How to reduce marketing spend but still make an impact during lockdown
The Covid-19 crisis might seem like the ideal time for many businesses to actually be carrying out more marketing. Many people are stuck at home and will be using social media, the internet, and their TVs, meaning that there is a much larger audience to be marketed to currently. However, recently released statistics reveal that just 7% of businesses are upping their marketing spend through lockdown.
And it is not that businesses don’t recognise the opportunity - but rather than there simply is less money around to spend on activities such as marketing. If your business is in this situation then the smart thing to do may be to find ways to reduce your marketing spending but still make a powerful impact.
Here we take a look at some of the ways you can spend less on marketing but get the results as if you were spending more.
Be smarter with paid ads
The first thing to say is that there is a need to be smarter in terms of your paid advertising. Spending significantly on PPC ads can take out a huge amount of your marketing budget, and it may be the case that you simply aren’t being as careful as you need to be. Now is the perfect time to fix that.
Firstly, are you making use of all of the available channels? Many businesses only spend on PPC ad campaigns with Google, but it could be the case that you could benefit from Facebook, Instagram, or even Twitter marketing.
Take advantage of traditional marketing materials
It is worth remembering that with the majority of the country under lockdown there are many more people at home than usual. This is why it could be the perfect time to invest in traditional physical marketing materials.
Sending out a leaflet or a brochure campaign could be a way to target and reach customers who have never purchased from you before. And the fact is that it is now easier and cheaper than ever before to get traditional marketing materials produced, so there is no need for this to be an extremely expensive part of your budget.
Up your content marketing game
When you are thinking about which areas of marketing are most important to invest in at the moment, consider which are going to offer the best value. One of the most vital is that of content marketing. Content marketing has grown in popularity in recent years because it is very cheap and very effective.
Best of all it can be tailored to your specific niche, so you know that you are producing work that will directly appeal to those in your target market. Producing great content is not expensive, and customers are always eager to consume great quality material.
Social media
It is also important to invest in social media as much as possible. Once again, social media allows you the chance to carry out free marketing and direct it at the exact consumers that you are looking to bring into your brand.
Once again, the key is that social media usage is up significantly through lockdown, so it can provide you with a lot more eyes on your product than usual.
Do something positive
Journalists face challenging times over the Covid-19 lockdown. People want to read interesting stories that go beyond the pains of being under lockdown, but stories are difficult to come across. Yes, journalists do have the opportunity to leave their homes to cover stories - but the simple fact is that less is happening!
This is an opportunity for businesses and journalists. Why not have your business do something positive for the community - this could be anything from providing help to vulnerable people to doing something for the NHS.
You can then record all of the details and provide the story to journalists in the form of a press release. Ultimately it is a win-win situation as your company is doing something that benefits everyone, and you are getting press coverage because of it. This strategy has worked very effectively for BrewDog during lockdown.
Final thoughts
More effective marketing doesn’t mean having to spend more money, but rather being smarter about the present situation and doing what you can to make the most of it. Lockdown has changed things significantly, so it only makes sense that your business should look for ways to change with the times.