Every person who’s ever started a business has asked themselves this question at one point or another. You’ve spent all this time building your company to be what you want it to be, and now you’re at the point where you have to actually make sales. Getting other people to buy into your company is one of the hardest barriers new companies face, and this article will focus on how to increase those sales with a limited budget.
Why You Should Dedicate A Budget to Marketing
Full disclosure, the question originally posed to me also included how to ramp up sales with no budget. But I’m not going to speak to that. Instead, I’m going to speak to why you should dedicate a portion of your budget to driving sales. There’s the old adage of “you have to spend money to make money,” and while that may not always be the case, I’m here to tell you that you should spend money on trying to make money. The money that you dedicate to marketing your business is money that you’re spending to grow your business. And if you’re not willing to invest in growing your business, or even getting business, what are you willing to spend money on?
Choose A Method + Make Sure It’s Measurable
There are so many ways to market a business these days. The most important way to narrow down your options is to make sure whatever method you choose is measurable. Radio ads are a cheap way to reach lots of people, but you can’t track the results very well, if at all. My favorite way to market on a low budget is through Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads.
Why Market Through Google PPC
Google PPC ads are the best way to reach your target audience on a small budget for multiple reasons:
- It’s trackable– You can see exactly how many website visitors, phone calls, leads, purchases, etc. you receive from the money you spend. To find your profit, simply subtract the cost to Google from the revenue you received from those conversions.
- Reach people who are looking for you– When you use Google search ads, you can choose to show ads to people who are actively searching for what you do. For example, if you’re a plumber, you would choose to show an ad to someone searching for “plumbers near me.”
- Specific location targeting– You can also choose to only show ads to people in a select area. For example, if you’re opening up a store in Spanish Fork, UT, you may choose to only show ads within a 10-mile radius of Spanish Fork.
- You set your daily budget– Figure out how much you want to spend each day and set the daily budget equal to that amount. That’s all you’ll pay per day.
- You are only charged when someone clicks on your ad– That means if someone does a search, sees your ad, and doesn’t click on it, you got a free impression.
- Easy to determine what works and what doesn’t– Because it’s so easily trackable, you can see exactly which keywords are driving leads and which are not. Then you can adjust accordingly.
Find What Sticks and Scale Later
Come up with a budget that works for you to start out. I typically recommend testing with $500-$1000 initially depending on your industry. Create a small, targeted account and try it out. See what search terms stick and what audiences stick. Then determine the ROI of the account. If it makes sense, put more money into it.
If you want more information on marketing for small businesses, reach out to me at [email protected].
Sebo periodically hosts boot camp, each date runs from 9-5. Topics will include Value Per Visitor, Google’s Marketing Tools, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, and Conversion Rate Optimization. Also, lunch will be provided! It’s not necessary for anyone to come to both because they cover the same material. Spots are limited and RSVP is required, find your spot here.