The problem faced by most SMEs, and especially growing SMEs, is that of communication and in particular the following problem: how to make your business known when you have a limited budget? In most cases, the budget for marketing and communication for an SME is quite small, and leaders are not sure how to take on the problem, as traditional media are often expensive and unsuitable.
We are talking about traditional marketing for everything related to print ads, whether in newspapers and magazines, or urban advertising, and television advertising, for example. These supports, while effective, are not at all suitable for the budget of a young SME and because of their short-term effectiveness, their impact can also be very complicated to manage for a small company. How then to compose a communication plan coherent with its means and its teams, without leaving in a communication "with the means of the edge" generally inefficient? The web is particularly adapted to this problem, and we give here some simple effective online marketing strategies to publicity for your business.
1. Create Your Business Website
The first thing to do if it is not already done is to create your business’s website. This will not only give your business visibility on the internet and a showcase for your customers but also take advantage of all the opportunities offered by web marketing. If you do not have the skills in-house, it will, of course, require a budget to develop this tool, but it is a necessary investment to make your business easily known.
In addition, do not hesitate to have an upstream reflection on all the aspects of your site, that it is at the graphics level, or the architecture and the navigation or its contents. In order to optimize your investment, it is a question of taking into account all the variables and all the opportunities which would make it possible to increase your visibility. Current features make it easy to set up an online store for example if your business is suitable for this type of business, so you can quickly make the investment costs incurred.
Do not forget to consider how important it is for your site to offer easy navigation on mobile devices via a responsive site or a dedicated mobile site for example. The mobile is really a track to dig because of its exponential growth in recent years and the opportunities it represents, especially for local shops.
2. Refine Your Target To Reduce Advertising Costs
Once your site is created and your marketing budget determined, one of the tips to put in place is that of the precise definition of your target. The more precise you are in determining your potential customers, the more you will be able to conduct highly targeted advertising campaigns, and thus more effective and less expensive. To do this, you can set up personas to accurately determine the profile of your prospects , their main characteristics to their purchasing behavior.
This step is all the more important as it will also serve you to plan adapted actions: communication on social networks, paid referencing, etc., but also within the framework of a strategy of loyalty of your customers. The more you know your target, the more weapons you'll have to fight with the competition, even on a tight budget.
3. Optimize Your Website And SEO
Having a website is not only a good way of presenting your business (albeit a must). It is also a very good way to be referenced on the search engines and thus reach your target quickly and more or less, free of charge.We talk about SEO to address SEO topics: indeed, a good optimization of your website is necessary for Google robots to spot you in the multitude of sites on the internet. And if you do not have a lot of budget, this is a very interesting way to stand out. You will first need to find the most appropriate keywords for your industry to integrate them on your site, whether in your content directly or in your meta tags. To do this, you'll be able to use a keyword planner that will help you find new ideas for queries that your prospects can type, and sort through your potential phrases and keywords based on competition over this.
Once you have put the right foundation for your SEO, you will be able to tackle the broader techniques of SEM more easily with including paid search campaigns on search engines or social networks. Do not hesitate to get help from SEO professionals or Fuel teams for this technical subject and essential for the success of your site. You will also find many resources on the blog that can help you understand the mechanisms of SEO. Click here for How to land free publicity for your business
4. Offer Quality Content
In connection with this SEO comes the importance of the content. Creating qualitative and consistent content is the most effective way to quickly advance your SEO. Internet users are fond of innovative content that responds to their problems. So do not miss this opportunity to stand out in your industry, especially if it's a niche sector.
In addition, content writing is a rather easy task to set up. If your budget is really small, just do it yourself or using your skills internally for example. It is always possible to outsource this task however, in order to free up your time, by hiring specialized editors or journalists who will allow you to have a certain regularity and to keep a certain seriousness in your publications.
5. Social Media Marketing
With your content, you can tackle social networks and there are many! Choose social media marketing that will be relevant to your business : for example LinkedIn if you operate in a B to B market or Facebook, Twitter or Instagram if you target the end consumer. Social networks are very powerful means of disseminating information, which can be relayed directly by users. Do not hesitate to make a publication plan to keep in regular contact with your audience , and to participate in discussion groups on topics that concern you. This type of action will have the advantage of increasing your visibility at the same time as your credibility in your field.
You can also develop small campaigns based on specific profile criteria, hence the interest of having precisely determined its targets. The more these criteria are restricted, the more the campaign will have a good ROI and a low cost. In addition, social networks have implemented systems cost per click or cost per print that will allow you to precisely manage your budget, by determining a daily budget for example to avoid any unpleasant surprises after the fact.
The most important thing for a company that has a small budget is to plan and especially to follow its budget rigorously throughout the year. Of course, you must be open to adjustments and opportunities (news, economic context, partnership opportunities, etc.), but it is also precisely by following your results and the performance of your actions that you will be able to make the best decisions regarding your communication. Because finally what would be worse for a company that wants to be known is to spend all its budget on the first few months or one or two unique campaigns, without offering a certain consistency in these actions. So do not hesitate to gather your teams and organize your year and its highlights to maximize your efforts and investments.
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