SME owners could easily be excused for feeling envious of people running much larger firms. According to statistics shared by Website Magazine, while the average larger business pours about 9-12% of its revenue back into marketing, the average small business can end up spending just 2% on marketing.
However, while your SME might be at a financial disadvantage straight away, you can still utilise various clever tips and tricks for making the most of your marketing budget.
Make sure you have both data and goals
If you fail to set specific corporate goals, your financial expenditure could turn out to be rather inefficient. However, before you do set goals, you should be careful to define your target audience lest you market in a manner that doesn’t reach or resonate with your prospects.
While it would bode well for your business to be data-driven or at least data-informed, no amount of data will be useful for you if you are unsure how to use it wisely.
Make social media a key part of your promotional drive
The idea of engaging heavily in social media marketing is immediately attractive on the basis that social media can be used without requiring any upfront fee. You can also use social to post marketing content instantaneously, mine significant amounts of data, and generate leads.
Indeed, in a 2017 survey of marketers, 92% said that they deemed social media important to their business. Meanwhile, 78% revealed that, by using social media, they had increased traffic for their business.
Collaborate with other brands complementary to your own
The genius of this particular strategy is that it would enable you to offload at least some of the financial burden inevitably incurred with a marketing campaign for your business.
You also might not struggle to find willing would-be collaborators, as your brand isn’t just about your own company’s offerings — it’s also about the broader ecosystem surrounding them. This ecosystem will include products or services offered by companies other than your own.
Apply the Pareto Principle
As explained in an Entrepreneur article, the above is “also known as the 80/20 rule”, and is where you would “identify the top 20% of your traffic sources that generate 80% of good results”. You would then focus your budget on those most lucrative sources.
As further explained in the article: “Especially for smaller budgets, it is often times more effective to allocate it on the 10% that is generating 90% of results.”
Keep your brand seamless across various marketing channels
You might already be accustomed to delivering an ‘omnichannel’ experience, where you interact with customers via multiple channels. These can include a website, social media accounts, and physical stores run by your company.
As revealed by McKinsey research findings shared in a LinkedIn article, omnichannel shoppers buy 70% more frequently and spend 34% more compared to people shopping in stores.
However, you should make sure that your marketing messages are consistent across all promotional channels used by your business — as, otherwise, your brand value could be needlessly hampered.
