5 affordable marketing ideas for small businesses 

Marketing doesn’t have to be a costly exercise

When budgets are tight, marketing might be one of the first expenses you look to cut. But stop right there!  

While traditional marketing and advertising methods can be costly, and seemingly impossible to track or measure, small businesses have never before had more access to cost-effective marketing solutions. And it’s all thanks to the digital world.

With so many marketing tools for small businesses to choose from, how do you know where to start? We’ve compiled our top marketing tips for small businesses on a budget:

1. Blogging

Blogging is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to promote your business. It can have a hugely rewarding impact on how your company ranks in Google and other search engines, helping to drive organic traffic to your website. Every time you write a blog, that’s one more indexed page on your site – which means one more opportunity to show up in search engines and drive potential customers to your site. The more you blog, the more traffic you’re likely to attract!

Blogging is a great way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your sector; Whether it’s a collection of top tips, a helpful review, informative tutorial or insightful countdown, write about the things that are interesting to your market and focus on topics that will add value to your readers’ lives.

Publishing a post regularly, even as little as once a week, will drastically improve your website’s visibility and help highlight the benefits of your brand to potential customers – building your credibility and educating your audience on why they should trust your company, product or service.

Interesting or helpful content will encourage readers to share what they see through other channels, such as social media – giving your brand even more recognition and exposure to new markets.

2. Email marketing

Communication is the secret ingredient to any successful relationship, and that includes customer relations. In a busy work environment, it can be difficult to maintain a tight communication plan. But, with research suggesting over 70% of adults prefer communication via email, this should be a critical part of your business strategy.

Make your emails helpful, informative and inspiring – something your contacts will look forward to receiving. This might include exclusive offers, discounts, or links to engaging insights and current industry news or trends.

Email Marketing is a free, simple and scalable way of keeping in touch with both new and existing customers; helping to maintain and strengthen business, keeping your brand front of mind.

3. Video marketing

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million! It’s thought that people will retain 95% of a message they see in a video, compared with just 10% when reading the same message in text form. Therefore, video really is one of the most powerful vehicles for marketing your brand.

With lots of affordable video editing software and stock footage on offer, as well as excellent camera capabilities on most smartphones and tablets, producing your own video content has never been so accessible.  From interviews and vlogs to instructional product guides and how-to’s, there are endless opportunities for creating rich and potentially viral content.

Deploy video on every platform to generate as many views as possible and extend brand exposure far and wide.

4. Live chat

As one of the most proactive tools in customer service today, live chat is a super-fast and inexpensive way of turning website visitors into customers. Putting live chat on web pages where visitors are likely to need assistance, or where there’s potential to convert, is a great way to keep site users happy and to make your service shine.

Though it may seem technical, adding live chat to your website is actually quite a simple process – and one your website designer or service provider will be able to help you within a matter of minutes.

5. Facebook boosts

Whilst huge advertising campaigns may be out of your budget, for now, Facebook boosted posts could be an option for your small business. Available to anyone with a business page, boosting a post on Facebook means paying to get your content seen by more people.

If you spend a lot of time creating content on Facebook, you may have noticed a decline in organic reach over recent years, making it much more of a challenge to get your content seen by the right people, at the right time. Boosted posts allow you to allocate a small amount of money to reaching a wider, targeted audience. In just a few clicks, you can set the parameters that best match your target audience, from a range of demographics such as geographic location, age, and specific interests.

This is a quick and effective way of getting your content in front of a bigger audience, beyond your existing page fans. Unlike other advertising tools, Facebook boost offers control and flexibility – allowing you to monitor and adapt your post’s progress along the way; ending it early if desired or extending your budget at any time to gain even greater results.

Introducing Moneypenny

Moneypenny is the UK’s leading Telephone Answering and Live Chat service provider, offering outsourced solutions for businesses of all sizes. Our range of services are particularly useful for sole traders and smaller businesses who understand the importance of a great first impression and the value of every new enquiry.

To find out how you will benefit from our amazing people and technology, take advantage of our free trial. Experience our full service for a whole week with no setup costs, no admin charges, and absolutely no ongoing commitment.  You have nothing to lose, contact Moneypenny today on 0333 202 1005.