By Laura Rives — May 28, 2020 11:00 AM
These trying times have delivered a big challenge to marketers around the world. We’ve been tasked with increasing awareness, reducing churn, and onboarding new customers—all while budgets are shrinking.
It’s time to step up, think critically, and get creative so we can achieve our goals, regardless of external circumstances.
We’ve compiled a list of faster, more cost-effective marketing strategies to help dollars and effort go further. While none of these are technically free because time = money, you should experience some quick wins with nominal financial investment.
Actively engage on social media. Never underestimate the power of a one-to-one conversation. Set aside time each week to respond to commenters, talk to your fans, and engage with thought leadership material from other brands. You might also consider a partnership with a social media influencer.
Create more content. Generate helpful blog posts for your readers. Guest blog on industry publications. Comment and like blog posts that are relevant to your target segments. Solicit user-generated content for fresh and engaging material.
Expand your email marketing efforts. Email marketing is an inexpensive and effective digital strategy. In fact, it’s been widely reported that email marketing generates the highest level of ROI among all digital marketing tactics. Remember to keep your list clean and targeted—perform some list hygiene now, if necessary.
Explore cross-promotion opportunities. Partner with a related business and market each other’s services either as a bundle or separately as a recommendation. A true win-win for both parties.
Build a referral program. Times are tough, and welcoming new customers is a challenge right now. A partner or channel program can turn colleagues into an extension of your sales team.
Host a virtual event. A free webinar or virtual event is a great way to expose your brand to a larger audience and position yourself as a thought leader. Higher education organizations, for example, can host student panels, give virtual tours, offer advising sessions, chat with parents, and more.
Boost your search rankings. There are many search engine optimization fixes that don’t cost any money. There is likely some low-hanging fruit here. Reach out to friends and partners to request backlinks to your site. Optimize your high-performing web pages. Pull your sitemap, correct 404 errors, and request indexing through Google Analytics. Check out this blog post by Neil Patel for 10 easy SEO fixes.
To wrap up, we recommend choosing the one or two tactics that make most sense for your business, and trying them out today. There’s little to lose, and much more to gain. Hopefully you will reap unexpected benefits without depleting your budget.
