Being on a tight budget is like having your arms tied behind your back. There are likely numerous tactics that you'd like to leverage, however you don't have the means to do so. It can be frustrating to marketers who are looking to scale their branding efforts. However, there are still ways to make a significant impact while being budget-conscious. The trick is to make smart investments, ones that will pay off in both the short and long term.
Rather than put all your dollars into one specific tactic, spread them out across numerous tactics to have the largest scale. Not only will you reach more individuals, but you'll be able to tailor future campaigns to the avenues that have the highest ROI. Below are three smart investments that can help you excel all while making the most of your marketing budget.
1. Strengthen Your Digital Footprint and Brand Visibility
A well-designed, aesthetically pleasing website is more than just a pretty landing page. It's an engaging way to capture your audience's attention, drawing them into your brand and generating conversions. First impressions really do matter here! A website that loads slowly or is challenging to navigate will only frustrate users. They may quickly hop off and go to one of your competitors instead.
Strengthening your digital footprint starts with having consistent, cohesive branding across all your channels. From your website to your social platforms to your e-newsletters, everything should exude your brand. The colors and logo should be the same as should the tone of voice and overall tone of the copy. Consistency establishes a sense of trust between your brand and your customers, a sense of reliability and predictability.
Alongside strengthening your footprint, you also want to increase your brand visibility. Be active on social media. This means responding to user's comments and engaging in their conversations. Amp up your SEO strategies, honing in on keywords that you can rank for.
Do research on what your competitors are targeting and look for how you can usurp some of these search results. These tactics don't necessarily eat up a lot of costs, but they can have a significant impact in terms of your brand's overall growth.
If you're feeling a bit lost on where to start, you may consider bringing in some expertise. A performance marketing agency can help you strategize how to best show up digitally, leaning into your brand's true strengths. In addition to assisting you with brainstorming ideas, an agency can also assist in executing these strategies. This will ensure you are using your marketing dollars wisely while staying attuned to your audience's needs.
2. Repurpose Content
Getting the most bang for your buck also looks like repurposing your content, whenever possible. You're already spending a lot of dedicated time and resources researching and publishing this high-quality content.
Repurposing it for different audience segments or even different platforms just makes the content go further. A blog post that lives on your page can be revamped into an infographic for social media. Creating an ebook on a particular subject matter from existing pieces of digital content is also considered repurposing.
Content repurposing, sometimes called content recycling, can even help your SEO. When you have several pieces of content focused on similar keywords, Google starts to recognize you as an authority. It also helps you scale, from both a content and audience perspective. You're producing more content with the same resources while reaching more consumers - a winning strategy!
To repurpose content most effectively, look at pieces that are already performing well and have therefore resonated most with your intended audiences. From there, think of additional ways for the content to be pushed out.
Perhaps you extract a few thought leadership quotes and use that as a discussion starter post on LinkedIn. Or maybe, you take a blog post and talk about it on a podcast episode for a more in-depth approach. Not all pieces of content can or should be repurposed, so don't try to replicate the original if it was already presented in its best form.
3. Partner With Micro-Influencers
Influencer marketing is here to stay. With more than 64 million influencer accounts worldwide, these individuals have a firm grasp on the social media sphere. The bigger influencers or celebrities of the world like Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner, or Dwayne Johnson come with a big price tag. However, influencers with smaller followings tend to be more attainable for many marketing teams.
Micro-influencers, who typically have anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 followers, are engaged with their communities. They know what their "sweet spot" is, per se, whether that is posting food content, fashion, wellness, or something else entirely. Because of this, your brand has a higher chance of resonating with the chosen influencer.
Ideally, you'd want to create a few partnerships with micro-influencers as opposed to one-off campaigns. Partnerships allow your brand to have a real presence with the influencer and their community. The more the influencer uses the brand, the more they will form a genuine connection with it.
In addition to sharing paid sponsored posts, they may also be sharing about it during their regular day-to-day stories. Be diligent with your influencer selection, ensuring that you're reaching your ideal target audience.
Takeaways
Just because you have a smaller budget doesn't mean that you can only afford to reach a small audience. With the right marketing strategy in place, you can optimize your efforts while also keeping a firm grip on your expenses.