As a small business owner, visibility is probably one of your biggest pain points. If nothing else, it’s something you want to keep an eye on. But with a limited budget, are there really any ways to gain serious traction? We have a few ideas:
-
Content: Focus on Quality Over Quantity
Content is the lifeblood of any big promotional push. The key is to avoid getting caught up in the rush to create more, more, more. Quantity of content isn’t nearly as important as the quality of content you’re producing.
The objective is to create sticky, resourceful content that creates value for people and encourages them to share. Your time is much better spent creating one piece of content that generates 20,000 impressions and 2,000 shares than generating a dozen pieces of content that each get a few hundred meaningful impressions.
-
Create Value-Adding Video Content
Video continues to be the most powerful and engaging content medium around. The problem is that it’s traditionally been far too expensive for small brands to create their own custom video content. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case.
With affordable DIY platforms like Promo.com, it’s possible to create engaging promo videos for your company or business within minutes – no design skills needed. You simply choose templates, drag and drop premade visuals, overlay your own text, and you’re ready to go.
The great thing about video is that it’s versatile – particularly when it’s short-form video. You can place it on a website or landing page, share on social media, upload to YouTube, or even include it in an email marketing blast. (But once again, the focus must be on quality over quantity.)
-
Leverage Social Media Influencers
You might not have the reach you want to promote your business, but there are cost-effective ways to get your brand in front of the right people. Social media influencers are one good option.
Social media influencers are individuals – everyday folks or celebrities – who happen to have major social media presences with lots of highly engaged followers. You can often pay them to naturally promote your products, services, or brand. And assuming their followers overlap with your own target audience, the goal is to generate brand awareness and drive traffic to your website, landing page, social accounts, etc.
-
Use Tasteful Newsjacking
Are you familiar with the concept of newsjacking? It’s a marketing concept that small businesses and emerging brands often use to latch on to hot, newsworthy topics in order to gain attention by way of proximity.
The challenge with newsjacking is to stay relevant and tasteful. You don’t want to latch on to just any story or topic. It needs to be something that you can easily relate back to your brand without coming across as someone grasping for straws.
Successful newsjacking requires you to stay abreast of what’s happening at all times so that you can move quickly.
“If you are clever enough to react to breaking news very quickly, providing credible second-paragraph content in a blog post, tweet, or media alert that features the keyword of the moment, you may be rewarded with a bonanza of media attention,” says David Meerman Scott, the founder of the newsjacking movement.
Not sure where to begin or what to do? Here are some examples of successful newsjacking by other businesses and brands.
-
Develop an Affiliate Marketing Program
You might not have the financial resources to hire a full-fledged sales team, but this doesn’t mean you have to go out and sell all of your products on your own. An affiliate marketing program could be one good option.
With an affiliate program, you pay people to advertise and sell your products. But rather than pay them for their time and energy, you simply provide a commission when they make a sale. This makes it a low-risk, cost-effective option (assuming your margins can support affiliate commissions).
Give Your Business the Boost it Needs
Being small has its advantages. It forces you to be resourceful and strategic with how you spend your time and money. While it certainly helps to have a massive marketing and advertising budget, you don’t need a six- or seven-figure account to push your business out there. By utilizing simple and targeted strategies, you can generate massive results that allow your business to grow in a controlled manner.
_________________________________________________________________
Interesting related article: “What is Digital Marketing?“