For small businesses, managing a marketing budget takes fortitude and finesse. Moreover, marketing for small businesses can differ widely based on the type of business and its audience. Answers to questions like, “How much should I spend?”, “Where should I spend it?”, and “Which tactics provide the highest returns?” depend highly upon your unique situation.
While the answers are definitely out there, the time it takes to research, strategize, and manage your marketing strategies costs money, too. That’s why we’re sharing five simple and effective ways to save time and money on any small business’s marketing, including ThumbStopper’s powerful solution for social media.
1. Use Your Current Data
If you’re currently gathering data on your website and social media profiles, make sure you’re using it to the fullest. Tools like Google Analytics can give you incredible insight into your website, customers, and overall visibility. You can learn things like where your customers live, basic demographics of your customers, which devices they use, what pages they spend the most time on, how your site appears in web searches, and much, much more. Use this information to inform new, more effective marketing strategies.
2. Gather More Data
Consider gathering data beyond what Google Analytics can deliver. While that data is extremely valuable, it only provides data of what happens on your website and not necessarily what actually gets them on the hook. Start by tracking your current marketing tactics to determine what’s working, what’s not, where you’re seeing the highest engagement, and what’s flopping. Your social media metrics are a great way to acquire new information. More data will quickly help you eliminate tactics that have a low ROI or no ROI at all. You can also implement low-cost strategies like emails and surveys to get direct feedback from your customers. It’s important to remember though that just because a customer says the last thing they saw was your billboard doesn’t mean it’s the only thing that led them to you; the most effective marketing incorporates lots of little touchpoints with prospects that all work together to get them to take an action.
3. Define Your Target Audiences
For businesses, one of the biggest wastes of time and money is marketing to the wrong people. If they’re not interested or have no use for what you’re selling, they won’t engage with your business at all. But with clearly defined target audiences, you can reach the right people where they are instead of waiting for them to come to you.
You can narrow down specific audiences based on things like their:
- Location
- Interests
- Occupation
- Buying habits
- Browsing history
- And much more!
By having a defined target audience, you can ensure that any marketing that you may employ vendors or contractors to perform on your behalf is cohesive and accurate to who you’ve defined.
4. Create Referral Incentives
One of the best and most cost-effective marketing tactics is to create referral incentives. Tap into your own clients and customers and encourage them to spread the word about your business. In exchange, you can offer an incentive like discounted or free products and services. You can cultivate referrals through social media, responding to reviews, or word-of-mouth.
Pro tip: Another way to reach target audiences is through micro-influencers. Find people who fit within your target demographics and partner with them to promote your business. It’s not only incredibly effective; it costs little-to-no time or money, depending on the relationships you create. Consider giving a customer with a moderate social following a hat or t-shirt with your business’s name displayed on it, or letting them trial a new product to post about on their social account.
5. Automate Your Digital Marketing
When it comes to marketing for small businesses, it’s fairly typical for owners and employees to wear different hats, from customer service to marketing to bookkeeping and more. It’s no secret that this juggling takes up much valuable time that can be spent on the business itself. That’s why many small businesses turn to low-cost, automated solutions like ThumbStopper.
Our powerful turnkey social media solution automates your store’s social media feeds without you lifting a finger. We ensure that the quality of your content isn’t compromised, either, and it’s distributed in a way that makes sense for your business and the brands you sell. It’s a win-win solution.
Save Time and Money with ThumbStopper
At ThumbStopper, we understand that small business marketing needs to be affordable. That’s why, with our services, you can choose a plan that works best for your marketing budget. We’re not talking a huge investment up front with a lengthy contract you don’t understand. You simply pay based on the number of posts you want per week; depending on the brands you select, your subscription could be completely covered by the brands you sell.
The best part? You won’t just save time and money — you’ll actually see results. Other small businesses have experienced up to 10x customer growth and a 50% boost in in-store traffic. That’s what we call effective small business marketing, and our customers didn’t have to do any of the work to get there.
You focus on your business; we’ll do the rest of the heavy lifting. Get started today!
