These are challenging times for marketers. The lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, economic inflation, supply chain disruption, and the cost-of-living crisis are all causing companies and consumers to tighten their belts. In a climate like this, marketing budgets don’t tend to increase and can even be reduced. To make things worse, the cost of advertising is rising. Meta’s cost per thousand (CPM) has increased 61% year on year, while Google’s programmatic display CPMs have increased 75%, with search ad cost-per-clicks going up 14%.
At times like these, you need to do more with less. So, we’ve put together these tips to help your marketing budget go further.
Automatically triggered emails for abandoned carts or recent purchases are a cost-effective and powerful way to recover potential lost business and give customers more incentives to revisit you. Especially when approximately 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, and 50% of opened and clicked abandoned cart emails lead to a recovered purchase.
With a stretched budget, you should rethink your strategy. Thankfully, there are plenty of cost-effective channels ecommerce businesses can use. TikTok, for instance, is free to join and requires only a small marketing budget to test. With costs considerably lower than Facebook and other major social media companies, TikTok is now the most valuable platform for DTC advertisers.
Costing 62% less than outbound marketing and generating three times as many leads, content marketing can be really impactful when done right. Blogging is particularly effective, with small businesses that blog getting 126% more lead growth than those that don’t and creating up to 434% more search engine-indexed pages on your site.
For blogging to be effective, you’ll need a strategy. Researching the best topics and SEO keywords can make your content much more effective, and while there’s much more to SEO than just using keywords, it’s an excellent place to start. SEO is a long-term initiative, so don’t expect instant results, but the payoff can be huge if it works. For distribution on a budget, look to your social channels.
When considering different channels, try to optimise your input for the best possible returns. One way to do this is with the hub and spoke model. If you pour significant effort and budget into one stellar piece of content (your hub), you can use cheaper, more diverse pieces across different channels to point back to it (your spokes). This way, you can cast a wider net while focusing your resources where they’ll have the greatest effect.
While employing the hub and spoke model, or any digital marketing strategy, some of your content should be topical. You need to pay attention to current trends and try to tap into the interest they generate. The problem with time-sensitive content is that you have to keep allocating time and budget to make more of it. That’s why evergreen content is essential. If the expensive hub in your hub and spoke model is evergreen, you can invest in renewing your cheaper spokes without having to blow your budget on an entirely new strategy.
Word of mouth is a cost-effective channel; if you build community effectively, your loyal customers do some of your marketing for you. User-generated content is a big deal, with 93% of customers calling it ‘very helpful’ when purchasing. You can create valuable content at a low to no cost by creating hashtags, sending out sample products to reviewers and influencers, designing contests, or auditing fan photos. Even requesting a review after completing a purchase can help raise your brand awareness and rankings on ecommerce platforms.
Find out more about community building in our whitepaper on brand-led communities.
Whether on a blog or social media, the importance of regular posting can’t be overstated. It’s not a good look if a customer visits your blog or profile and sees you haven’t posted in six months. Whether social or search, you’re at the mercy of an algorithm, so a constant stream of content is essential to maintain your rankings.
Two heads are better than one, and by partnering up strategically with complementary brands, you can double your reach and even open up entirely new markets. Try compiling a list of potential partners, then reach out to discuss how a relationship might be mutually beneficial. You could arrange a giveaway, run an event, or develop a special edition product carrying both brands.
The small things can make a big difference. 90% of UK customers say they’re loyal to brands that share their values, and it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t value a little extra consideration. While investing in custom packaging or free gifts might be difficult on a budget, personal touches like a handwritten thank you note cost practically nothing and can make a huge difference.
Ecommerce marketing is as much an art as it is a science, but with more information in front of you and a stronger idea of your inbound marketing budget and how it’s allocated, your efforts will be more effective.
With Juni, creating a marketing budget breakdown and managing it alongside your other cash flow needs is easier than ever. Our all-in-one platform lets ecommerce businesses simplify admin and get a full view of their accounts and services on one smart dashboard with over 2,400 integrations, making managing your marketing budget and strategy simpler.
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