Marketing on a Small Budget

What can you do with a small budget? You have a small business and know you need to do some marketing. How do you decide what to spend? For starters, you can take your gross sales and multiply by about 5-8%. See what that number comes to. Then start with your priorities.

1. Take a look at your branding and logo. Is it clean or could it use some updating?
2. How is your website? Google analytics takes a look at how often you refresh your content. Is your content up-to-date? How’s the design? If you built your website 3 or more years ago, chances are it could use a refresh.
3. Marketing Material. Do you have a good selling brochure, business cards, flyers, postcards. Do they currently reflect the look and feel of your business. Do they contain links to your facebook page, twitter etc.?
4. Social Media. Have you started developing a social media community around your brand? Should you dedicate more resources to Facebook or Twitter?
5. Have you been relying too much on social media and your website? Should you consider reaching out to new customers via traditional print advertising or a postcard mailing. You can use these tactics not only to bring in more customers, but to introduce your social media and get more “likes” or followers.
6. Buy mailing lists from organizations like infousa. The prices are reasonable and the lists are reliable. Choose the area you’d like to reach and then hone in on the specific demographics of your ideal customer.
7. Professionally design your mailing postcard and don’t forget to include a call to action, or an incentive. I usually like a high value offer that expires in a short amount of time.
8. Have you completely forgotten about advertising? A consistent message in a small local paper works. There are local papers, for example, in my neighborhood that can cost as little as $50 per week. The key is consistency. Putting one ad in occasionally probably will not bring you business, but an ad every week for a few weeks at a time throughout the year will keep your business in front of potential customers.

You would be surprised how $5,000-$10,000 a year can grow your small local business. Planning and planning ahead are the keys.