Start Measuring What's Working
You should already be measuring the outcomes of your different marketing methods. If you're not already doing this, you have bigger problems than how much you're spending. You need to know what works and what's not successful if you want to cut back on your budget. However, it can be tough if everything you're currently doing is bringing in revenue. The important thing to remember is that the boost to your business is only worth it if it helps you make more money than you spend. So as well as looking at how your marketing is benefiting your business, you need to know how much it costs per key performance indicator.
Compare Outsourced Services
Outsourcing some of your marketing is an excellent way to save both money and time. However, if you choose the wrong service, you could end up spending much more than you need to. Before you decide who to work with, you need to know what's out there and how they can help you. You could pay a lot of money for a full-service outsourcing company. Or you could keep your spend lower with a firm such as Low Cost SEO. Don't simply choose the first service you come across that you think could help you. It's also important to consider what you should outsource. What can you do in-house for less and with results that are as good or perhaps better? You might outsource your full SEO efforts. However, you could also stick to outsourcing content.
Make the Most of Free and Inexpensive Marketing Methods
No marketing channel is completely free, since they take time to maintain. However, there are some that won't cost you anything to use. Others are inexpensive because you can avoid paying a lot for the tools you need. For example, there are many ways to use social media for free. Of course, you can have more success if you're willing to pay for promoted posts. You can still see lots of activity from free actions, though. For example, providing customer advice on Twitter or starting a conversation on Facebook helps. Email marketing can be inexpensive too, depending on how you do it. You might need to use a mailing client and put together graphics and copy for your emails. However, it doesn't have to be very expensive.Make Your Campaigns More Focused
You should be familiar with your target market and what they want from you. Now think about how many of the people who see your marketing fall into that group. It could be that a large amount of people seeing your message don't care about it. Is it worth paying for eight people who don't care to see your advert, just to reach the two that do care? Sometimes it is, but not all the time. You should consider if you can make your campaigns more targeted. Do your Google Adwords ads need to be shown to people around the world? Or can you focus them on those in your country? There's no point wasting money on advertising to the wrong people.
Focus on Existing Clients
Marketing to your existing clients can be cheaper and easier than bringing in new ones. Not only will they stick around, but they might recommend you to other people too. There are many ways you can show them you appreciate them. You can give them exclusive special offers and promotions through your mailing list. You could choose to set up a loyalty program that allows them to collect points they can redeem. It can cost a lot less to get an existing customer to make another purchase than to convince someone new to make their first one.Some experts caution not to reduce your marketing spend in hard times. But sometimes you have to get your budget under control, even when things are going well.
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