You marketing function is a very crucial one. And for small scale businesses (SMBs)to survive against industry giants, it becomes ever more important. SMBs that ignore this important function, risk the chances of shut downs within few years of commencement. So is there any key to marketing success for getting more business?
The cost of marketing is high in traditional channels. And most of the SMBs don’t have the financial capacity to do such aggressive marketing. On contrary to this, digital marketing allows small scale business to reach out to a larger audience within their budget.
Here are some useful low budget digital marketing tips which will help you expand your business.
5 Digital Marketing Tips For Your Small Scale Business
Perform an online market research
There are various benefits of performing a market research of your target audience, ideal buying characteristics and their pain points. It helps your brand to develop focus on marketing as you get the insights of likes and dislikes of your target audiences.
Effectively targeted marketing campaigns can generate more brand awareness and engagement than a randomly selected campaign objective.
You can use free online survey tools like Survey Monkey, Gut check and Instantly which will provide you audience responses, authenticate your research ideas and generate results quickly. And @AiDASiNC, we offer online marketing consultancy to help businesses identify and fine tune the best strategy.
Optimize your website for Search Engines
Many businesses depend on the word of mouth for marketing. But in reality, 81 % of consumers go online to check and compare the available product details as per the report by Search Engine Journal.
Optimizing your website and making it search engine friendly should not be treated as an expense, as it is an investment.
Don’t neglect the power of Emails
According to Merkle, 74 % of consumers prefer to communicate with the concerned business through emails. Email marketing allows you to reach a larger targeted audience within a small period of time. Many businesses rely on email marketing as it offers a great return on investment at an affordable cost.
Professional email management services allow you to send and manage your email campaigns. Companies like Aweber, iContact and MailChimp offer free email management services for new users with limited options which can be upgraded if you get benefit from their services. Email Marketing Services ensures your messages reach out to your targeted audience.
Building an email subscriber list is advised here. As you can send your exclusive content like E-books, special offers and others to your mailing list whenever you want.
“Social networks are a terrific window into human behavior; you can judge what a niche responds to and market to it more effectively by watching for trends and interacting with influential people in the network.”
– Debra Mastaler, President, Alliance-Link
Social Media marketing
Spending a few hours online on social media can take your business to the maximum potential customers with no major financial investment.
Businesses that are active on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn get an upper hand than those who don’t use it. And many business owners have reported improved brand awareness and profits after regular efforts on SMM.
You can connect with your existing and potential customers on Facebook. Or seek quality feedback from them or judge their opinion before implementing further marketing strategies.
Develop location based marketing plan
Brand building happens when your customers get a memorable experience while using your product or services. As they get satisfied, they will provide reviews, ratings or even recommend your name to their social circle.
About 74 % adults are using location based apps which collects information like contact details, location and reviews about the local businesses, according to Pew Research Center.
You can take advantage of location based marketing for your business by making your pages on location based apps. This will boost your foot traffic, strengthen the customer loyalty, share exclusive discounts and improve conversions. Apps like Foursquare, Google Maps and Where can help you create your own brand’s page.
Incorporate these Digital Marketing techniques in your marketing strategy. Give it 3~4 months time and enjoy increased consumer engagement, more profits and brand awareness by almost spending nothing.