Marketing Budget Tips 101: Balling On A Budget

Maximizing your marketing dollars can mean the difference between breaking even with your ROI and hitting a 3X ROI! As marketers, we’re always looking to make the most of our marketing budgets without breaking the bank. That is often easier said than done. There are so many different platforms to advertise on and all of them come with their own costs. Even DO-It-Yourself marketing tactics, like planning and shooting your own videos or designing custom social media graphics, often requires paying an editor. As a small business owner, you know you need to spend money on marketing to make money, but you still want to be sure you’re prioritizing the right marketing mediums. Where do you start?

The marketing consultants at JSL Marketing & Web Design have got you covered! Read the rest of this blog post to learn ….

• Which Marketing Mediums To Start With
• How To Decide Where To Spend Money
• What Client Testimonials Can Do For Your Brand
• How To Get Free Word-Of-Mouth Promotion
• And More!

Read On To Learn How To Maximize Your Marketing Budget

Marketing Budget Tip 1: Go Back To Basics

If budget wasn’t an issue, it’d be great to run broadcast television ads, paid ad campaigns, and billboard advertising 24/7, 365. However, most of us have marketing budgets to adhere to. It’s not that these marketing tactics aren’t useful. It just means that you have more pressing concerns to deal with and you don’t want to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars.

As a rule, we recommend starting with a functional website, a clean logo, and a properly-optimized Google listing. Most small businesses will see better results if they focus their marketing efforts on web design and local SEO before they start running paid ad campaigns. Again, there is a time for a smaller business to look at utilizing advertising in their marketing plan, but this typically comes after nailing the fundamentals.

If paid ads and broadcast ads are the slam dunk and three-pointer of the marketing world, think of web design and SEO as the dribble and bounce pass of marketing. You would never consider starting with the 3-pointer when coaching an elementary basketball team, especially if most kids couldn’t properly dribble. In the same way, focusing on shiny ad slots and pay-per-click ad campaigns if your website doesn’t load properly is a mistake. SEO and web design tend to be some of the most cost-effective ways of growing your business, so most businesses will see a better ROI by revamping their listing and website before they move on to broadcast advertising. Get the basics down pat and then expand.

Marketing Budget Tip 2: A/B Test & Prioritize High Performers

You’d be surprised how many marketers don’t actually test their ideas out in the “real world.” Eliminating underperforming content, videos, and calls to action from your marketing channels won’t reduce cost, but it can absolutely raise your return on investment, and that’s just as good, in our opinion.

Marketing Budget Tip 3: Repurpose Content

This recommendation comes with a caveat; only repurpose when it makes sense. The ad copy that you use on your website can’t just be copied and pasted onto social media, given how different social media is from the web. Still, there are occasionally use cases where you can repurpose a piece of content from one medium to another. For instance, a well-written blog piece for your website can be truncated down for email marketing in a few minutes and often with great results.

Video marketing is another great example of this. A well-designed and edited promotional video can often be repurposed on web pages, in email blasts, and on social media. If the video is 30 seconds or under, it might not even need editing from one platform to another!

Marketing Budget Tip 4: Start A Refer A Friend Program

Turning to your established customers to help promote your brand is an amazing strategy. For one, it incentivizes you to find and work with your most loyal customers, which is never a bad business strategy. After all, they’re driving the majority of your business, so a little extra time interfacing with happy clients is a good play. In that same vein, asking your clients to promote your brand is often the best form of marketing. Prospective clients are skeptical of marketing materials and often require some form of social proof to commit.

The average American sees over 2,000 ads in a day and that means that you often need to prove that you’re the real deal prior to getting a sale. Asking your clients to refer friends in exchange for a gift card or discounted rate means that your best clients are singing your praises to their friends and family. Since people are statistically likely to trust the recommendation of their friends and families, your Refer-A-Friend program is one of your most effective AND low-cost ways of gaining new business.

Marketing Budget Tip 5: Get Testimonials From Your Existing Clients:

Your current clients are an untapped goldmine of content. If you don’t have unlimited funds, turn to your clients for testimonials! If you’ve built strong and resilient relationships with your clients, they’re more than likely thrilled to share! Their testimonials will resonate with prospective clients more than if you wrote your promotional materials and the best part is that they’re doing the heavy lifting! We would recommend trying to get a video recording of the testimonial if you can. The video may require some basic video editing before promotion, but the personal touch and visualization will have a greater impact on your prospective client. Still, if you can’t get a video for social media or your website, a written review for email marketing, your website, or social media is just fine!

Marketing Budget Tip 6: Only Use Your Funds Strategically

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. It was true when your mom told it to you as a child and it’s true now with your marketing budget. If you’re looking to grow your business, you might think that you need to be wherever your customers are. In a perfect world, yes, you’d love to have the dollars to run complementary campaigns on social media, broadcast TV, and in print media. However, if you have a set marketing budget, it often makes more sense to exclude certain mediums and focus on where you see the best results.

We encourage you to keep your industry in mind. For instance, print marketing materials can be a great marketing tactic for a medical specialist’s office looking to gain referrals from primary care practitioners. These properly branded and educational materials are great to leave at a doctor’s office to help build referral marketing streams. That approach, however, might not be conducive for a quick-service restaurant. A restaurant owner will probably be better served investing their funds into web design and SEO. There might not ever be a reason to ever use print marketing to promote a restaurant and that’s fine. If focusing marketing budgets where they’ll have the most impact is working, that’s A-Ok!

This strategic selection paradigm applies to a variety of marketing tactics., from defining your ideal customer profile to the creative design you design. Oftentimes, spending a little more on the right marketing, whether it’s creative, research, or branding, is more effective than developing haphazard marketing. Make sure you’re incorporating time to properly research and plan into every marketing campaign for the best results!

Consult With JSL For Your Marketing Budget Needs

Are you looking for a consultation on how to effectively use your marketing budget? JSL Marketing & Web Design is here for your marketing needs! Your business is unique. Make sure that you’re getting the best, customized marketing strategy to maximize your marketing budget.

We offer a variety of services to help your marketing efforts.

• Market Research: Learn about the competition.
• Budget Recommendations: We offer customized media recommendations to help you make the most of your hard-earned marketing dollars!
• Logo Design: Maximize your brand dress!
• SEO Strategy: Figure out which keywords will help you reach your audience.
• Brand Messaging Advice: Develop the perfect ad copy and brand pitch for your specific audience.

Call JSL Marketing & Web Design To Learn More!