Setup Low-Cost Social Media Campaigns With These 7 Tips

Social media has many advantages for businesses of all sizes, such as –

1. You can boost brand awareness at a low cost.
2. You can improve traffic to your Website.
3. You can offer better customer service.
4. You can develop brand loyalty.
5. You can gain more in-depth insight into your audience and the marketplace.
6. And, you can establish brand credibility.

However, if you are a startup or a one-person-show (i.e. an artist, designer, freelancer), there’s a huge possibility that you might not have a fancy budget in place to make the most of social media’s benefits. Figuring out a posting schedule, obtaining nice artwork and planning an ad budget can be intimidating. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of seven tips to help you setup a low-cost social media campaign.

1. Start With An Editorial Calendar

An editorial calendar will help you see how many posts you need each month, further segmented into different categories – i.e. testimonials, product shots, videos, contests, throwback/flashback posts, blog links, etc. This will be the most important step in keeping your social media campaigns low-cost – planning prevents unnecessary expenditure on unneeded posts and/or urgent last-minute creatives. Furthermore, it helps you pick which posts truly deserve a paid push-out.

2. Curate Your Content

Based on the editorial calendar you’ve formed, you can then figure out which creatives can be sourced for free through sites, such as Canva, Unsplash and Pixabay. And, you can also pin-point which creatives truly need a graphic designer to work their magic on. This will help you keep your graphic design budget to a bare minimum.

Many social media pros also emphasize the value of drawing user-generated content, too – not only do you engage with your audience base through this tactic, you also get free material. For example, you could run a contest that requires participants to take photos with your product(s) or send in a testimonial.

And, think of clever ways to repurpose existing content you have on file. Can you convert any blog posts into infographics? Can you present industry information out there in the public domain in a visually interesting way that’s easier to digest? Are there any user reviews/comments on your page you can convert to testimonials? Think, think, think!

Pro Tip – When working with graphic designers, create a mood board and detailed creative brief to minimize extra costs associated with too many revisions.

3. Tie-Up With Micro-Influencers

We’ve already looked at the benefits of working with micro-influencers in an earlier blog post. With a 7x higher engagement rate than bigger influencers, micro-influencers offer more value and sometimes even tie-up on a barter basis. Research ones suitable for your brand and collaborate!

4. Monitor Analytics

Low cost tools like Google Trends and Adwords will help you determine which content is performing best in the market, so you can make sure your social media content mix is offering audiences the right value. You can also track your Website’s analytics to see if your social media handles and ads are even redirecting customers to desired page(s).

Pro Tip – Try different content ideas and post timings to figure out what’s resonating the most with your TG.

5. Cross-Promote

This might seem fairly obvious, but you’d be surprised how often this gets overlooked. Make sure you add hyperlinked icons to your social media handles in emailers, official email signatures, your Website and whenever you guest post on other platforms, link back to your company’s social media handles, too. You might pick up more followers through this simple tip.

6. Use Ads Consistently

Simply putting great content out there doesn’t magically bring you thousands of followers. You need to invest in pushing content out so people know it actually exists. While you don’t need to spend big bucks on Facebook and Instagram ads, it is critical you chalk a small, but consistent budget to obtain more likes on your FB page and boost select posts throughout the month that are important. Learn to work your way around algorithms so your content is discovered all the time.

7. Less Is More

Lastly, be selective where you want to be. Rather than hopping onto any and every social media platform that exists, select 2-3 platforms at most that are genuinely relevant to your brand and dedicate your energy to them properly.

We hope these seven tips help you keep your costs low and campaign results high. If you need help with a social media strategy, contact Kiss Doodles right here.

Sources-
> https://neilpatel.com/blog/social-media-marketing-on-a-budget-the-4-step-approach-that-works/
> https://www.moovly.com/5-simple-low-cost-social-media-marketing-tips-for-small-businesses
> www.bluefountainmedia.com/blog/advantages-of-social-media-marketing