to run a marketing campaign with a small budget. We will walk you through the different methods to start your first marketing campaign without breaking the bank.
Set your Marketing Campaign Budget
Always start small if it is your first marketing campaign. No matter what you do and how experienced you are in the field, mistakes would happen on your first try. Once you set a budget for your marketing campaign, you have to follow through.
You cannot blindly set a budget for your marketing campaign. You have to make sure that it is within reasonable grounds and you can get it back from the sales you make from your customers.
First, you have to determine the customer lifetime value (CLTV), which indicates the income that you get from an average customer. You have to make an estimate on how many customers the campaign would bring you. If a customer has a CLTV of $1,000 and you can get at least three customers from your campaign, you can set a budget of $1,000 to $1,500 for the marketing campaign.
Research First
You have to do your own research for your small business. There is no one-size-fits-all marketing campaign so if you have a “start now, research later” mentality, you will surely waste a lot of money. Trial and error is part of the game, but with all the businesses that were already established right now, this pretty much non-existent.
You still have to test the campaigns, but it won’t be as difficult as starting from scratch as you already have the fundamentals. You have to do extensive research on the marketing campaigns and your target audience before you start anything.
Social Media Marketing
This is the most important marketing campaign for any start-up business because it is literally free to register your accounts on social media. Building up a following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more would take time, but at least, you already have the foundation of your social media marketing.
Social media marketing is probably one of the most affordable marketing campaigns that you can do. You just have to create your account, spend a small amount of money to advertise your page and start posting relevant content.
Hiring a professional to jumpstart your social media marketing is also advisable, especially if you have no idea how it works.
“Content is King”
If you’ve been researching marketing campaigns, you may have come across this specific phrase. Online marketing won’t be complete without high-quality and reliable content. If you don’t have any idea how to write articles, you can get one for a few dollars.
Good-quality content can help bring more traffic to your company website. The more traffic you get, the higher the chance to get customers. However, you cannot simply post any article. You have to make sure that it is relevant and it is giving something of value to the readers.
Keep Track of the Results
For social media marketing and content marketing, results are easy to track as you can see if your recent marketing campaign made an impact or your articles are getting enough views. Tracking the results of your marketing campaign is free of charge and you won’t have to spend a penny unless you plan to hire someone to do it for you.
Track the results and make the appropriate changes based on your findings. If a certain campaign is not doing great, you can shut it down and start a new one or you can make changes to it. Don’t run the same old marketing campaigns if you are not even sure if it is giving you results or not.
Influencer Marketing
Since your local business is pretty new, you cannot afford to spend extravagantly on marketing campaigns. Influencers are getting a lot of popularity lately and you can use this as a way to market your products and services without spending too much.
Online influencers are totally different from celebrities. They have a huge fan base and this is what you are after. You don’t have to hire them as brand ambassadors as it would cost you a lot of money. You can just send them samples of your products or if you are offering services, you can invite them over for free.
Getting a shout out from one of their video blogs (Vlogs) or just a simple thank you message on their page would already boost the popularity of your business.
Wrap It Up
A low budget marketing campaign doesn’t mean that it is less effective than more expensive campaigns. As a matter of fact, a starting business should always start with low budget marketing campaigns as it is a good way to build a foundation for your business.
If you are on a tight budget, don’t feel bad. There are many things that you can do to start your marketing campaign without spending too much.
man budgeting -DepositPhotos
