5 eCommerce Marketing Tips for SMEs on a Budget (4 minute read)

5 eCommerce Marketing Tips for SMEs on a Budget

Are you stuck with a low marketing budget? Don't give up. The best part about eCommerce marketing is that you can do it with virtually any budget. The variety of strategies and tactics designed specifically for eCommerce makes it easy to choose the best ones for your goals without breaking the bank.

To help you create an effective eCommerce marketing strategy on a budget, we want to share five simple tips.

1. Explore Content Marketing

Content marketing generates 200% more leads than outbound marketing and costs 62% less. By providing high-quality content to your audience, you achieve a variety of marketing goals, including:

●       Increasing brand awareness

●       Climbing to the top spots of SERPs (with some help from SEO)

●       Establishing yourself as an expert in the industry

●       Generating leads

●       Retaining customers

The best part about creating content is that it requires little money (or sometimes no money at all, if your team excels in writing). Meanwhile, each piece of content you create can be adapted and reused for different marketing channels. Once you post a blog or an article, it continues working for you for many years.

According to HubSpot, 55% of marketers believe that blog content creation is their number one inbound marketing priority. The more high-quality blog posts you create, the easier it can be to reach your marketing goals. Meanwhile, blogs give you an excellent opportunity to interact with your audience and get valuable feedback.

Image by expresswriters from Pixabay

Key low-budget content marketing tactics to consider include:

●       Writing different content for different segments of your target audience.

●       Taking advantage of such tools as Google Trends and AnswerThePublic to discover keyword and blog ideas.

●       Creating content based on your core values, facts, and expertise.

●       Studying what competitors are doing and learning from their success or failure.

●       Adding emotional keywords to your headlines.

●       Giving your audience a behind-the-scenes experience (show them how your team is working).

●       Writing guest posts to improve your link-building efforts.

Overall, content marketing can be time-consuming but never expensive. You can start implementing it immediately even with a $0 budget.

2. Take Advantage of Social Media Platforms

Another way to promote your brand and products is to create a following on social media. Many marketers believe that the only way to do this is by paying for ads. In reality, many social media marketing tactics don't require a high budget.

●       Creating high-quality shareable content (you can adapt and reuse content from your website).

●       Working with your competition to promote each other (this effective tactic is free).

●       Being active and engaged across as many platforms as you can handle (as long as your audience uses them).

●       Following influencers and getting inspired by their strategies.

●       Arranging contests and giveaways to build a following.

What about paid ads? If your budget is small, it doesn't mean you have to say "no" to paid advertising. You simply need to choose the right platform and right form of advertising. The current average costs per click are: 

●       Twitter — around $0.38

●       Instagram — $0.5 — $1

●       Facebook — around $0.97

●       Pinterest — around $1.50

By studying your audience and figuring out which platforms work the best, you can set up a low-budget paid advertising strategy. When complemented by other marketing tactics, such a strategy can yield excellent results.

3. Turn Existing Customers into Brand Ambassadors

Why should you spend your money on marketing when your customers can do it for free? More than 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know more than they trust advertising.

You can take advantage of word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) with a variety of tactics:

●       Rewarding your loyal customers (even a small gift can become a catalyst for WOMM).

●       Encouraging user-generated content on social media.

●       Sharing customer reviews across as many channels as possible.

●       Giving customers the ability to rate your products on the website.

●       Creating a referral program.

●       Appealing to industry influencers by quoting them in your content and offering free products for testing.

●       Going above and beyond with customer service.

●       Asking for reviews and feedback.

WOMM works while you are busy designing other marketing tactics. It doesn't require a lot of time or a high budget.

4. Power Up Your Email Marketing Efforts

Email marketing has a huge ROI, which with the right approach can reach 4400%. One of the reasons behind a high ROI is the low cost of marketing tactics. Once you get a customer's email address, you can start working on converting and retaining them without breaking the bank.

The tough part is acquiring these email addresses. To build a robust email list, you can take advantage of the following tactics:

●       Designing lead magnets (offer useful pieces of content in exchange for an email address).

●       Asking customers to share their email addresses before making a purchase.

●       Adding a CTA to sign up or share contact details to each piece of content on your website.

●       Taking advantage of pop-ups on your website.

●       Asking website visitors to participate in a survey.

●       Promoting your email newsletter on social media platforms.

●       Offering incentives for signing up or sharing email (e.g., sign up now and get 5% off your first purchase).

Building a large email list could take a while. Thankfully, the process is just as inexpensive as the rest of the email marketing tactics.

5. Work with Influencers

Influencer marketing is highly effective. According to a recent survey, 82% of consumers are highly likely to follow an influencer's recommendation.

One post from an influencer with the mention of your brand could get you thousands of followers and potential customers. You can collaborate with like-minded people with significant reach to help market your products.

Influencers don't work for free. However, the marketing budget for such a collaboration doesn't have to be huge. Even a micro-influencer can get you the leads you need. The key to successful low-budget influencer marketing is finding the right people to work with.

No matter how small your marketing budget is, it's sufficient to promote your business. By seeking out the right tactics and designing an efficient eCommerce marketing strategy, you can market your business on a budget.

If you'd like to learn more about the best marketing tactics for your business, drop us a message at any convenient time.