Research suggests that only 20% of small businesses make it past 18 months of operations.1 To succeed in your industry, you need to drive prospective customers to your business through online marketing. However, certain online marketing ventures can cost your business big. To help, we’ve compiled a list of budget-friendly methods to market your business online.

Start a Blog

Blogging is an efficient, cost-effective method of broadcasting your message to a vast amount of people while connecting directly with your intended audience. Mastering a blog can take practice, but the most successful often include high-value, relevant content – and a lot of it. You will likely need to post frequently to get your blog off of the ground and form an actual audience. Remember to stick with your niche and convey timely industry information to attract and engage readers.

Once your blog gains more traction, you can leverage it to build sales, profits and referrals. Remember that developing a successful blog takes time, but it can be worthwhile.

Leverage Social Media

An estimated 91% of businesses used social media marketing in 2019.2 Utilizing Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and even YouTube can prove significantly beneficial to gaining consumers and promoting your business. Social media marketing often boils down to deploying the right marketing strategy to turn viewers into buyers and buyers into actual customers. It is crucial to have a firm understanding of your intended audience, their behavior and online marketing to yield profitable results.

Boosting posts to gain desired visibility of your product or service is ideal, but can be costly. Once you have more experience and a larger presence on social media, your business can gain the exposure it needs to be successful.

Embrace Multimedia

Reading through pages of text can be daunting and they often start to blend. Adding a picture, video or infographic to your social media feed or website can help break up the content and spark interest in your product or service. Video tutorials are a great way to educate your audience about something your business offers, which they would not otherwise know.

While it may seem inefficient to develop and launch an ungated video that users would otherwise pay for, it can establish your brand as an authority as well as a loyal fan base that is willing to pay for expertise.

Optimize SEO

Mastering Search Engine Optimization (SEO) empowers you to maximize traffic to any business or website. Doing so takes time, effort and know-how, but it can prove extremely beneficial to your site’s visibility and your business's customer base and sales. By applying SEO to your website, you can market your products or services at virtually no cost to a vast audience. Mastering SEO is a key step in growing your online presence and marketing efforts.

Send Emails

Email marketing can yield a high return on your time, but often entails first getting customers to your website to sign up for your email list. Utilize methods of navigating traffic to your website including infographics and tutorials to grow your list. Then, create useful, appealing emails that share information about your business in a way that applies to their needs. When in doubt, put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think, “Is this an email that adds value to my life?”

Create Press Releases

Celebrate your victories! If your business is involved in or does something newsworthy, draft a press release for the media to pick up. Whether philanthropic or an award, don’t be afraid to publicize your wins. It may be included in a local media outlet and attract new customers to your business.

Prioritize Referrals

Referral or word-of-mouth marketing is reported to drive $6 trillion in annual consumer spending and accounts for 13% of sales.3 And the best part: It’s free! If your business has a positive relationship with your customers, they are likely to refer their friends and family to you. Work on adding real value to customer experience and determine how you can improve their lives through your products or services.

Join a Virtual Community

Get involved in an online community within your industry. Participate in discussions and build a rapport with the other users, without constantly trying to sell them your products or services. Suggest your business in your signature or in discussion when appropriate. This is about building relationships with your community and developing trust.

Visit our website to learn other ways how APGFCU can help your business thrive.

1https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericwagner/2013/09/12/five-reasons-8-out-of-10-businesses-fail/?sh=11daea756978
2https://www.statista.com/statistics/203513/usage-trands-of-social-media-platforms-in-marketing/#:~:text=In%202017%20it%20was%20calculated,to%2091%20percent%20in%202019.&text=Everyone%20knows%20that%20social%20media,to%20a%20powerful%20marketing%20tool.
3https://www.invespcro.com/blog/word-of-mouth-marketing/#:~:text=Did%20you%20know%20word%20of,brand%20recommended%20by%20a%20friend.