20 Ways to Continue Marketing With No Budget - Part 2

This is part 2 of 20 Ways to Continue Marketing With No Budget. To get the full 20 tips, I strongly recommend you read Part 1 here first…

11. Social Media Marketing

There are higher levels of activity on social media platforms than we’ve ever seen before. Change the tone of your social media marketing posts. Show empathy and be emotionally sensitive. Ensure you take into account people’s mental state. What can you do to support your local community? Work on your hashtags and followers, develop your ‘influencer marketing’ – who are your influencers? – and set some clear social media marketing objectives.

12. Reviews

Having good customer reviews in Google, TripAdvisor, Facebook, TrustPilot, Feefo, Reviews.io… from your best customers is more important than ever for attracting and converting customers. Good reviews improve your conversion rates. Ask one or two of you really good customers to give you video testimonials.

13. Blogging, Content Marketing and PR

Write articles for your (neglected) blog. Take this further and use your blog as the hub for your content marketing and PR. Ensure you develop a media contacts list. Repurpose your content for all relevant social media channels. Your content is the ‘voice of strategy’ and helps you fix your customers problems, be liked and trusted. It’s also about raising awareness. Effective content marketing builds valuable backlinks to your website which are critical for improving your keyword rankings as part of an SEO strategy.

…Use this time to shift from direct selling to content marketing that is useful to your prospects. Why? Right now, people are watching videos more, reading more, and listening more. How can you use video, blog posts, and podcasts to show up and help your customers solve the problems they’re facing right now? …Remember that the world is in shock and your messaging will need to be crafted with empathy and wisdom. (Mike Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner & host of the Social Media Marketing Podcast).

14. Email Marketing

Use email marketing to ‘help’ your customers and your community. You need to continue communicating with your customers. Ideally, you need to communicate with them more than before. Reach out to former customers if GDPR allows. Remember, email marketing done well is particularly good for keeping in touch with lots of clients, can generate sales and delivers returns (ROIs) significantly higher than social media marketing.

15. Video Marketing

Use video marketing because video’s great for engagement and more and more businesses are using it. Don’t be shy! Experiment. DIY video can work very well.

Video is still the most powerful format for quickly taking people from zero exposure of your brand to sold. Lean into video for your ad campaigns. Lean into video for improving the power of your message on your landing/squeeze pages. Shoot scrappy stuff on your phone while you’re “social distancing…” (Daniel Harmon)

When we can’t meet people face to face, video is an excellent tool. I recommend that social media marketers step up their use of video. …People unconsciously bond with actors and artists and speakers they see on screens and on stage because of mirror neurons. Mirror neurons also help explain why we feel that we “know” movie stars and television personalities. (David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR)

16. Webinars

Webinars are the new educational and networking events. Zoom and Microsoft Teams are good platforms to consider.

17. Facebook Live & LinkedIn Live

Consider testing a live event when you’re feeling confident with video. This is challenging and not for everyone but done well can be very powerful.

18. Social Media Advertising & Google Ads (Pay-Per-Click)

You may have turned Google Ads or Facebook Ad campaigns right down or even off completely to save money, but perhaps some could be repositioned for these challenging times when people really want your support.

Facebook advertising can be very targeted and is currently 30% cheaper than usual (currently early April 2020). Adverts on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google are very focused and can deliver new customers. You can often get vouchers to encourage you to start advertising on LinkedIn or Google Ads worth up to £50-£75. Consumers are confused and just want to know what to expect, so your ads at this stage should be designed to inform rather than to persuade.

19. Internal Communications

Internal communications within your business need as much careful planning as external campaigns and it’s here where marketing and HR must support each other. Choose your channels carefully. Don’t send out too much information all at once. Inject some fun. Support your employees’ wellbeing and work-life balance.

20. Marketing Metrics

Marketing has to be an investment, not an expense. You have to buy your customers. You need to buy lifetime customers that provide repeat purchases. You should have some marketing metrics to measure how well your marketing channels are performing and measure them on, at least, a quarterly basis. Ask every customer how they heard of you?

Be human. Be kind. Be yourself. Be collaborative. Be generous and supportive. You need to market your business more than ever.

I wish you all the best and hope your business copes during the lockdown and thrives when we get through this crisis. Please request a video chat with me, Christopher Lamotte, if you want to have an informal discussion over a (virtual) coffee. I’d love to see if I can help you survive and thrive. Good luck!