Kevin and I recently did our third Facebook Live, which we’re going to be doing every other Wednesday at 7pm CST (shameless plug), and the topic this time around was “Marketing on a Budget” for small business. What types of things you need to focus on if you don’t have a big marketing budget or a marketing budget at all.
This can be a hard topic for small businesses. Trying and finding the balance between money and time when it comes to your marketing efforts is something even the most seasoned business owners struggle to find. We did our best to take both of those factors into account and talk more about how to get the biggest bang for your marketing buck.
Social Media
Social media shouldn’t be a new subject to you, but social media can get a bad wrap for either being too expensive or taking up too much time. We’re here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way.
Organic Social Media
You’re able to post on social media for free. Whatttt? That’s right, 100% free. How about that for marketing on a budget? Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, whatever fits your business.
The hardest part about social media is the learning curve, and when we as people don’t understand things we tend to overcomplicate them. Social media isn’t as hard as most business owners think.
Being authentic and consistent are the keys to winning on social media.
Kevin actually created a guide called, Simplifying Social Media: A Small Business Guide. If you’re looking to take your social media game up a notch, I recommend checking this out.
Social Media Ads
Now I’m sure you’re going to think right away about how we can throw paid advertising into the mix when we’re talking about marketing on a budget.
Even the smallest amount of paid ads on Facebook and Instagram specifically can make a huge difference. I’m talking 5 dollars a post if that’s all you can afford.
The key here is to pick the right posts and to not let Facebook pick your audience. Take the 5 minutes and learn how to “boost” a post the right way. Once again, Kevin was smart enough to create a short guide on How to Boost a Facebook Post the Right Way!
Affordable Gear to Create Content
A common excuse we hear is that you (as the small business owner) don’t have the right gear to create content like other people out there.
Before you go on with that thought, check out this 30-second commercial from Koss Headphones that was made on an iPhone.
You have exactly what you need to start creating awesome content right in your pocket! Is there some gear out there that will help? Absolutely! For example here are a few of the “must-haves” that we recommend:
Some type of lighting (ring light)
Lighting is one of the things that can be easily improved. We’re not talking about anything crazy either. The ring light listed above is only 25 dollars on Amazon.
External microphone (clip-on or attached)
Audio is another quick, cheap fix by adding an external microphone. Depending on exactly what you’ll be recording, I linked a couple of under 25 dollar options also available on Amazon.
Tripod (phone tripod)
Stabilization is our final content creation quick tip. Again it’s very affordable and smart to add a phone tripod to your content creation setup. You can use it for recording video, taking still pictures, or to help you smoothly rotate while recording! Again under 25 dollars!
Search Engine Optimization
While SEO can seem very overwhelming to people who don’t usually work on websites, the smallest changes can make a big difference. Here are a few quick tips:
Google My Business
If you don’t have a GMB page yet or if your page isn’t completely optimized, you need to add this to your to-do list.
Google My Business can be a huge driver of traffic, leads, and clients if you make sure that it’s up, completed, and updated regularly.
Another task that is so important that we created a guide for! Google My Business: How to List and Optimize. If you don’t have a GMB page yet, I’d definitely check this out to help you out!
Website & Page Titles
Making sure people can find your website online starts with making sure your website and pages are titled correctly.
By default, most websites will give your page titles like “About” or “Services”, where a title like “Marketing Services For Small Businesses” is a much better title. You want to make sure you’re specific and think about what keywords you want people to find you for.
Website & Page Descriptions
After fixing up your titles, comes the descriptions (Meta descriptions for the more technical term).
By default, most websites will give your page descriptions that match the beginning of the content that’s on your page, and this might work for you, but we still highly recommend changing this up to be more specific and with the thought about keywords.
*If any of the words or anything in the SEO section didn’t make sense, we (believe it or not) created a Beginners Guide to SEO. SEO is definitely the most technical out of the recommendations that we’ve given, so feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
Well, there you have it! Our top suggestions to help out if you’re marketing on a budget.
