As a small business owner, you probably spend as little as 2% of your revenue on marketing. Are you envious of larger companies that spend 9-12% of their revenue on marketing? It would be marvelous to have an unlimited, or at least larger, marketing budget.
How can you do more with less?
How much should you spend on marketing? Well, there is no magic number because each business is different. But, we can share some great tips on how you can stretch your marketing budget to your grow revenue.
Know your business goals
Before you start any marketing, understand your goals. Review your data in Google Analytics, analyze your social media engagement, and survey customers to better understand where you should focus your efforts and spend your marketing dollars.
Build your marketing plan only after you’ve set your goals.
Employ social media
Using social media to promote your business is free. It just costs your time so take advantage of this avenue to reach hundreds of thousands of potential customers.
Do your homework first by researching which social media channels are best for your business. If all your customers are using Twitter, spending a lot of effort on Facebook will be a waste of your time.
Leverage great content
People love content but they hate seeing ads. That’s why content marketing is so popular.
Content marketing is storytelling. This is the content you share on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
This content doesn’t have to be written. Videos are a great way to create and share quality content.
Use PR (public relations) to build recognition
Another way to stretch your marketing budget is to utilize public relations. This means finding a way to get the media to write about your business.
Pitch your story to a reporter. Have a unique angle or start-up story to share.