(Newswire.net — June 5, 2017) — Our last article about the 10 reasons why small business owners should think big revealed so much about the nature of today’s market. The market we’re facing today allows small businesses to compete against larger corporations, gain access to the same set of opportunities, and have every chance of succeeding with the right strategies in hand. All of these are part of the reason why thinking big is a must, especially if – as a small business owner – you are serious about taking your business to new heights.
In reality, however, there are barriers and challenges to overcome. Aside from limited resources and fierce competition, there is also the challenge of having a tight budget. Not all small businesses can afford to spend a lot of money on marketing and advertising to increase their brands’ exposure. Fortunately, there are other, more creative ways to reach a highly targeted online audience, even when you’re on a very tight budget.
Have Clear Goals and Strategies
Internet marketing is your best friend as a business owner. Over 80% of today’s customers search for information about products and services online. Thanks to instruments such as local SEO and social media, even small businesses catering to local markets can take advantage of internet marketing to reach new customers.
The biggest cost of doing internet marketing is actually the mistakes you make along the way. Bad targeting when placing ads, keyword stuffing for SEO purposes, and other common mistakes are still seen in many small business internet marketing campaigns. While the total budget remains the same, making these mistakes severely lowers the return on investment ROI of internet marketing campaigns.
There are two things you can do to avoid making these costly mistakes. First, you need to define a clear set of goals to achieve. This means figuring out the particular target audience you want to reach and the number of new customers you want visiting the online storefront or brick-and-mortar establishment. At the same time, you need to formulate strategies that are in line with these goals you’re trying to achieve.
Develop a Strong Personal Brand
Aside from doing internet marketing for your business, it is also necessary to develop a strong personal brand. As a business owner, you need to be the face of your brand for it to have deeper, more personal connections with the audience. It may be difficult for the audience to relate to your brand or the business, but hearing stories about how you transform simple ideas into products they can now purchase will certainly help them connect better with you as a business owner.
Isn’t developing a personal brand counterintuitive for the company? Won’t the two efforts cancel each other? Not at all. Entrepreneur Sam Ovens confirmed in a recent talk that having a strong personal brand alongside the main brand of the business is actually a positive thing.
“If people know and trust you and your personal brand, they’re more likely to trust your new business,” said Ovens in an interview with Entrepreneur. The more people trust you, the more they will trust the products and services you offer through your business.
Invest More Time
Internet marketing is always about finding balance between investing time and money. You can have a team of content marketing experts working around the clock to produce and push valuable content, or you can choose to master the art of writing great articles yourself and invest more time. This is among the best solutions to budget limitations.
When you can’t afford to invest more money into your internet marketing efforts, invest more time. Do most of the social media campaigning yourself. Learn to produce your own content and take advantage of the different tools and resources to help push better, more targeted ads that work.
With these creative strategies in mind, you will have no trouble at all reaching the right audience group with an effective campaign. You will get a much higher ROI from your internet marketing efforts while keeping them well within budget the whole time.