4 Ways To Save Money On Marketing

What sounds better: spending thousands — or millions — of pounds on elaborate print or television advertising campaigns with no way to measure a return on investment, or paying nothing to integrate simple solutions into your current marketing strategy and get closer to your customers? Marketing doesn't have to be expensive, but it needs to be strategised smartly to provide big returns.

The inbound marketing world provides endless possibilities to use highly targeted marketing to reach exactly the audience you want, and businesses are shifting marketing plans to take advantage. According to research, marketers who plan to transition spending from traditional mass advertising to inbound targeted marketing spending will receive 10%—the second-largest share—of the B-to-B marketing budget this year. Marrying advertising in the online space with free or inexpensive tried-and-true marketing programs helps businesses stay lean in spending while growing revenue.

Before implementing new marketing plans in your business, conduct an audit of what you're currently spending where, and examine how those actions align with your business plan. Look at immediate ways to save, such as by saving on costs or by killing campaigns that haven't provided consistent return on investment. Re-evaluate your goals, and use these four techniques to save money on marketing while connecting with customers who can help further grow your business.

1. Grow Your Social Networks

Social channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest cost nothing to sign up for and can save you hundreds of thousands of pounds in marketing spending. Social media channels allow you to perform the following actions for free:

• Alert followers about promotions and company updates
• Offer customer support and instant feedback
• Connect with brand influencers and other brands in your space
• Gain traditional media coverage by sharing unique content or news

They also enable fans of your brand to directly share updates with their own followers, growing your marketing reach. Plus, by signing your brand up for YouTube and Google, social networks that are both owned by Google, you'll be improving your search engine strength by creating keyword-optimised posts on those channels.

2. Think in Terms of Search Engine Optimisation

Speaking of search engines, there are simple free ways to boost your chances of landing within top search engine results, which helps to acquire new customers looking for terms related to your product. Easy techniques that cost nothing include:

• Determining what keywords best relate to your brand your target customers are searching for, then writing website, social media, and content marketing copy with those terms in mind
• Using a free SEO plug-in, such as Yoast for WordPress, with your content management system to help guide you to optimised Web pages including headlines, meta descriptions, subheadings, and photo tags
• Generating beneficial backlinks by working with news outlets and similar brands to share links to your product via reviews or guest blogging

A vital part of successful marketing is to also make sure your product and the channels that represent them work and make users happy. It's important to responsively design your website so it's easily readable and usable on smartphones and tablets. Avoid malfunctions like broken links on your website, since those could cause search result ranking to be penalised.

3. Give Benefits for Referrals

While acquiring new customers is an obvious priority, keeping the ones you have and giving them incentive to grow your network for you saves money. While only 39% of marketers regularly used referral marketing, 43% of those who did use it regularly acquired more than 35% of new customers with it. When cloud storage service Drop Box implemented a referral program, the business saw sign-ups grow by a whopping 60%.

Referring a friend to your business doesn't just mean a perk such as a discount or freebie for the referrer — the act of initiating the referral has a psychological benefit that also serves to make the first customer more invested in your business. Their reputation and their friend's trust are on the line. Happy referrals make the original customers satisfied, too. Expand your referral reach beyond the confines of your own business by partnering with similar businesses that can help bring your marketing efforts to brand-new, but relevant audiences.

4. Share Valuable Content

There are many benefits of creating marketing that is “so useful, people would pay for it.” While this type of marketing includes devising free beneficial products for target customers and featuring business branding on them, content marketing via blog, video, and photo creation can cost little overall but provide endless benefits, especially if a content marketing campaign goes viral.

Regularly blogging pays in new customers, as research found 82% of marketers who blog daily and 57% of marketers who blog monthly acquired a customer because of the blog. To achieve significant content marketing results, it's vital to carefully strategise the type of content your business could produce to help existing and targeted customers.

61% of the most effective B2B marketers meet daily or weekly to discuss the progress of their content marketing strategy. It's important to constantly evolve the strategy based on user comments and sharing of your content.

To achieve this, “an optimised, user-friendly website can create a lasting impression and drive visitors to visit again without a second thought,"

Your business already has the industry expertise and great product to attract and keep customers. With some straightforward marketing shifts that are free to put into action, your company can better measure results and refine marketing strategies based on targeted feedback.

@Jez Spencer is a Chartered Marketer and also happens to be among one of the most influential smarter marketers in this space. Recently lauching his own Marketing Consultancy, Advice and Training Company JAWS Solutions. Give him a call on 07740 605 144, to find out more on how to save money on your marketing and get a better return.