As of writing this, we’re at the start of the COVID-19 crisis of 2020. Australia has approximately 800 confirmed cases, and the nation is panicking. The economy is crashing, and jobs are being lost (including one of my own). I can only imagine it’s going to get worse over the coming months.

In light of this situation, I wanted to share some advice for how small businesses can remain successful through budget marketing. Obviously the advertising budget for a lot of businesses is going to shrink, so I am going to cover techniques that are inexpensive but offer great value for money.

I run a digital marketing agency, just to clarify my qualifications. But also take all my comments with a grain of salt, because my comments are worth what you paid for them (nothing).

Lets jump straight in and talk about budget marketing techniques for small businesses.

1. Make sure people can find you on Google (SEO).

SEO (search engine optimisation) is the best budget marketing for any business. SEO is how Google decides whether to show your website, or not show your website.

Essentially you want to be appearing for important search terms which reflect your business and the services/products you offer. Being on the front page of Google will drive massive amounts of traffic to your website and result in more work for your business.

However getting on the first page of Google is quite complicated…

Despite being complicated, it’s actually reasonably in-expensive (although time consuming). If your website does the basics of SEO well then it is likely to rank highly on Google. I won’t go into the technicalities of how to do SEO, because it involves so much. But I recommend you Google “beginners guide to SEO” to find out more information.

SEO is by far the best value for money marketing.

2. Produce content and share it online (content marketing).

Content can be anything like blogs, videos, podcasts, tutorials, etc.

People are turning off the T.V. and consuming content on their phones/computers. Like the transition from radio to television. One billion hours of videos on Youtube are consumed every day (Android Authority, 2019). This is only the tip of the content iceberg.

This provides a great opportunity for your business to attract more attention online, by producing content for people to consume.

Like anything worthwhile, content marketing takes time to be successful. You need to slowly build up an audience who trust and consume your content. But once you do have a following, you can convert these followers into customers of your business.

Producing content is labour intensive, as it takes time to produce. But if you can do it yourself, then it’s free.

3. Target people who already know your business (retargeting).

It’s now more important than ever to convert every potential customer into a client of your business. Retargeting is the most cost effective paid advertising for getting these clients.

Retargeting is where you show digital advertisements to people who have already visited your website.
The concept is really simple. People who have been to your website are interested in your services/products. Therefore they respond positively when they are shown ads for your business, because they already know about your business.

Social media platforms and Google allow you to run retargeting advertisements. They are the cheapest type of advertisements to run, and offer the best value for money. Keep in mind, you do have to pay for these ads. But you can normally run pretty small budgets, like $1 per day. This will allow you to reach people, but won’t cost an arm and a leg.

Small businesses are feeling the pain that COVID-19 has caused, and I want to see small businesses survive the pain. That’s why I wrote this article. By pursuing budget marketing channels I hope small businesses can stay afloat and keep employing people in our communities.

I would love to hear any feedback that people have from this article. Email me (Luke) at contact@ipmmedia.net.