Marketing is a crucial part of business. To turn in profits, you need to spread the word about your brand, and do this in the most effective way possible to attract and convert leads. If there’s also one problem many businesses face, its knowing where to look when cutting cost and maximizing their bottom line. To do this, you need to know how to make the best use of every dollar spent on marketing. And we’re ready to get you started. What follows is a dive into five reliable ways to save money on marketing and still turn in high numbers when balancing the sheet.
1. Think Outsourcing
Like any other part of business, successful marketing demands expertise, which calls for setting up a marketing team. But finding the right hires can be time consuming, and setting up the necessary infrastructure and training to maximize their potential can be costly. For many businesses, outsourcing is the way to go when taking on the marketing side of business. If nothing, outsourcing takes off the bulk of this task away from your business, allowing you to work with professionals or agencies with the expertise and experience to drive effective marketing campaigns. Since you don’t have to hire this team full-time, and would not be financing equipment and logistic demands, outsourcing allows you to get a perfect job done often at a lower cost than you’d invest maintaining an in-house team.
2. Double Down on What Works, and Cut Back on What Doesn’t
One of the most common mistakes businesses do is invest in multiple marketing strategies. While this is a good step when testing the waters, you want to keep track of your spend and figure out where you’re getting the most ROI. What social media platform is far and away your best marketing investment? Is your investment on ads yielding results? If so, what ads platform is the most powerful for your business? Answering these questions will let you know where to look and where to cut back your marketing spend without bordering on profits.
3. Try Out Alternative Marketing Strategies
Depending on your target market, you may also trial cheap marketing alternatives. This could mean designing and distributing flyers, or striking a deal with local businesses in a different niche to showcase poster ads for your business. Email marketing is another powerful, cost-effective way to go about marketing. According to a Campaign Monitor study, the time-proven strategy has the potential of returning $44 for every dollar you invest. All you need is an email marketing software for your subscribers and a professionally designed opt-in page. Done effectively, successful email marketing campaigns provide you direct access to customers that can be retargeted for future deals and promotions.
4. Influencers Work
The rise of social media has brought with it growing numbers of influencers – individuals who command a large following on social media platforms. An influencer can blur the divide between businesses and their target audience by stimulating buzz and creating awareness about a brand. Since they have a loyal base of followers, influencers in your industry stand can be very powerful in successfully promoting your business or service to your target market. Offering a freebie or trial of your product or service could be all that’s needed to get an influencer onboard your brand. While cost-effective, influencer marketing is another way to cut back on your marketing spend while optimizing customer reach and profits.
5. Costly Advertising Isn’t Savvy
In the past, TV and web ad platforms were the best marketing channels businesses turned to. But this is no longer the case, with newer, more immersive and cost-effective alternatives in their replacement. Many users are opting out of TV for streaming services, and the intrusive nature of ad has brought an increase in ad-blocking software. If you’re short on budget, looking elsewhere is what you want. Content marketing and video marketing remain powerful alternatives with the potential of long-term organic growth and better ROI on your marketing investment.
To Wrap Up
While central to the bottom line of all businesses, marketing doesn’t have to be astronomically expensive. Taking time to evaluate your current strategies can help. This could mean monitoring your spend and cutting back on the least viable platforms. Outsourcing marketing will significantly cut cost on setting up a marketing team, and avoiding costly advertising channels is what you want. Influencer marketing is another way to spread the word about your business without hitting hard on your budget. Changing consumer preferences make it all the more important to explore proven content and visual marketing strategies, which, combined with email marketing, will ensure you put you your best foot forward in every marketing spend. The payoff is increased traction to your business, more loyal customers and better ROI for less budget on your marketing spend.