Marketing isn’t always expensive. You can start promoting your business or get out of a crisis situation without a big budget. In this article, we’ll talk about how to reduce marketing expenses and save on marketing without losing ground.
What will be discussed
- Find a copywriter
- Get familiar with analytics
- Calculate LTV
- Use cross-marketing
- Set up abandoned cart emails
- Test multiple promotion channels
- Work on advertising campaigns
- Buy services in installments
Find a copywriter
Marketing and copywriting go hand in hand. Textual content is needed for websites, social media, newsletters, and so on.
But where to get texts? At first, managers write themselves. Then they offer their subordinates to deal with it. The result is a decrease in productivity, blurred job responsibilities, and a lack of time for anything else.
The next step is ordering texts from an agency. This way, there is less hassle, and payment is only for the results. It’s a good solution, but still not cheap: agencies take their commission.
To save on content, find a copywriter yourself. A freelance writer can produce the necessary volume of text promptly and without overpaying.
For example, an agency charges $ 20 for texts. Theoretically, a copywriter could write them for $ 4. If the agency doesn’t charge extra for content placement, technically, you could save up to $ 165 per month.
📌 Read in the blog: How to calculate ROI, ROMI, ROAS?
Get familiar with analytics
Analytical data answers questions about whether the marketing budget is allocated correctly, which promotion channels are yielding results, which tools are effective, and which ones still need refinement.
Without analytics, it’s impossible to objectively assess the effectiveness of the work.
Let’s say you’re collaborating with a price aggregator. Your acceptable lead cost is $20. At the beginning, the aggregator provides leads for $12, but then increases the cost to $37.
If you systematically fail to review analytics and miss this moment, you’ll drain your budget.
Advice
Look at associated conversions in Google Analytics. Standard reports provide insights into conversions based on last-click attribution. However, in practice, several sources typically contribute to a single sale. Their role and impact are evaluated in associated conversions.
For example, a person visits your website from a price aggregator. After that, they Google and visit it again through organic search, and then through dynamic remarketing. Without delving into associated conversions, you might think that remarketing works best. However, three channels were involved in generating sales.
Calculate LTV
LTV (Lifetime Value) is the measure of a company’s profit from a single customer over the entire duration of their interaction with the company. This metric is also referred to as “customer lifetime value”.
Not all companies take LTV calculation seriously. However, this is a mistake. It can lead to the unprofitability of the business, as the cost of acquiring a new customer exceeds the profit from that customer.
The simple method of calculating LTV
LTV = average customer spend * number of sales (per month) * customer retention time (in months)
Throughout the year, the beauty salon welcomes a regular customer every month (once a month). The average bill is $63.
LTV = 63 * 1 * 12 = $ 756
What does knowing LTV provide?
Understanding the return on investment, effectiveness of customer acquisition channels, proper budget allocation, and precise targeting.
This is interesting
Many business owners consider a customer as loyal once they’ve made several purchases. They believe they’re not spending money to attract them anymore. This isn’t always the case. Check your analytics. It might show that the customer placed an order after clicking on an ad. They didn’t come to your business for free.
Ways to increase LTV
To increase LTV, you can leverage repeat purchases or increase the average customer spend. This can be achieved through email campaigns, loyalty programs, and remarketing.
Use cross-marketing
The advantage of affiliate marketing campaigns is that you pay for only a portion of the campaign, not the entire thing.
How to choose a partner for cross-marketing
Choose a reputable partner to maximize benefits from the campaign and avoid risks.
Ensure similarity between your target audiences, as it’s crucial for a successful campaign. It’s important that your products or services complement each other rather than directly compete. This way, you can prevent conflicts and customer migration to competitors.
Carefully assess the benefits of participating in such campaigns.
Advice
Gain more potential customer contacts through cross-marketing. Utilize them for further email campaigns, advertising efforts, and outreach initiatives.
Set up abandoned cart emails
Setting up the cart is an easy operation that will save you money.
A surefire way to persuade someone to complete an order is to send an email. Check the effectiveness of emails in analytics. If messages are rarely opened or do not generate sales, work on the email subject, text, and images.
It’s easier and cheaper to “retrieve” someone with an abandoned cart than to work with a cold audience.
Another effective tool is remarketing to people with abandoned carts. In social media, set up several such audiences and retarget them with relevant messages promptly.
Advice
In remarketing, it’s essential to periodically change your ad banners. When they become repetitive, campaign performance tends to decline.
If abandoned cart campaigns yield significant sales, consider sending reminders about orders via messenger apps and SMS.
Test multiple promotion channels
At the initial stages of a project, it’s challenging to determine which marketing channel will be effective. Test multiple channels simultaneously, analyze which ones yield the best results, and allocate your budget accordingly. This approach safeguards against wasting budget on tools that don’t generate sales.
Work on advertising campaigns
Make a plan for setting up advertising (strategy, working keywords, low cost per click). After that, experiment with banners, change the texts of the ads, add new ads to rotation, and review keywords. These actions can reduce advertising costs.
If you’re directing traffic to a landing page, make sure it’s well-designed. Address people’s doubts, add social proof (testimonials, photos, clients, case studies), order forms, etc. Without this, money spent on advertising may go to waste and not generate sales.
Engage AI
A subscription to ChatGPT costs about $20 per month. It helps generate texts and marketing ideas. We’ve covered this in detail in the article: ChatGPT: How to Use It and What to Be Afraid Of. The AI content detector Smodin can help review and adjust your content: it shows which parts need to be rewritten to make the text “more human”.
Purchase services in bulk
For a novice marketer or a small business owner, purchasing high-quality services may be financially challenging. Therefore, collaborate with like-minded individuals for joint purchases of necessary programs.
Considering the pros and cons, group buying is an economically advantageous solution, but only for the initial stages of work.
The benefits of crowdfunding
It’s cheap. If you need two services costing $ 125 each, you would already spend $ 250. Such purchases can be costly at the initial stages. In a group buying deal, these same two services could cost only $ 40 altogether.
The disadvantages of crowdfunding
You are violating the terms of service of the services. Some of them may have limits that prevent them from working at full capacity. Dishonest “neighbors” in the group buying deal may delete or steal your data (if you provided confidential information).
Frequently Asked Questions
LTV = average customer spend * number of sales (per month) * customer retention time (in months)
LTV (Lifetime Value) is the metric that represents the company’s profit from one customer over the entire duration of their interaction. This metric is also referred to as “customer lifetime value”.
— Find a copywriter
— Master analytics
— Calculate LTV
— Use cross-marketing
— Set up abandoned cart recovery
— Test multiple promotion channels
— Develop advertising campaigns
— Purchase services through group buying
— Optimize your Google advertising account
