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Whether you’re just starting out, inflation has affected your numbers, or you just haven’t been budgeting for marketing, this episode is for you!
In this episode, Kelly and Victoria break down how to market your business on just about any budget.
Because this is The Priority Pursuit Podcast, we want to explain what aspects of your marketing we recommend prioritizing—in order—so that you can:
- Get the most out of your marketing budget
- Make the most of your time
1. Clarify your messaging.
If you’ve listened to an episode of Priority Pursuit, you aren’t going to be shocked when we tell you that if you want to get the most out of a small marketing budget, you need to create clear messaging. In fact, this should be your top marketing priority regardless of your budget.
You can build a stunning website, post a reel a day, implement sales funnels, and do all of the marketing things you’re “supposed to do.” However, all of these efforts and tactics are a waste of time, money, and resources if your messaging isn’t clear.
In other words, clear messaging—which is communication that your ideal customers can understand quickly and easily—is the key to successful marketing. Because, in order to convert prospects into paying customers, you have to know exactly what to say to connect with your ideal customers, hold their attention, and—ultimately—make them want to do business with you.
Creating Your Marketing Guiding Statements
The best way to create clear, customer-focused messaging is to write what we call your Marketing Guiding Statements.
In case you aren’t familiar with this idea, Marketing Guiding Statements are written guidelines that position your brand and business as a trusted partner. And, the process of developing these statements gives you the information you need to write clear, concise, and effective messaging in a story-based framework.
When you take the time to create Marketing Guiding Statements, you can refer to this language as you work on writing website copy, blog posts, social media posts, or any other marketing piece to make sure your marketing is customer-focused—rather than braggy or salesy—and has the power to convert your ideal customers.
Essentially, think of your Marketing Guiding Statements as the GPS of your marketing efforts. Once you write them, as long as you follow them, you’ll more easily get to where you want to go because all of your marketing materials will be written in a way that allows you to actually connect with your best customers.
Because we know that small businesses' marketing cannot succeed without clear messaging, we put together a free mini course—“The First Step to Effective Marketing for Small Businesses: Writing Your Marketing Guiding Statements”—that walks you through exactly how to write your small business’s Marketing Guiding Statements.
Your marketing, regardless of your budget, will not be successful—meaning it won’t convert or attract your ideal customers—if you don’t have clear, customer-focused messaging.
2. Create a firm marketing foundation with a strategic, SEO-optimized website.
After you’ve written your Marketing Guiding Statements, the next thing you need to do is build a strong foundation for your marketing by creating a strategic, SEO-optimized website.
If you want to get the most out of your marketing budget—no matter the size—your website needs to be a top priority because it is your most powerful marketing tool. Your website is the foundation of all of your marketing and communication efforts.
Yes, social media, email marketing, and countless other marketing tactics and tools are important, but at the end of the day, these tools exist to help drive traffic to your website, and your site is where your ideal clients will actually take action and convert into paying customers.
Think of your website as a 24/7 salesperson that gives your ideal customers the exact information they need, invites them into a story, shows what success can look like, and—ultimately—helps them decide to do business with you.
That said, it isn’t enough just to have a website. So many small business owners assume that if you just slap up a website business will come. But, in order to be your most powerful marketing tool, your website needs to do a few things.
Making Sure Your Website Has All the Essentials
First, your website needs to serve your ideal clients well by helping them quickly and easily understand what you offer, how you can help solve their problem, and how they can work with you.
In fact, if it takes longer than five seconds for website visitors to determine the answers to these questions, they’re practically guaranteed to leave your site—meaning you’ll miss out on business.
On top of this, your website needs to be user-friendly. If you’re forcing visitors to do a bunch of detective work to find the information they want, they are going to leave your website, meaning you’re going to miss out on business.
Then, last but not least, your website needs to rank among the top Google search results for searches related to your products and services. This is because when people are in need of a product or service, 97% turn to Google—meaning Google is where prospects are actively looking for what you have to offer. So, it’s important that your website ranks well.
Dedicating Time & Resources to Building Your Website
The fact of the matter is that you need an effective website. As we already discussed, your website is your small business’s most powerful marketing tool.
If you have the time and budget, we would highly recommend working with an experienced copywriter, SEO strategist, and web designer to build a new website. However, if you go that route, you will likely be looking at about a $10,000 bill.
But, again, in this episode, we are discussing how to market your business if you don’t have a big marketing budget.
Thankfully, you can build a strategic website yourself, which will cost you no more than your time, a domain, a subscription for a web builder (like ShowIt), and the cost of a website template.
Now, for the sake of time, we aren’t going to get into every step of building a strategic website. But, we do break this down in “Episode 104: How to Build a Lead-Generating Website.” Whether you are planning to build your site yourself or you simply want to make sure your website does what it needs to do in order to be effective, tune in to “Episode 104.”
If you want your marketing to be successful, your website needs to be a top priority because it is the foundation of all of your marketing and communication efforts. It’s where your prospects are actually going to convert. Yes, other tools and tactics matter. But, at the end of the day, these tools exist to send people to your website so that they can buy now, schedule a consultation, or do whatever it is you want them to do.
So many small businesses get caught up in trying one marketing tactic after another before creating a firm marketing foundation with a strategic website. For all of the reasons Victoria and Kelly discussed and so you can make the most of your marketing budget, please don’t make this mistake.
3. Only create content that serves your ideal customer well.
Once you have your website developed, the next most effective thing you can do with a small marketing budget is to create content that serves your ideal customer well. And, by content, we mean blog posts, videos, podcast episodes, infographics, organic social media posts, and any other medium that allows you to share a message and engage with your audience.
In all honesty, content marketing is where we often see small businesses struggle and become overwhelmed. They often assume that they need to create massive amounts of content for any and every medium and be present on every social media platform. And, because they’re overwhelmed, they either don’t create any content at all or haphazardly create content that doesn’t speak to their ideal clients.
If you have a limited marketing budget, this likely means that you’re going to have to create your content yourself or task a member of your team with this responsibility. Or, you may have the budget to outsource it on a small scale. For example, maybe you hire a copywriter to write one blog post for you a month or you work with a social media agency to handle some of your social content.
Prioritizing Quality over Quantity
Whether you’re creating content internally, outsourcing some of it, or outsourcing all of it, if you want to get the most out of your marketing budget, you need to think about how you can offer quality and consistency over quantity.
For example, if you can only put out one quality blog post per month, start there. Publishing a quality post on a monthly basis—so 12 per year—is going to be immensely more effective than releasing a post per week—so 52 per year—that your audience just doesn’t find all that helpful.
Understanding Your Audience
Now, in order to create content that your ideal clients genuinely want to engage with, you have to understand your audience. What problem are they facing; what are their pain points; what does success look like for them? Then, what kind of content do they prefer to consume? Do they spend all day on TikTok, regularly go down YouTube rabbit holes, or do they prefer to read blog posts?
If you need help identifying and understanding your audience, you can go back and listen to “Episode 084: How to Identify & Understand Your Ideal Client” where we break down the best ways to get to know your audience.
But, once you understand who you’re talking to, what they want to hear, and how they want to consume content, you can create content that truly resonates with them and provides value. Remember from previous episodes, you want to be the guide in your brand story, not the hero. By creating helpful and relevant content, you’ll be in a better position to help guide your ideal customers as opposed to feeling like you’re selling to them.
Choosing the Correct Platforms for Your Content
Now, in addition to creating the kind of content your audience wants to consume, you only need to focus your efforts on the platforms your ideal client uses. Don’t waste time and resources on content for platforms where your audience isn’t active.
For example, while the world might be telling you that you need to be posting to TikTok three times a day, if your ideal client isn’t using the app, don’t waste your time there. Instead, invest in creating high-quality content in the places they frequent and—again—in the mediums they prefer most.
And, in case you’d like more guidance in creating a content marketing strategy, we want to encourage you to go back and listen to “Episode 110: A Proven Content Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses.” In this episode, Angel Tobey, our content director at Treefrog, shares the exact strategy our content team uses to serve our agency clients.
4. Prioritize SEO.
In case you aren’t familiar with SEO, it’s a free process that helps your website and business information get found on Google (or other search engines) when users conduct searches related to your products, services, or content. Basically, it helps prospects find you on Google.
We want to strongly encourage you to prioritize SEO, because—like we discussed before—97% of people use Google when they’re in need of a product or service. As a result, if you can get your website and business to rank among the top Google search results, you can get your information in front of prospects who are actively searching for—and likely ready to purchase—exactly what you have to offer.
Basically, when you have a successful SEO strategy, you don’t have to spend so much of your time going after new leads. Instead, many of your strongest leads will start coming to you through Google.
On top of this, SEO is FREE! So, it’s an absolutely ideal tactic if you don’t have a large marketing budget.
Again, a successful SEO strategy has a lot of moving parts, so we aren’t going to get into the how-tos in this episode. However, we want you to know that SEO likely isn’t nearly as complicated as you think it is. This is something you can learn. Also, we have all kinds of SEO resources available on our website.
5. Build a sales funnel so you can utilize email marketing.
The next thing we would recommend prioritizing is building a sales funnel so that you can build your email list and utilize email marketing.
A sales funnel is simply a content marketing framework that takes potential customers to paying customers. Essentially, it allows you to serve your prospects, build trust with them, and help them see that your product or service is the answer to the problem they’re facing.
As we’ve discussed in past episodes, nobody likes to be sold to. In fact, going straight for the sale is the equivalent of laying eyes on someone for the first time ever, walking up to them, getting down on one knee, and asking them to marry you. It’s uncomfortable, not appropriate, and not likely to end well.
However, a sales funnel is more like dating. Essentially, by providing your prospects with the content and information they need to see how your product or service can make their life better and get to know you, they’ll naturally want to engage with and most likely purchase from you.
Collecting Emails for Your Sales Funnel
Now, in order to get prospects into your sales funnel, you need to get their email address, and you’re going to do this by creating an “opt-in,” which is simply an incentive—such as a guide, video, discount, or something of worth—that you can offer a potential customer in exchange for their email address.
Then, once you have their email address, you can continue to nurture prospects via email.
Considering the Success and Affordability of Email Marketing
In a seemingly social-media-driven world, you might be thinking, “Why the heck would I want to focus on emails?” And, we understand that, but the numbers don’t lie.
Email has again and again proven to be the best marketing channel in terms of ROI. In fact, according to AgencyAnalytics, “It's estimated that email generates $36 for every $1 spent.” That’s a 3500% ROI. On the other hand, social media generates an estimated return of $2.80 for every dollar spent. That’s a huge difference.
When you just hear the numbers, we know this can seem shocking, but when you stop to think about updated social media algorithms, it really isn’t surprising.
At this point, less than 10% of your followers will likely see your organic social media posts. However, email allows you to communicate directly with your audience, and your emails are more or less guaranteed to end up in prospects’ inboxes, making email a direct line of communication between you and prospective customers who have already expressed interest in your products or services. They already shared their email address with you, so you know that they’re warm leads.
And, email marketing is affordable. It doesn’t have to cost you any more than a subscription to an email marketing software. In fact, MailChimp is free for up to 500 subscribers.
Basically, if you handle it yourself, email marketing isn’t expensive and can deliver big results.
If you’re ready to build a sales funnel and leverage email marketing, we want to encourage you to go back and listen to “Episode 114: How to Build a Sales Funnel as a Small Business.”
6. Only invest your ad dollars where your ideal client is paying attention.
The last thing we want to encourage you to do if you have a small marketing budget is to invest your digital ad dollars wisely. Unfortunately, organic reach isn’t enough anymore. And, even more unfortunately, social media and Google ads—while still highly effective—aren’t as affordable as they used to be.
With this in mind, we want to encourage you to use your money where you’ll get the most bang for your buck. And, by that, we mean it’s important to understand where your ideal customers are paying attention and focus your ad spend there.
For example, if your ideal client is on Instagram but not Facebook, invest in Instagram ads and don’t waste a dime on Facebook.
Then, in addition to choosing the right platforms for your audience, be sure to use best ad practices for said platforms, monitor your ads’ performance, and make adjustments as needed to ensure you’re getting the best possible results.
Remember, time is your most valuable commodity.
If you have a small marketing budget, these are the six things we would recommend prioritizing—in order—to get the most out of your funds and your time.
Now, you might be listening and thinking, “Well, this sounds like a lot of work that I just don’t have time for.” So, before we wrap, we want to address a common question we receive, which is, “Can someone realistically market their business on their own?”
If you have time, yes. When you have a clear marketing strategy and between drag-and-drop web builders, YouTube how-to videos, automation options, and other tools and resources, you can implement your own marketing strategy.
However, as a small business owner, handling every aspect of your marketing strategy likely isn’t the best use of your time—at least not long term.
After all, several skill sets and knowledge you may not currently have will be required. And, chances are, the time needed to learn these new skills and information will take a lot of time—which will inhibit business growth—and prevent you from focusing on other aspects of your small business, operating within your zone of genius, and living and enjoying life outside of your work.
Maybe you don’t have the funds to hire or work with marketing pros right now but you have time to implement your own marketing strategy. That’s great. However, we just want to caution you from doing this long-term. Even if this means hiring a VA to help you with some of the marketing tasks, you just don’t want to inhibit growth or stand in your own way of reaching your goals because you’re doing everything yourself.
Plus, marketing—if done strategically—is going to generate more business and more money. Be wise with your finances, but don’t be afraid to invest in strategic marketing.
What should your marketing budget be?
While you may not have much of a budget right now, it’s important to know what you should be spending on your marketing.
Now, Kelly wishes she could give you an exact number, but every business is different and has different goals. As a result, budgets are going to vary.
That said, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses wanting to see consistent growth should plan to spend 7-8% of their revenue on marketing. And, mid-sized businesses—which for the sake of this conversation are businesses that make more than $5 million but less than $50 million a year—should invest at least 10% of their revenue into marketing.
You may not have a large marketing budget now, but if you start setting aside 7-10% of every sale and investing it into strategic marketing, you will see business growth and enable yourself to meet your goals.
Additional Marketing Resources
Again, today, we went over the six tactics we recommend prioritizing in order. While you can work through these tactics one by one, it’s so important to have an overarching marketing strategy so that these tactics all work together and—ultimately—get you where you want to go.
With that in mind, we want to encourage you to check out two final resources.
Free Flywheel Marketing Guide
First, if you've listened to past episodes of Priority Pursuit, you know that we are big fans of the flywheel marketing strategy. This is the exact strategy we use for nearly all of our agency clients because it’s proven to work for small businesses. Some of our clients have seen up to 800% growth as a result of this strategy.
There’s nothing we want more than for your small business to succeed. As a result, we’ve detailed this strategy in full and want to share it with you. Download our free guide ”The Most Effective Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses: The Flywheel Marketing Method” and make this strategy your own.
Strategic Marketing Coaching
Now, maybe you don’t have the budget to outsource your marketing or to hire a marketing team. However, if you’d like guidance, instruction, clear direction, and someone to hold you accountable when it comes to your marketing, we want to invite you to check out our strategic marketing coaching program.
As a student, you’ll meet with either Kelly or Victoria one-on-one seven times over the course of six months for 90 minutes. Over the course of these seven sessions, we’ll teach you the flywheel marketing method and help you make it your own so that your marketing strategy aligns with your business goals. At the end of every session, you’ll be assigned homework that’s due by your next meeting—one month later.
So, not only will you have step-by-step guidance as you build your marketing strategy, but you’ll also have someone to help make sure you’re getting stuff done.
If strategic marketing coaching sounds like something you might be interested in explore all of our coaching and consulting options.
While we offer full marketing partnerships and can serve as your marketing team, we realize that that isn’t in the cards for all small businesses due to budget restraints. However, no matter the size of your business or the revenue you generate, we want to help you achieve your version of success.
So, whether you want to utilize our free resources, enroll in coaching, or partner with us to handle your marketing for you, please know that we’re here for you and that you can access these resources and learn more about our services at our website.
Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode
- “The First Step to Effective Marketing for Small Businesses: Writing Your Marketing Guiding Statements” Mini Course
- Try ShowIt (One of Our Favorite Web Builders) for Free
- “Episode 084: How to Identify & Understand Your Ideal Client”
- “Episode 110: A Proven Content Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses”
- “Keyword Guide: How to Use Keywords to Improve Your Small Business’s SEO”
- “Episode 153: The 5 Most Effective Things You Can Do to Improve Your Small Business’s SEO”
- Explore the Free Email Marketing Platform MailChimp
- “Episode 114: How to Build a Sales Funnel as a Small Business”
- ”The Most Effective Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses: The Flywheel Marketing Method”
- Strategic Marketing Coaching
- Receive 30% Off Your First Year of HoneyBook
- Learn More About Treefrog’s Small Business Marketing Resources & Services
- Join the Priority Pursuit Facebook Community
- Follow or DM Treefrog Marketing on Instagram
- Follow or DM Kelly Rice on Instagram
- Follow or DM Victoria Rayburn on Instagram
The Priority Pursuit Podcast is a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners define, maintain, and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love.
You can find The Priority Pursuit Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Stitcher, and wherever you listen to podcasts.
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