You know that social media marketing is what you need to grow your business. The only issue is you don’t have much of a marketing budget. The good news is you’re the business owner and have full control over your marketing efforts. You determine what happens on behalf of your business whether you’re taking care of Facebook marketing, Instagram marketing, TikTok marketing, or whatever platform you choose for your business.
To help you make things happen and grow your brand, this blog post is focused on helping you get results with social media marketing. Social media marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways for you to access your target audience. You have an opportunity to use creativity and hard work to build a brand that can last for a long time. After all, social media has just the attention of just about every consumer in America.
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing is the use of platforms/networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to target your ideal customer, engage, build your brand, and increase revenue. This is done through the sharing of content such as blog posts, infographics, photos, and videos on social media.
Every company values different metrics that can be tracked through social media marketing. Some brands focus heavily on acquiring more followers but don’t care so much about likes. Other brands zone in on how much web traffic they’re generating through social media marketing and do everything they can on social media to accomplish that goal. It ultimately comes down to what you’re wanting to get out of your social media marketing efforts.
Social media marketing on a budget
So you don’t have much money to spend on social media marketing. You don’t have thousand of dollars to hire a manager or agency. You can’t really afford to run any paid ads. So what can you do? How can you get scrappy and compete with an extremely limited budget? Here are several ways you can continue running your business while doing everything you can to market your business:
Use a social media scheduler: This simple tip will save you a lot of time and help you avoid a lot of stress. We helped a local business manager understand how to use Facebook Creator Studio to take of the social media marketing needs she had for the several businesses she’s in charge of. Prior to using Facebook Creator Studio, she’d have to manually post everything to Facebook and Instagram which would require several hours of work each week. After Facebook Creator Studio, she only had to commit a few hours on the first Monday of every month to schedule all of her content for the next 30 days.
Sure, Facebook Creator Studio isn’t the only scheduling tool out there but the point is that using these tools will help you be more efficient and effective. Read through all of the available features to see which tools meet your needs. Some have free versions that may take care of everything you need for your business. Here are some other social media management tools for your consideration:
Buffer
Hootsuite
Later
Sproutsocial
Collaborate with other brands: What if you could tap into the reach and influence of another brand while giving you access to new potential customers who have never heard of you? This is what you can accomplish through collaborations. Collaborations can come in the form of influencer marketing and brand partnerships. They’re mutually beneficial to both parties involved and have clear goals and expectations. Here are some partnership examples to give you a better of idea of companies that can work together:
A personal trainer and a nutritional supplements company
An ice cream store and an Instagram influencer family
Home improvement YouTube channel and a plumbing company
A video game company and an esports blog
Residential cleaning company and a cleaning supplies company
Share user-generated content: If you want get more content for social media while showing your followers you care, you’ll share user-generated content. User-generated content is anything produced by your customers/clients such as photos and videos you can share to your social platforms. The authenticity you receive from user-generated content will help you gain great loyalty within your own community.
Be social: One of the major reasons why some small businesses struggle on social media is they forget to be social! You can’t expect to grow a loyal community on social media if you don’t invest in others. Here are three easy ways to be social:
Reply to all comments/direct messages:
Reply to all reviews:
Engage with the posts from others in your community:
Hire someone to create your content: If you do have a few hundred dollars to spend each month, consider outsourcing your content creation and taking care of the rest of the management. This can be done by hiring an independent freelancer or marketing agency to create all of the visuals and written content you need. You’d take care of the scheduling of posts as well as responding to any comments and messages. Taking this route will require you to spend money but is well worth it if you don’t like to create content or have a hard time doing so.
Hopefully these ideas help you get even one step closer to your marketing goals! Social media marketing is where people are directing their attention and it’s not about to change any time soon. The average American spends 2 hours and 3 minutes on social media every day. This means that as long as you’re active on social media, you give yourself an opportunity to be seen. Give your brand the best chance possible to thrive and grow by being active where your target audience is.
Do you need help with your social media marketing efforts? Fill out the form below to let us know which questions you have about social media marketing for your business!