What if you can’t afford marketing?

Although we specialize in working with smaller companies, there are some companies that are so small and on such a tight budget that they can’t afford to pay anyone to handle marketing. It’s a very frustrating situation, especially if the need is great. Here are a few workarounds to consider:

1. Sit down with your team to determine what hidden marketing skills they have. For example, many sales reps know how to use basic tools like MS Publisher to create marketing materials.

2. Determine the marketing jobs that absolutely need to get done, create a simple schedule and designate the employee that is responsible for each. Everyone will be enthusiastic at first—the elusive key to success is long-term consistency.

3. If you have an admin, part of their job should be weekly social posts and biweekly emails. Neither of these things requires great writing skills.

4. Look for the simplest possible versions of basic marketing tools—i.e. Constant Contact for emails and HubSpot for social posts. As a general rule, the easiest-to-use versions are the least expensive.

5. Start adding other marketing tools that are easy to set up, cost effective, simple for everyone to use and valuable. There are a surprising number of great analytics tools that require nothing more than adding a line of code to your website—I’m sure you know about Google Analytics, but how about MS Clarity—also free?

What you really can’t work around are professional level writing skills, graphic design and web development (although more and more non-developers can handle Wordpress basics). When you get to the point where you need one or more of these capabilities on a regular basis, transition to a marketing consultant. A consultant will always be significantly more cost effective than an employee. The tradeoff is that a consultant will never know your business as well as employee—so choose a consultant that at least knows your industry well.

For a no cost discussion of your situation and how we can leverage metrics-based content development to grow your business call 630-363-8081 or email jeanna@smartprcommunications.com.