As businesses plan for a “new normal,” the first thing they’re reviewing is quarterly budgets. In these tough economic times, there are sure to be some deep cuts in spending. What companies often struggle with is how far to cut back on their marketing allocation. In the case of small businesses, marketing is crucial. It’s the lifeline building their brand awareness.
What do you do before reallocating your budget? First, you need to analyze the market and what you can do within your own team bandwidth. Make no mistake, social media is a game-changer for brands. Having an enticing and professional feed is very important in establishing trust and potential sales; not to mention, it’s free to build up organically.
Make sure that best practices are a top priority, such as streamlined messaging, quality images, engaging content and conversation (and no bots). Remember, your followers are your community. They can either unfollow or become the best advocates your brand could hope for.
Some brands turn to professionals outside of their business to help them develop a social media strategy. (A number of companies, my own included, offer these types of services.) But what can you do when hiring a third-party team isn’t an option? In this digital age, you have more options than past turbulent economies. It will take some work, but there are some very effective ways you can communicate your brand strategy on a shoestring budget. Here are five options to consider:
Get press for your brand.
There’s a metaphor that states your website/marketing material is your resume, and media press is your reference page. Having press coverage serves a critical part of the consumer decision-making process. These third-party endorsements aid customers during their natural “research process.”
When you stop and think about it, this is an opportune time to receive media buzz. In times of a crisis, people refer to news outlets to become informed. You might not have it in your budget to hire a public relations firm to do this for you, so reach out to your local magazines, bloggers and radio and tv stations as an alternative to see if they would be interested in supporting one of their local brands and entrepreneurs.
After working with PR experts for many years, here’s one key piece of advice: Pitch your brand as a timely and relevant resource to their newsworthy coverage, and make sure you do so thoughtfully and with empathy given today’s challenging times. Give them a compelling reason to focus on your business.
Build your online presence through blogs.
Blogs not only build your expertise and credibility but also expand your community. To drive traffic to your site, however, you want to make sure your blogs are optimized. Search engine optimization takes expertise and know-how, but Google offers a free resource within its SEO Starter Guide so you can begin to learn how to improve your search rankings on your own.
Beyond Google’s suggestions, remember: It’s your content that’s most important. People need to find value in what they read on your website and view you as an expert. Think about it this way — Google and other search engines thrive on finding answers and feeding information to consumer questions. Your blogs should also follow this model.
Implement a call-to-action campaign.
A strong social media presence comes in handy for a well-executed campaign in the digital age. Calls to action are key, and you can use them to entice your community to take action with a reward in sight via sharing or posting, for example. They can be a very cost-effective way to increase your following and return on investment by simply providing a product.
The more people who have your product in hand, the better, but there’s one more benefit that brands often forget about: When you create that call to action to buy, post and share your product, you’re creating user-generated content to further boost your brand awareness. Add hashtags to your campaigns to increase and track your social engagement.
Focus on a socially responsible brand message.
Many people are passionate about supporting a charitable cause, especially millennials and Generation Z audiences. Offer a give-back scenario. A “buy one, give one” via donation is a quick and easy way to turn interest into a sale.
Perhaps you want to focus on selling something specific within your inventory. Donate a percentage of product proceeds to a worthy cause. With people going through tough times right now, consumers are paying attention to businesses helping those in need.
Opt for social and paid search ads.
This last option takes some investment, but ads are a relatively surefire way to grow your following, as well as ROI, if done properly. Right now might seem like a time to cut paid ads out of your budget, but you might find this is the perfect marketing channel for money well-spent. With more people watching TV and scrolling on their phones, paid search and social ads are having a much higher impact. Before you make this investment, plan carefully and make sure you have a voice that will captivate this audience.
The Bottom Line
Cutting back your marketing budget doesn’t mean you’re out of resources to communicate your brand. Will it take time and effort? Of course it will, but it’s not impossible. The more you implement the strategies above, the better chance you’ll have of surviving difficult times and thriving through the good ones. The longer you’re in business implementing these strategies, the bigger expert you’ll become in the marketing that works best for you.
