2020 is shaping up to be a difficult year for businesses. Due to the fluctuating market, your company may have made budget cuts across several departments, including the marketing department. 

 

The good news is that there are multiple ways you can advertise on a tight budget in the third and fourth quarters of this year. Below, we have some great, cost-effective marketing ideas you can implement to increase brand visibility, drive new traffic to your website and engage customers with your products and services. Some of these methods are completely free, so keep reading to learn more. 

 

Read More Here: How to Position Your Brand Strategy to Meet Customer Needs During Coronavirus

1. Publish Good Content

Organic content marketing is a cost-effective marketing strategy that has a huge return on investment. It’s free for you to create and publish a blog on your website, and blogging is a great way to increase brand visibility, reach new customers and drive new traffic. 60% of consumers say that blog posts are valuable in the early stages of the buying process.

 

Of course, having a blog isn’t helpful if you’re publishing low-quality content. Your blog posts should be relevant, useful and educational. Content should address the needs and concerns your customers have and how your products and services can provide a solution. Blogging is an excellent way for your business to establish itself as an authority in the field and begin gaining customers’ trust.

 

Make sure you’re optimizing your blogs for SEO. There are tools available for you to conduct free keyword research to find out how customers are searching for your products and services. By crafting blog content around relevant keywords, you’ll increase your search engine rankings and attract a targeted audience who is already looking for what you offer.  

2. Maintain an Email List

Build and maintain an email list of current customers and leads. Sending regular emails and email newsletters is a thrifty and easy way to continue nurturing your relationship with existing customers — and retaining loyal customers is vastly more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Along with its relationship-building benefits, email marketing provides a lot of bang for its buck. It’s a highly effective marketing strategy that can drive a median return on investment of 122%. Your business has nothing to lose and everything to gain by promoting email campaigns.  

 

Make sure your emails and email newsletters contain content that’s relevant and useful. Send exclusive discounts and promotions, information about new or changing services or the latest blog post from your website. Mailchimp — an email marketing platform — has a free plan that allows you to store up to 2,000 contacts and generate 10,000 sends a month. It’s a great starting point for creating and sending campaigns, tracking the results and staying connected to your audience. 

3. Be Active on Social Media

Making business pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies you can employ — it’s 100% free. And social media is an amazing platform for increasing brand visibility, growing your audience, engaging with customers, connecting with other leaders in your industry and sharing information about your products and services. 

 

One of the perks of social media is that it provides so many opportunities for engagement. Be active on social: comment on and share posts from thought leaders in your field, join professional groups, use relevant #hashtags to find related audiences and be a part of trending conversations and reply to comments on your posts.

 

Again, like we’ve stated above, make sure your own social posts are relevant and useful to customers. If you have visual or interactive content — like videos or infographics — social media is a great place to share it. It’s also a great place to cross-promote your blogs for free!  

4. Provide a Valuable Resource  — for Free

Host an online webinar, teach a class or offer up an exclusive piece of content to customers — for free. Providing a free resource is a good way to generate interest around your business, build credibility as a thought leader in your field and engage with your target audience. 

 

Don’t use your platform to make a sales pitch for your products and services; instead, offer a resource that educates and provides value to your audience. For example, at NewGen Marketing, we could host a webinar demonstrating how small businesses can use SEO to increase brand visibility and generate quality leads.

 

If you host a webinar or class, make sure to utilize the time you have in front of your target audience. Encourage people to ask questions and share feedback, and ask for attendees’ contact information and email addresses so that you can establish a relationship moving forward.   

5. Be a Guest Contributor

Scour trade publications, industry websites and other thought leaders in your field for platforms where you can publish a guest post. Guest contributions place your brand in front of a new audience and give you the chance to demonstrate knowledge and credibility in your industry. 

 

Most likely, you’ll also be allowed to publish a short bio at the end of your post, where you can promote your business. And don’t forget to include a backlink to your website, so curious leads can easily learn more about you.  

6. Update Online Information

Make sure your contact information, business hours and website link are correct everywhere this information is posted online. That includes your website, online directories and online review sites. Up-to-date information ensures that potential customers can easily reach you if they’re interested in learning about your products and services.

 

Using Google My Business is a fantastic way to ensure that customers find you online. Under a GMB listing, you can share contact information, business hours, a brief description of your services and pictures. A verified GMB listing boosts your visibility in local search and Google Maps.  

7. Encourage User-Generated Content

Encourage your customers and followers on social media to be brand promoters. When a customer has a positive experience with your business, don’t be afraid to ask them to leave you a review online. Encourage followers to like and share your social media posts and refer you to their friends and family. You can incentivize customers by offering discounts or holding contests that are tied to customers promoting your brand in some way. 

 

Brand promoters matter. Not only do likes and shares from your followers expand your brand visibility to new audiences, but people trust what other people have to say about companies, products and services. Nowadays, customers are wary of traditional marketing tactics, but 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.  

Contact NewGen Marketing to Discuss Marketing and Sales Needs

NewGen Marketing is a marketing and sales agency that uses performance-driven strategies to grow your brand, generate quality leads and drive leads through a conversion funnel that results in sales. We use marketing metrics and data tracking to launch marketing campaigns and make real-time adjustments to optimize performance. You’ll know every step of the way where your marketing dollars are being spent to help drive more to your bottom line — and your ROI will reflect how effective performance-driven strategies are. 

 

Contact NewGen Marketing today and schedule a consultation to discuss marketing and sales strategies that will optimize your ROI.