DIY Small Business Marketing

Congratulations. You’ve managed to get your business to where it is today, but you’re looking to take it to the next level. You’ve gotten by as of late with minimal marketing effort. However, you’ve reached the end of one market and feel the need to expand into other markets. You’re saying to yourself, “that sounds expensive and time-consuming.” So you decide to hit up Google for small business ideas relating to marketing. Ideally, you would want something affordable, and marketing should not break the bank. Well, there is good news, not only can we help you with our guides, but we also specialize in affordable digital marketing – so if you just want to skip the reading and hire us, that works too. Whether you want to pay us for the following work, well, that is your call. Our job is to guide you, not gouge you. Let’s say you want to do the work yourself. Here are some small business marketing ideas that are affordable.

You need, wait no, you MUST have a responsive website. If you have yet to establish a site, stop reading this and email us about our web design packages. A website is a must, and it needs to be responsive. Why responsive? A responsive site allows for the flexibility of users with varying operating systems and devices. It will enable all of your visitors to properly view your website regardless if they are on their phone or laptop. A simple site will be one of the more expensive costs, but we offer affordable builds with entirely custom designed interfaces to match your brand’s personality. The website for your business should provide your viewers, at a minimum, the basics of your product or service; it should ideally be your best salesman. Let’s say you’ve decided to have us build your website – we handle everything from migrating domains to hosting, and email account setups.

Ok, you got your shiny, new website up and running. The very next part you will have established is a social media platform. When developing your site, an aspect of social media integration will have been settled upon. This means your website will have links to all your social media accounts, quite possibly including a social media stream. But there is more to it; your social media is your most affordable small business marketing tool. As far as online marketing for a small business, this is cheap and should funnel leads. Social media management can be time-consuming, drafting, editing, and posting messages takes time, plus some creativity. We won’t even get into hashtags and their complexities. Everything is backed by data. Data is a HUGE business; with the ability to understand users and their actions, all of this will play into your social media strategy. Of course, you can create your material and throw it at the wall. You throw enough of anything, and eventually, something will stick. If you want more material to stick, we can also handle your social media postings. We post multiple messages, through several channels, each day. We monitor the action of our posts, analyze the data, and adjust our…stickiness.

Blogging should be a high priority for your business. It takes an hour out of your day to draft up a 300-word message to your audience. Let them know what’s going on with your business, give them insight, make them feel like they are in on the action. Content marketing is a big aspect of digital marketing. It helps build an audience, creating brand identity, and generates a ton of value – not only for you but your audience. We offer a content marketing solution for small businesses, designing infographics, blog material and more. The blogs are backed by heavy keyword usage, focusing on what your audience is searching and reading. With a strong emphasis on search engine optimization, each piece of content marketing is geared towards boosting your viewership.

Email marketing. A good email marketing campaign, depending on the industry, will have a 1-4 percent click rate. Meaning, of the 30(ish) percent of the recipients that opened your email, 1-4 percent clicked on the link to your website/promotion. That 1-4 is your potential lead. While the numbers seem low, 1-4 percent of 5000 is still 50 to 200 possible leads. Building a 5000 subscriber list is likely the hardest aspect. Yes, you can import your Salesforce contacts and so on and so forth (note: assuming you are following the CAN-SPAM Act laws, which you should!). Your website, as we mentioned earlier, should be your number one salesman. This pseudo salesman’s job is also to collect emails. With our website design coupled with our email marketing services, we can build a subscriber base that automatically syncs with your email campaign programs. Step one, website visitor reads your material and is intrigued. Step two, they see your subscriber sign-up form, they sign up. Step three, they sign-up and are entered into a specific list for your future email campaigns. We segregate each market so you can tailor your message. You now have that audience member geared up for future notifications. They are far more likely to open your emails, click, and ultimately…buy.

By now you are thinking, “this is gonna take some time, I never realized small business marketing was so complex.” Sure it takes time, and you will need to know, how to analyze the data, set up the platforms, as well curate, and create material, but that’s why you hire services like us. We take the pain and suffering out of marketing. And let’s be honest, we are more affordable than your big advertising shop, and we offer comparable services. You will feel like you are part of the team, and we will feel like we are part of your team. It’s a new age, feel free to embrace the era of the DIY marketer. We just hope we can help.

Derek Brusin

I am the one who likes cupcakes.

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