One of the reasons Stargazer was created was because I wanted to help people grow their businesses. When we partnered with HubSpot we were very excited as we could create fantastic marketing campaigns that will really grow businesses.
If you are in sales you will know that when you speak to a prospect you are always qualifying them to see if they are a good fit.
One of the things you look for is if they have the budget and what we found was that some of these businesses just didn’t have the budget, no matter how great the benefits would be.
I felt for these companies, so we put together a solution for small businesses that was affordable, this then got me thinking about this blog post. All the tips herein can all be done on little or no budget. So if you are a small business don’t worry you can still do inbound marketing, read on.
Blog content to drive relevant traffic
Your blog content will be your main source of fuel for your sales engine and will fill the top of your sales funnel with leads. All you need to do is create helpful content that answers your prospects questions.
Inbound marketing is not just a methodology, it is a cultural change. The companies that do the best with inbound marketing are the ones who embrace it the most.
This means getting everyone in your company creating content. If you have say 100 employees in your company and each one created one piece of content per month then that is a massive amount of content.
I know what you’re going to say, you don’t have the time, if you don’t, then that’s where an inbound marketing agency will be able to help you out.
I would still recommend that one of your long term goals should be to create content yourselves. To see good results I recommend that you should be blogging at least twice a week.
The more you create the more leads you will acquire, remember never sacrifice quality over quantity. It is better to have one great blog post a month than 5 poor ones.
Video content to tell a better story
The best way to create content is to think of your topics and think about what is the best way to deliver that content.
Would a blog post be best? An infographic? Or maybe a video? I believe you need to start to think of your business as a media company as I think this will be the best way to succeed online.
If you are the go to place for all information related to your industry then you are going to generate a high volume of leads, just remember to be helpful.
Everyone is in a hurry so video is an ideal way to get your message across quickly and also with more feeling, it is much harder to inject emotion into text than it is in video. Some good ideas for video content are:
- Testimonials
- Case studies
- How to videos
- Demonstrations
- Explainer videos
- Introductions to your team
Segmentation your audience
Segmentation is key to success as you want to be able to segment your lists by location, industry type, job roles and age, in fact anything that helps you to identify your different buyer personas.
You can tailor your content to talk to each persona as each one of your buyer personas have different challenges and goals so the more personalised your message, the better.
Engage in social media
Don’t ignore social media as this is where a lot of your prospects may be hanging out. By understanding your buyer personas and learning which social networks they use, you can engage with them to then help answer their questions and resolve any issues.
Your marketing automation software over time will be able to tell you which social channel converts best for you and you should dedicate your attention to these. Be more customer focused and engage with them on a personal level.
I believe you should not spend more than 30 -60 minutes a day on social but it can be a powerful way to generate leads and happy customers.
Delight your customers
We have all experienced bad customer services and I believe the UK as a whole could be a lot better at it.
By offering exceptional customer services you will be standing head and shoulder above most of your competitors. By segmenting your list and creating marketing people love you will create happy customers and brand advocates.
Use social media as a tool to communicate with your prospects and customers and always go that extra mile to help them. 80% of businesses believe they provide ‘superior’ customer services, but only 8% of customers would describe the service as great.
Be different, stand out and above all be helpful.
Always be testing
To really understand your buyers you always need to listen to what they are telling you and change your website to help them more.
After all they are the ones who are going to be using your website so they should help design it and have a say on what content you create.
Every tip in this post should be tested continually as you won’t get it 100% correct every time, in fact you won’t get it right 5% of the time.
Analyse your data to see how people use your website, install heatmaps to see how your prospects are interacting with your site and survey them, ask them how you can improve.
Everything said and done, why are you in business? I know it is not just to make money. I’m in business because I want a better quality of life for me, my employees and my customers but above all I want to help people.
Good luck!
Conclusion
So how can all this be done on a small budget, well it doesn’t cost anything to write content and to set up a blog is free if you use WordPress, which is considered the best.
Creating video doesn’t have to be expensive, if you have an Iphone and some decent lighting your half way there. If you need further help producing low cost quality video check out the Wistia blog for tips and tricks.
Segmentation is more an advanced part of inbound marketing and can be expensive, but you can get great marketing automation software from £50-150. However this will ensure that the messages you send are targeted, helpful and relevant.
Social media doesn’t have to cost you a penny, just the time invested. If you wanted something to save you some time when doing this I would try HootSuite. Comes at a very affordable price and they even have a free version.
One important aspect of inbound or any digital marketing is delighting your customer and this is 100% free to do and can have a massive return on its investment.
Now it’s your turn
What are the budget challenges you face in your digital marketing? Do you find it hard to get solutions to fit your budget?