Maximizing Your Marketing Campaign on a Minimal Budget

Whether you're one of the big brands or a startup, coming up with an effective marketing campaign is tough. It seems like every innovation has already been done and rehashed a hundred times; customers glaze over ads, tweets, and sponsored Facebook posts with no thought. Because there are so many options when it comes to marketing, you must decide which approach will be most helpful to your cause. This is even more important when you're trying to figure out how to market your business on a small budget. You can start off by asking yourself three key questions.

Who Am I Trying to Reach?

Your target audience goes hand-in-hand with your campaign's objective. If you are attempting to generate more buzz on your site and increase organic traffic, then going broad with your approach might be the better choice. If gaining new leads and actual conversions is what you're after, then consider narrowing your focus to a specific group most likely to do that. Aren't sure who your ideal target audience is? Try crafting a buyer's persona with information you already have. For example, an online retailers that gets cash for phones or who sells Iphone 6 models might need to market to a younger audience than they expect. Look into age, job and other factors while drafting a strategy.

PPC or SEO?

While both can be effective in a marketing campaign, you're going to drain your resources and wind up with poor results if you try and squeeze both into a limited budget. PPC (pay-per-click) advertising is guaranteed to get your site seen, but it's also costly over time and, if it doesn't achieve what you wanted, you wind up with no money left and nothing to show for it. PPC is best for businesses with a specific goal and a site that is ready to convert viewers. 

SEO, on the other hand, stands for "search engine optimization" and can completely revolutionize your brand's image. You can learn about SEO yourself through various online sources like Hubspot and Moz, but the best way to optimize your site for worthwhile results. SEO might be worth your money if you want long-term results such as greater brand recognition, but it can take several months before you start to notice any significant changes. It's also not ideal for businesses that do not already have a well-designed site capable of converting visitors. 

What's Most Sustainable?

When you launch a marketing campaign, you must consider the repercussions. You have to ensure that the results you leverage are not going to be fleeting. For example, if you pay for a $500 PPC campaign and it results in a strong demand for a particular product or service that you can't continually afford, then it isn't worth your time. Likewise, if all your money is spent redesigning your site to make it SEO-friendly but you can't pay for new content to continually publish, then you're also out of luck. The best way to market a business on a budget is to set a realistic goal focused on a specific timeframe, e.g. get 100 new Facebook likes in two weeks. When you set a clearly defined goal, it becomes much easier to figure out exactly what type of person is likely to help you reach it, and you are then able to choose a marketing technique that has the highest chance of reaching them.

Start small, allocate a portion of your revenue from each campaign to a newer, slightly more ambitious one, and soon, you'll build a business with a strong identity that can keep its current client base happy while still attracting new leads. Marketing it all about knowing your customers, and when you can get them in line with your business the rest is easy.