Five Small Business Budget Myths Debunked

Insufficient budget is often a reason for many small businesses NOT to do something. “We don’t have the budget to hire another employee if we launch a marketing campaign. We can’t afford to spruce up the storefront right now if we’re running ads. We won’t be able to provide sustainable packaging until next year the way things are going …”

Even though many of your decisions are controlled by budget, there are myths about small business marketing budgets that might unnecessarily be holding you back. Below are five small business marketing budget myths that are complete fiction.

Do any of these myths sound like something you’ve said? Turns out, you can accomplish a lot more than you’d think on a small business budget – marketing included.

Don’t listen to these marketing budget myths.

Myth #1: You Don’t Need Content Marketing

Content marketing has a reputation for being rather expensive. As a small business, it may seem like you don’t need to ding your budget on content marketing because you won’t outrank your corporate competition anyway – so what’s the point?

Well, content marketing is about a lot more than outranking the competition. Here are some of the many benefits of content marketing for small businesses:

• It increases brand trustworthiness.
• It generates leads and backlinks. Backlinks improve domain authority.
• Content marketing provides social and email content.
• It can be free if you decide to dedicate your own time to researching and creating a strategy.

Want to learn how to calculate the ROI of SEO and content marketing? Check out this blog by Oneupweb, our sister company.

Myth #2: You Don’t Need a Website If You’re Active on Social Media

Many small business owners think they don’t have the time to manage social media profiles and a website. After all, what’s the point of going through the hassle of creating and maintaining a website if you’re already putting in endless hours on social media promoting your business?

The reason why you need a website is that it serves as your business’s digital home, whereas your social media profiles are like digital billboards around your neighborhood. Consumers may find you on social media, or even make purchases from you on social media, but you need a website so your audience has a place to land. In fact, consumers now expect businesses to have websites.

Your website should have all the information on your social media platforms and then some. Make sure your contact information is updated. Add an About page or a blog. Consider including a COVID-19 message communicating how your business is responding to the crisis. Other things you could add to your website might include:

• Customer reviews
• Portfolio of work
• Product and service pages
• Brand videos

You simply don’t have enough freedom on social media platforms to add all this information. With websites, you can even track user behavior, so you know exactly what content will work on social media. Your website and social media profiles can work together, but you need both for a successful business in this digital age.

Myth #3: You Need a Huge Marketing Budget to be Successful

As a small business owner, you’ve surely heard this phrase before: “Your time is your most valuable asset.” And when it comes to marketing your small business, it’s the truth. If you’re willing to invest your time into marketing your business, you have everything you’ll need to be successful.

One thing to consider is that there will be aspects of your marketing journey that requires educating yourself. Whether it’s Google Analytics, Google My Business, content marketing and SEO, or anything else, you may need to factor in time to teach yourself how to best leverage these free tools to your advantage.

That’s where an agency could potentially come in and make your life a little easier (if you have some budget and would prefer to spend your time elsewhere, like operations or managing staff).

Myth #4: It’ll Market Itself

If it’s good enough, it’ll market itself. You have a good product. We believe you. Sadly, you’ll need to market it if you want to get heard over all the noise other brands are making. You could have the best coffee maker in the industry and still lose visibility to the likes of Keurig. Word-of-mouth marketing is powerful, yes, but also fickle. Include word-of-mouth marketing in your strategy, but don’t rely on it completely.

Myth #5: You Don’t Need Market Research

Think you know your customers? Think again. When you understand your customer base, you understand how to help them. After all, you don’t want to waste your time and money going after the completely wrong audience. Or even worse, targeting the right audience in the wrong way, alienating them forever. However you spend your small budget, it should be on efforts that are directed at the right audience and that speak to them in the right way.

Marketing Budget Breakdown for Small Businesses

We’re used to working with small businesses. In fact, we’re a small business ourselves. We know how to work with other small businesses and help them market themselves to the right audience in the right way. We have teams dedicated to content marketing and SEO, website development, social media and market research. We’ve got all your bases covered.

When you’re ready to reach out, give us a call at 231.882.1100.