28 June 2021
Sonja Pototzki-Raymond
Are you looking back on your expenses come the end of the Financial Year and thinking, I need to cut some costs somewhere?
We never know when the unexpected could hit. What better way to prepare yourself for the future and all its unknowns than to look at ways to cut costs now?
By implementing a few cost-cutting strategies, even the smallest increase in revenue can impact your profitability.
Of course, we don’t want you to cut your marketing budget whilst you’re reducing costs. We might be biased, but we know that maintaining a digital marketing strategy is essential for your business survival.
10% of your gross profit should be allocated to marketing, of that 10% gross profit, 50% of this budget must be allocated to online/ digital marketing activities.
If 2020 showed us anything, it was how important the digital sphere is for consumers and companies alike. According to Australia Post, online shopping reached an all-time high last year, with online purchases growing 57% year on year. The report stated, “An average of 1 million additional households shopped online every month compared to 2019 – reaching $50.46 billion in total spend at the online checkout.”
Australia has one of the most engaged social media audiences in the world. As of January 2021, over 80% of our population are active social media users (statista.com). Whether we are in lockdown or not, the market as we know it is all online.
Rather than scrapping your marketing campaign in an attempt to reduce costs in the workplace, we’ve compiled some ways you can cut your business’s marketing costs.
1. Analyse Your Data
One of the worst things you can do when it comes to a digital marketing campaign is adopt a ‘set and forget’ mentality. If you aren’t looking at your data, you won’t know if you are getting any results.
By not knowing what is working and what isn’t, you aren’t aware of where your leads are coming from, what strategies need to be adjusted or scrapped altogether.
2. Automate Your Marketing
Time is money. As a business owner, spending your time on your bookkeeping is a total waste of time if it will take you way longer than your accountant. The same ideas need to be applied to your marketing, as you can find ways to automate the business.
Automation software is making digital marketing campaigns more time effective. With scheduling services like Buffer, Hootsuite and Planoly, you can schedule all your future social media content rather than logging on every time you need to post.
Email marketing and even ad campaigns can be automated now, but if you find the process is still taking you too long, it might be time to delegate to someone who is an expert.
3. Don't Rush The Process
Seeing results from a digital marketing campaign overnight is unrealistic. For example, building a successful SEO strategy can take up to 6 months before you have leads coming through, the same thing applies to establishing a social media presence. Did you know 98% of Australian internet users use search engines such as Google before they make their purchase decision?
Slow and steady wins the race here. Be realistic with your digital marketing goals, and don’t take on too many campaigns at once. Create a detailed and achievable strategy, stick to it and see what works. Analyse your results before overextending your marketing budget and falling short.
4. Target Our Audience
Do you know your customers? You need to know exactly the problems your potential clients face. Your job is to be the solution and market as the business who has the magic wand to solve that problem for your audience.
Where does your ideal client spend most of their time online? What do they most respond to? Seeing where your leads are coming from is key. Rather than casting a too broad net to engage a client, stick to what you know works.
5. Add Value and become the Authority
Something we preach all the time is that adding value to your community is one of the best things you can do to improve your marketing strategy and build trust with your audience. Rather than focusing on sell, sell, sell, what free information about your area of expertise can you afford to share with your clientele?
By educating your audience, you are building trust and transparency with them. When they are ready and need your service you offer they’ll remember who to turn to. However, you need to have patience and not be attached to the outcome.
6. Create Content
Once you know what value you are adding, provide various modes of content to your audience. Content creation is one of the fastest-growing tools for businesses, and there’s a good reason for it. According to Demand Metric, 70% of users would prefer to learn about a business from an article or blog post rather than from a traditional advertisement.
Being in business, you are in an area of expertise; share your knowledge and experience with your customers and potential clients. Through blog posts, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tiktok, podcasts, email marketing, e-books, there are many creative ways to get your content out there.
According to We Are Social, over one-third of users will use social media as a tool to gather information about a business before purchasing.
Your customers are out there searching already. It’s just up to you whether your business is there waiting for them. If reading this, you feel like you have some more work needed on your digital marketing strategy, get in touch with us! Our digital marketing experts are ready to help you get your business found by your ideal clients so you can solve their problems.
