Launching a small business marketing campaign requires proper allocation of your working capital. As economic uncertainty rises, small business owners need to optimize the investment in their small business marketing campaign to make sure every penny is well spent.
A slim majority of small business owners are optimistic about their future prospects for growth, however, they have this tempered with a healthy dose of skepticism. According to the spring 2016 Bank of America Small Business Owner Report, 51 percent of owners anticipate rising revenues during the next year. This is down from the 63 percent who expressed confidence in their growth prospects last year.
With owners’ confidence balancing on a knife edge, now is the perfect time to launch a strategic small business marketing campaign to spread brand awareness, generate new leads and ultimately grow your business. However, the creeping uncertainty about future growth possibilities may make some owners apprehensive about doling out a substantial sum of working capital for a robust campaign. Thankfully, by stretching a small initial investment and strategically allocating resources in cost-effective ways, you can extend the life of your small business marketing campaign.
Conduct an email campaign
Crafting a well-designed and informative email marketing campaign can be a great way to engage customers at a fraction of the cost of traditional outreach methods. In addition to this being a great way to connect with the public, email marketing campaigns, with their low costs and big ROI, can drive sales and really boost your revenue stream. When properly utilized, email marketing can potentially generate $38 in ROI for every $1 spent on the strategy, Campaign Monitor noted. This return outpaces affiliate, paid search, and display marketing techniques.
Despite their high returns, these campaigns have a tendency to create an immediate surge and then sputter out quickly. Recipients of the email read the message (if they read it at all) and then move on. Even if somebody saves it for later, the email can get buried under a pile of other messages and quickly relegated to the bottom of the inbox.
A good way to prolong the life of your email marketing campaign is to create a hosted version. As noted by VerticalResponse, this is simply posting the original email document to a webpage. Many Email Service Providers provide their users with a way to insert a link created from the email. You can then share this hosted page on your various social media channels to extend and even expand the life of your email marketing campaign.
Post “evergreen” content
Creating original content for your website and posting it regularly is a great way to drive search traffic and generate leads. While regularly uploading relevant and topical information shows your customers and peers you’re on your game and keeping a finger on the pulse of your industry, this too can quickly fade into the ether of the internet once people move on to newer topics.
You can remedy this short shelf life by creating and posting “evergreen” content. These are articles and infographics that visitors to your website can read at any time and still find the information useful and actionable. Depending on what industry you operate in, this may vary. Some good examples are Top Five lists or tips relating to your products. Carefully choose content that you know won’t be irrelevant in a month, a year, or even a decade if you can. This prolongs the shelf life of the collateral on your website and ensures this investment continues to provide value long after you post it.
Take advantage of a small business loan
No matter how much money you allocate to your marketing budget, you could always use more. Whether it’s a little extra cash to spend on conducting an industry survey and analyzing the data or additional money to invest in building a new website, every extra dollar provides you with a greater chance to cast a wider marketing net and attract more potential customers.
A small business loan from an alternative lender can be just the solution you need. Instead of compiling a mountain of documents to give to a traditional big bank during the loan application process and then waiting months to hear whether you were approved, obtaining financing from an alternative lender is quick and easy, with many applications approved in 24 hours.
