Digital Marketing on a Budget
Posted: June 12, 2019 - By Kalena McElroyEach business has different goals and different budgets they are willing to allocate towards marketing. Whether looking to boost brand awareness, increase product sales, or engage with existing customers, it’s important to use marketing funds in the most efficient way to get the highest return on investment (ROI). Here are a few affordable marketing channels that are guaranteed to yield results for every budget.
Website
Don’t underestimate the power of your website. It’s where potential customers will look to make a decision about using your business and where they are likely to book an appointment. Your website should be engaging, informative and easy to navigate on both desktop and mobile.
The goal is to have website visitors convert into customers, by scheduling an appointment. One method is to attract visits to your website through pay-per-click advertising, where as the name suggests, you pay a fee every time your ad is clicked. A low cost but more time consuming alternative is to create a blog so people who are searching for related topics can find your business. This method is only useful if people can actually find your website. That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in.
SEO
Since most people don’t look past the first page of search engine results, it’s important to implement SEO best practices to improve your website’s rank. Organic search accounts for 51% of all website traffic, but with Google regularly updating its algorithm, SEO may seem too complex. Start by optimizing your website for mobile, avoiding duplicate content, building backlinks from high-ranking websites, and only publishing high-quality content. Also identify specific keywords that potential customers are searching for and try to use them naturally throughout your website and blog so you show up higher in the search results.
Email marketing
Email is often considered the most successful marketing channel because it has the highest ROI. For every $1 spent on email marketing, you can expect a return of around $44. But it’s not just ROI where email marketing shines, businesses have seen a conversion rate of up to 50% on some campaigns.
From persuading lost customers to return to keeping current customers engaged, email marketing can help you reach many of your business goals. To get the most out of your email campaigns, segment and personalize your messages. Segmented lists based on gender, location, appointment type, and other filters have been found to increase revenue by 760%.
Social media marketing
Facebook and Instagram both have over 1 billion users and since people spend an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes on social media each day, it’s an ideal place to catch potential customers’ attention. In addition to developing an appealing and consistent content strategy, businesses are also taking advantage of influencers and paid social media placements to gain exposure and engage with their followers.
With paid social advertising, you designate exactly how much you want to spend so there’s never a chance of going over budget. Unlike traditional marketing methods like print ads or television commercials, social sites let you designate your target audience based on gender, location, interests, and more so the right people see your ad.
Marketing is essential to success, but many businesses work with a very limited budget. Target these key digital marketing channels to get the most bang for your buck.
