- What You Can Do With A $500 Online Advertising Budgets
- What You Can Do With A $500 Online Advertising Budgeting
“I’m a new immigration attorney, and I’ve allocated $500 for paid advertisements. What are your thoughts on paid Google AdWords v. Facebook Ads?”
Good question to which is there is no right answer (but that won’t stop me).
So, the major investment is about having an eCommerce platform to showcase products and services. Generally, a simple website development can cost you around $2000-$5000, while building an online store may double this amount. So, this post is drafted to help you manage all the expenses within the $500 budget. First off, $500 isn’t much money in the world of online advertising. It’s not uncommon for small firms to spend thousands of dollars per month. That seems like a lot of money, but it’s comparable to what many small firms spent back in the day on phone book ads. It’s not extraordinary, and they do it because it’s sustainable.
First off, $500 isn’t much money in the world of online advertising. It’s not uncommon for small firms to spend thousands of dollars per month. That seems like a lot of money, but it’s comparable to what many small firms spent back in the day on phone book ads. It’s not extraordinary, and they do it because it’s sustainable. They spend, they get new clients, they repeat.
With that kind of money, I’d start very small and have very small expectations. I’m tempted to tell you to not even try if that’s what you’ve got, but I also have a friend who is crushing it with a spend of even less than $500 per month, so what do I know? If you have the energy, then go for it.
- With a budget of less than $1,000, two weeks time to launch something and a plan to donate all profits to charity, I set out to find the answer. In week one of the experiment, I landed on the idea.
- You can manage one social account per platform — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google+ — for free forever. If you want to manage more accounts, the Awesome Plan is just $10/month. With Awesome, you can manage your brand’s accounts plus keep your personal queues full, too.
Now, where should you spend it? Google or Facebook?
Again, there’s no right answer (and, again, here I go…).
Google vs. Facebook
Both Facebook and Google advertising work for lawyers. Generally, Google works best when prospects have a need to purchase and are hunting for a lawyer. Facebook works best for helping people gain awareness of your existence in a more general way. Each has its place.
Generally, I’ve found that Google is the place for quick and measurable results. Unfortunately, Google has, in many markets, a very high cost per click. You can spend a small fortune on Google in the blink of an eye. Sometimes that high cost is justified. In some instances, however, the high cost is the result of uninformed lawyers bidding up the price of ads without carefully measuring their return.
On the other hand, Facebook tends to require more creativity and subtlety. Results from Facebook tend to take longer. You can advertise on Facebook without spending much money, depending on your approach. Sometimes it’s actually hard to spend money on Facebook because your audience may be small or your click-through rate might be weak. Of course, Facebook has all sorts of ideas to help you accelerate your spending.
Facebook keeps introducing new and clever ways to help you promote your practice. Some of its approaches, while technically advertising, are more subtle and look more like posts in the feed than what we think of as advertising. Facebook is offering a multitude of novel approaches. I know some immigration and adoption attorneys using Facebook with remarkable success. (I suspect it’s because these practice areas present more opportunities for “sharing.”)
The Bottom Line
You’ve got to experiment and figure out what works. I’d encourage you to tackle one idea at a time and learn everything you can before you commit your money. Move slowly and cautiously, and carefully track your investment, calls, consults, retainers, and revenues. Track every penny you spend and determine your return on investment.
Before you spend the money on advertising, ask yourself whether you’d be better off investing the funds in taking some possible referral sources to lunch. Lunch might not be your thing. Each of us has to find the marketing approach that suits our practice and our personality. Give that question some thought before you commit to the spend.
Online advertising works. It’s putting real money in the real pockets of lots of attorneys. The key is to find the sweet spot and exploit it while it lasts. You want to find the right ad and put it in front of the right audience at the right time. You’ve got to do it at the lowest possible cost and have the highest possible impact. It’s tricky, but it can be done.
Just because you’re working with a small marketing budget doesn’t mean you can’t get a lot of bang for your buck. A budget of $500 may seem light, but there are plenty of affordable marketing strategies that can help you acquire the leads and customers you need to start building a respectable revenue stream.
Here is a list of various marketing strategies you can implement with only $500.
Postcard Marketing
Because many businesses have shifted their budget to digital marketing, the number of junk mail a household receives has decreased over the years. This means that there will be significantly less competition with a direct mail campaign. Direct Mail postcards produce a 5.1% average response rate.
One of the most cost-effective ways to go about your direct mail campaign is to use custom postcards. Postcards are useful for several reasons.
What You Can Do With A $500 Online Advertising Budgets
- Receivers don’t need to open them (half the battle) to see your offer.
- Postage and printing costs are both low and affordable.
- Well-designed postcards stand out in comparison to regular mail.
Partner Up with Other Businesses
One of the best ways to acquire new customers is to form a partnership with a business that’s related to yours but not in direct competition with you. This can be anything from cross promotions, referral systems to marketing each other’s products/services.
To make partnerships work, you have to make the deal a win-win relationship. That’s why you want to approach businesses that are at the same level as you. You also need to ensure that both parties deliver a similar amount of value to each other, or the partnership won’t last long. Take the necessary measures to ensure you deliver on your end and also have a way to make your partners accountable for their part.
Win the Inbox
Email marketing is one of the most affordable marketing strategies you can utilize. Subscribe to an email marketing platform like Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, or SendGrid. They cost around $10 to $20 a month for the standard plans and pricing only scales up as your email list size grows.
Success with email marketing comes down to creating strong campaigns and using your analytics for optimization. According to the DMA, every $1 spent on email marketing can return an average of $38 when the campaign appropriately executed.
Loyalty Programs
While most businesses offer up-sells, cross-sells, and use follow up marketing campaigns to sell more products, very few have a loyalty program in place. A loyalty program is one of the best ways to keep customers coming back again and again.
The incentive will help persuade clients to continue choosing your products and services over those of your competitors. The trick to a winning loyalty program is to make sure you engage your customers and provide valuable rewards. Make sure the rewards are irresistible, and your customers can efficiently manage their rewards points.
Referral Program
An effective way to generate new customers with a small marketing budget is to create a referral program. The program is designed to reward your current customers for bringing their friends and family to your business. You can reward clients by providing them with exclusive discounts, offering them free products/services, or just paying them a flat commission for the referral.
While you can set up something like an affiliate program, it’s often better if you can keep things simple. For example, companies like T-Mobile pay their customers a $50 prepaid credit card when they refer somebody, and that person opens a new account with the company.
Sam’s club is another example. They encourage members to refer their friends. For each referral that joins, a $10 gift card is mailed to the existing club member, and a $20 gift card is sent to the referral. Be sure to offer rewards to both the referred client and your current client.
Content Marketing
Content marketing has become one of the most effective digital marketing strategies over the last few years. The reason why is because it synergizes well with other approaches like blogging, SEO, brand marketing, and social media marketing. It is an inbound marketing strategy that helps you generate leads while establishing authority and credibility through your content.
The Importance of E-A-T
Does your content meet the E-A-T requirements? E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthy. Content is essential and Google is continuously crawling websites to make sure users are getting an excellent online experience and if the content meets their standards. Put your users and readers first!
This strategy is very cost-effective because you can create your original content, repurpose existing content, or curate content from existing publishers. It’s estimated that content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing.
The challenge comes down to figuring out what kind of content you should create for your target audience and how to make sure that it gets into their hands.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is often a go-to for businesses working with small budgets. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn all have tools that can help you acquire leads and customers.
For example, Facebook has a local review system, check-in feature, and various call to action functions that allow your visitors to do everything from schedule appointments, buy products, contact you, or subscribe to your email list.
You can make social media work for your business with a grassroots approach. It’s all about being creative with your social media content and learning how to build a following. Managing multiple social media accounts and being consistent with your posts is a must, but can be challenging.
Fortunately, tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer can help you manage, schedule, and automate your social media posts across multiple platforms.
Use Printed Marketing Material
You may think that using printed marketing material is outdated, but it can still generate great results for your business. There are numerous instances of a customer walking into a restaurant after being handed a flyer or other print material that contains their menu, photos of their food, and special deals.
What You Can Do With A $500 Online Advertising Budgeting
You want to start by getting straight to the point and providing a unique sales proposition. Why should customers stop what they’re doing and visit your business or website? Follow up by explaining the features and benefits of you’re offering. Provide clear instructions along with a strong call to action.
It’s helpful to include redeemable discount coupons on the bottom or back of your flyer. Even if the person doesn’t take action right away, they might save the flyer for future redemption.
Don’t assume a small budget will limit your ability to market and grow your business. It’s all about using the right marketing channels, strategies, and being creative about your approach.
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