15 Online Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses With Limited Budget

Today, everything depends online. From future trends to influential people, everything is taking the Internet by storm. Even businesses are taking advantage of the opportunities that the digital landscape can offer. Gone are the days when businesses can only advertise nowhere near the Internet. Who can ever imagine that digital marketing will become today’s official marketing norm? 

If you’re thinking about building your brand online, allocating large amounts of money isn’t always the case. All it takes is creating a long-term digital marketing plan, grit, social skills, and lots of creativity. Digital marketing agency Contevo have created 15 efficient digital marketing initiatives you can consider which won’t break the bank. 

Invest in publishing blogs. 

Writing blogs and articles on a regular basis not only helps create organic traffic to your website, but also allows customers to get to know your business and thus, build an online brand reputation. Blogs should vary from quick ones with 300 words minimum to long form blog posts ranging from 2,000-3,000 words max. 

Transform your blogs into vlogs for YouTube content. 

If your target audience doesn’t like to read, transform your blogs into videos instead. Videos can get as much as 4.8% conversion rate compared to blogs at 2.9%. because people tend to lean more towards visual content plus it’s easier to consume. Lumen5, Animoto, and Biteable are some of the free online video editing tools that you can use. 

Guest blog for other sites.

Creating blogs for your own business is a good start and is great for SEO. Expand your expertise in a certain industry by guest blogging or contributing content for other websites and online media, all while also gaining exposure for your own brand. 

Read comments on consumer review sites. 

There’s a reason why marketers love going to Amazon, Yelp and Google’s MyBusiness: it’s where they get the most detailed consumer feedback there is. Utilise building your brand on these sites.

Stay active on aggregator sites. 

What’s great about aggregator sites such as Reddit or Quora is that they’re the best places to find detailed experiences or opinions from a broad range of people. Small businesses can use this to their own advantage by improving existing products or services.

Advertise on Facebook groups. 

Aside from being able to advertise your products for free, joining several industry-related Facebook groups allows you to meet fellow marketers who you can potentially partner with and receive real-time consumer feedback at the same time.

Be where your target audience is. 

If you need to be on Tiktok, then join the Tiktok mayhem. Customers also value brands that get along with their interests in an entertaining way. A word of caution though, don’t overdo advertising or your audience might want to stay away from you instead of interacting with your brand.  

Go live on Facebook or Instagram.

If you’re an e-commerce business, doing live demos on Facebook or Instagram. This allows you to have bigger audience reach and real-time interaction with potential customers

Utilise Facebook and Instagram Stories. 

It’s quick, it feels more authentic and you can do anything creative in it! Facebook and IG Stories are a must-include in developing a long-term social media marketing strategy.

Partner with micro-influencers if you can.

Influencer marketing still remains vital as ever — even if it’s a micro-influencer with followers ranging from 1,000 to as much as 100,000. They aren’t as big as the mega influencers most people know, but they are trusted by their group of followers. 

Create a killer and easy-to-navigate website.

Your website is your brand’s main face, make sure it’s device-friendly, SEO-optimised, has valuable content, and must have a simple yet promising unique selling proposition for your potential customers. 

Make the purchase or download experience easy for customers.

One of the reasons why customers leave a website is the complex process that they’d have to go right before they’re about to get their hands on their purchases. Create a convenient and flexible buying experience for your customers.

Respond to consumer reviews from time to time.

Customers always appreciate businesses that listen. Whether it’s a follow-up to their recent experience or going as far as to creating a customised plan for that specific customer, every little change will matter to your audience.

Take notes and learn from consumer feedback.

Change is inevitable, and every business must pick up on what customers feel about your brand. The only way for your business to grow is to learn from your customers’ opinions. If not, then a business won’t likely thrive. If you find this area a challenge, we recommend hiring a reputable small business marketing agency that specialises in working with small businesses. 

Have outstanding customer service.

People appreciate when their favourite brand/s reply to their enquiries and it builds a good brand reputation and customer loyalty. Normally, customers are willing to wait up to less than 24 hours but anything beyond is considered already too long for them.