For some reason, marketing firms, even ones with amazing blogs, tend to treat money and budgets as taboo. You don’t talk about it because it’s unprofessional or it pre-disposes potential clients towards or against your services.
I don’t like that mindset because let’s face it, money is one of the first and only things on your mind.
You want the best for your business and you’re eager to grow, sure, but you have a budget and you’ve gotten where you are today by following that budget and ensuring you spend wisely, not freely.
So questions like this come up a lot and I’m always eager to answer them?
If you had only $100 for your marketing budget per month, what would you spend it on? I’ve worked with people on budgets smaller than this before, and I’ve helped others expand their budgets by getting immediate results with that $100. The truth, though, is that the budget can change depending on quite a few factors. Let’s take a closer look at some of those and how they might affect you.
The Status of Your Website
Great Leap is a digital branding and content marketing firm. We create content – blog posts, website pages, Facebook posts, the whole works.
If you have a website with no content, the easy answer is to start developing content. For $100 you can start posting 2-3 pages of new content to your blog every month, complete with Facebook links, Tweets, and a growing audience interested in reading what you have to say.
If you already write your own blog posts and manage your own Facebook Page, this might be different. Sure it would be nice to have someone else do it for you, but when money’s an issue you tend to wear more hats. I completely understand that – my hat rack is significantly larger than it once was, but it still holds a fair share of headgear.
In this case, your best investment is in branded tools that will GROW the audience of the content you are already creating.
- Press releases to generate links and drive traffic
- A white paper showcasing important statistics about your industry and your position in it
- A video of you introducing yourself to potential customers
These things are all possible within a $100/month budget, even if scope and distribution are limited.
What About Ads and Promotion?
When you have only $100 to spend, it’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting immediate results. Wanting to see ROI the next day. You spend $100, someone clicks your ad and calls you – voila, you made a sale.
But ads can eat your budget fast and you have nothing to show for it later, except that one potential sale. But what if you don’t convert a lead? Then you just spent $100 for nothing.
Don’t get me wrong. I think smart online advertising should be a part of every marketing campaign. But you need enough of a budget to gather clear data and enhance your ads to the point that they convert at high rates. If you’re going to spend any money on ads online, go with Facebook and focus on promoting content you’ve created on your Page.
Spending Smart for Future Investment
The ROI of content marketing and branding activities is small at first, but it’s been shown to grow significantly faster over time than any other investment.
Sure you might make more money while your ads are running, but the second you stop, so too does the return. A blog, articles on your site, a white paper, and links you generate to your site – those last forever and can continue to pump new customers into your sales funnel.
That’s the best way to spread out a small budget – building for the long term. Eventually all those smaller efforts will add up and you’ll see huge results.
[box type=”tick”]If you’re eager to see what even a small budget can do, read more about what content marketing entails and how it can help your business here. And if you’re ready for the next step, contact us and ask to setup a consultation. [/box]
