Is your marketing budget draining like a firehose? Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, but it often racks up a costly bill due to the little things that we let slide during the chaos of putting a campaign together. Big agencies have all the money in the world to waste, but as a freelancer or a business owner doing your marketing, you can’t afford to throw money away.
Here, I’ve come up with three pretty simple but wildly effective tips for putting a stop to your overflowing marketing expenses. Real solutions, not like when you duct tape a leaking pipe and just hope it works.
Cancel Unused Apps and Subscriptions
I love keeping up with technology. If there’s a new project management tool or something to ease social media organization, I can’t wait to get my hands on it and see if it would be worth integrating into the Go! process. The hitch? Most of these apps aren’t free or have very limited free features.
Try out as much as you want to find programs that work the best for your company, but don’t let them linger unused while the apps keep charging you every month. If you’re too busy to be diligent about canceling subscriptions, nominate someone in your office who you know can keep on top of it.
If you test out three or four apps and decide they don’t work for you, failing to cancel them before they charge you will rack up a hefty bill that I can assume you didn’t budget for.
Only Use the Platforms That Benefit You
This might seem like a no-brainer, but if you’re tight on a budget and Facebook is getting you nowhere…stop marketing on Facebook. Stop boosting ads, stop putting work-hours into your Facebook presence, and focus on building up your community and efforts on a platform that’s giving you the engagement you’re aiming for.
If you aren’t using Google Analytics, start. It’s a very easy but effective way to tell you what platforms are profitable and which you should set aside until you start generating the revenue you need to properly use them.
Do “Digital Marketing” Not “Social Media Marketing”
Social media platforms are a great way to build up a digital presence and expand your brand, but it’s not the be-all and end-all to digital marketing. To be totally honest, if you aren’t using social media effectively, it’s not going to net you very much at all.
Running ads and boosting them across social media can get costly. A more cost-effective way to go about marketing would be to reach out to potential customers via email. Email marketing is inexpensive and can reap a huge profit if you take the time to do it correctly. On average, every dollar spent on email marketing has a $44 ROI. That’s nothing to scoff at!
If you’re a local business and want to save money by going low tech, take the flyer and pamphlet method and put your marketing directly into your customers’ hands.
There’s a lot to consider financially when you take marketing into your own hands. I think these three tips are a good avenue to reducing costs, but ultimately you’ll have to look at your goals and keep what you think is essential.
However, there is another option. The Go! Agency is fully prepared to help you reach all of your marketing goals and stay within your budget. Tired of trying to remember where all of your money is going? Leave that to the professionals: us.
