Article Contributed by Usman Raza
Reaching potential customers is very important if you want your product or set of services to be successful. For effective and successful marketing, it is highly important that you have a high standard marketing plan in place. Along with that, it is also important that you have a well-defined budget to promote your services. A lot of companies go over their budget and do not realize it. Here are 11 of the countless tips which can be used to reduce your marketing plan budget.
- Have a clearly defined budget
A marketing plan comprises of several tasks and each one of them needs to have a clear financial limit. Do not be hasty with spending money. Every product requires time to create an impression in the mind of the potential customer. Thus, spending more money than your financial range for promotional purposes and expecting the product to be an instant thinking is not the correct way to go about it. If you have a financial limit for each marketing activity, the chances of overspending are quite less
- Rely more on social media marketing
There is no doubt that social media is the best form of marketing in the technology dominated time. Although the conventional marketing methods including above the line marketing (ATL) below the line marketing (BTL) marketing are still used but social media marketing certainly has a stronger impact. A high percentage of people all around the world use free social media marketing platforms including Facebook and Instagram. Thus, you can use them to promote your product or services.
- Avoid the provision of too much information
Providing lengthy descriptions or too much information about the product simply creates a negative impression instead of a positive one. Various companies market their products through commercials where there are lengthy descriptions delivered in such a rush that people even fail to understand them. This practice simply creates a cluttered impression in front of the customer. Thus, to market your product in the most effective manner, ensure that the presented information is short, crisp and to the point.
- Correct Search Engine Optimization techniques
There is no doubt that search engine optimization is a very productive and cost effective marketing method if it is followed with the correct guidelines. By using few easy techniques, you can get your website among the top online search results. One of these techniques is content marketing. For quality SEO content, it is important that the most result oriented keywords are used in the correct density. There are various SEO plugs as well which help you in optimizing your content including Word press. These plugs provide suitable suggestions for meta descriptions and headings so that the pages can be ranked highly. As compared to conventional marketing methods including television and print media, SEO costs a much smaller sum.
- Getting an expert opinion
If you are new to marketing methods and product promotion planning, it is very important to get a professional advice from an expert. Marketing experts can help you in cutting down on your budget and choosing product specific promotion methods. Thus, before you make a marketing plan, sit down with an expert and share your thoughts. Certain marketing experts do not charge anything for a piece of advice. Having a professional opinion can help you in starting positively.
- Hiring an expert is better than the “Do It Yourself” option
There is nothing bad about doing the marketing work yourself particularly if you want to work with a higher level of creativity. However, on a comparative scale, an expert would produce faster and better results because product marketing would be his domain. On the other, you as a business owner would have to go through a lengthy learning process. Marketing your own product is not only about reading books and digging deep into theoretical principles. Hence, if you want your product or set of services to start on a flying note, there is nothing bad about spending money on a marketing expert.
- Cut down on the number of pages
There is no point in turning your website into a thesis paper because this practice does not work. Today, most visitors do not even go beyond the home page. Hence, try to keep the number of website pages to a minimum. This would help the customer in grasping the presented information in a better way.
- Do not initiate multiple campaigns together
As a business owner, if you are running multiple campaigns at a time or focusing on more than one product, there is every chance that things would get messed up. Thus, plan the marketing activities and ensure that you are using techniques that would help the product grow and get recognized. These days, it is not necessary to spend large sums of money to get your product known. Through social media, you can use the correct techniques and get your product known in an easy manner.
- Initial planning and risk management
Starting a marketing campaign without any prior planning can be a big problem. In other words, there is every chance that you would lose your investment without any results. Before you invest any money, ensure that you have done your homework. Distribute your marketing strategy into smaller tasks and identify the potential risks that each one of them has. You can also get a free expert advice and see where you are going wrong.
- Get involved
You can never achieve the best results from your marketing campaign until you are heavily involved. Whether you are doing things yourself or hiring a professional consultant, you should be sure about each stage of the marketing process. Leaving everything on the marketing consultant without getting involved can result in not achieving any positive results after spending your hard earned money.
- Consider in-house professionals for product marketing
There is no doubt that outsourcing the entire marketing campaign and getting the plan developed by an expert saves a lot of time and energy. On the other hand, this also expands your financial budget. Thus, it is better to accomplish the tasks yourself and hire an in house team for this purpose.
Author bio: Usman Raza is a marketing specialist at Zen Sleep and Keeva Organics. Aside from doing digital marketing and helping clients get new customers, when not working there is a 95% chance he is praying with his family. Follow him on Facebook @usmanraza40 and Twitter @usmanintrotech