As a small business, it’s important to make every cent of your marketing budget count. So, where’s the best place to put your funds?
First up, it’s important to ensure you know how much time you’re going to spend on marketing. And what your goals are. No idea? We can help with that. Then, make sure that you’re consistently allocating time and energy into improving your brand and online visibility week on week. Time is the most important resource you can inject into marketing. When that’s sorted - here are the top 5 things I recommend you invest in across your marketing budget whether it’s $1000 or $10,000.
1. Professional Small Business Marketing Consulting or Advice (15%)
This is a no brainer. If you don’t understand marketing, make sure you engage a marketing professional to show you where the easy wins are for your business every 2 or so years. With current customised advice, you’ll have clarity over your focus and where to spend your energy and time to run your marketing program and get the most out of your budget.
2. Targeted Digital Advertising (35%)
The best ROI hands down will come through digital advertising. Learn how to do it yourself or invest in someone professional to do the setup. Then you can take the reins and improve your performance using the insights month on month. Start low budget and scale up when you’ve learned enough to feel more confident.
3. SEO (20%)
We love SEO because we are geeks and improving it long term through strategic content development gives you control over reaching the right audience. As a small business owner it’s a great way to build your audience online and consistently grow your online traffic and get in front of your audience.
4. Targeted Campaigns (20%)
Create a list of your ideal clients or customers. Find out where they are at and create a specific campaign that is personalised for them. traditional snail mail is going to be more effective than another bloody email these days so consider going old school and sending them flyer you design on Canva and make sure you get a business representative to follow up via the phone.
5. Social Media (10%)
Invest some money each year on brushing up your skills to stay on top of the social media marketing game. The Digital Picnic are Melbourne-based and are amazing at training small businesses to help you stay on top of the trends and use social media to market your business in an engaging way that helps you reach your goals.
Wondering why email marketing isn’t on here? Have you noticed how full your inbox is these days? The read rates are dropping. Yes, use your list and collect details and send important updates but try and personalise this as much as possible.
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Who’s the author?
Gemma Saltmarsh is a Small Business Marketing Strategist and Online Consultant based near Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. She’s worked with small business clients Australia wide for over 10 years to help them ace their marketing efforts and propel their business forward.
What’s the business?
Salt Brands and Marketing offers marketing with spark on small business budgets to businesses Australia-wide. They offer online marketing consulting, small business marketing plans and strategy and marketing service packages covering social media, digital advertising, SEO and web design to help small business owners improve their marketing and make it feel easier.
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