Inflation, Gas Prices, and Your Business: How to Combat Rising Costs | LA Media Group
As a business owner, you're always looking for ways to cut costs. But what happens when the cost of goods starts to go up? Inflation has a ripple effect, which spreads across the board. Manufacturing, production, salaries, shipping, software, food, gasoline, and so on are all affected.
You must charge more for your own goods or services due to inflation. Consumers will be less likely to buy from you as a result of this. For most people, their priorities are more focused on financial issues than non-essential purchases. This can have a major impact on your bottom line, and it's important to stay ahead of the curve.
Digital marketing is a great approach to stay ahead of the curve. Businesses make the most typical error when they begin cutting expenses by eliminating their use of marketing. In this article, we'll explain why that's a big mistake and how keeping your digital marketing costs under control may actually work in your favor. We'll show you some of the most effective strategies for growing your business and keeping people coming back again and again.
So, how do you stand out from the competition?
1. Don’t rush to cut marketing expenses!
As mentioned earlier, when times get tough, most businesses RUSH to cut their marketing expenses to save on costs. What does that mean for you? TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT. While your competitors are stopping their advertising spend, you can capitalize on that opportunity by putting your products or services ahead of theirs and in front of your consumers. Don't follow the herd, stand out!
2. The use of first-party data.
Without this, you'll find yourself spending more and more money to keep traffic coming into your business. Let's discuss first-party data. What is it? First-party data is defined as data that your company has collected directly from your audience -- made up of customers, site visitors, and social media followers. "First party" refers to the party that collected the data firsthand to use for retargeting.
You know the saying... “If you give a man a fish, he will be hungry tomorrow. If you teach a man to fish, he will be rich forever.” Think about how that can relate to your own company, and why owning (and growing) your first-party data can keep your revenue flowing. Owning a healthy list of loyal customers can be the difference between succumbing or prospering during economic hardships.
Taking the time to learn how to create and manage your first-party data and then leverage it will keep your income high. How can you do that? Read on friends...
3. Automations play a major role!
The more automations you can set up, the less effort it takes to bring in new customers, and the less money you’ll be spending on manual labor. For example, setting up email marketing flows can help you continue to make sales while you sleep, literally! More on automations later.
4. Know the difference between traditional vs. digital marketing.
If you're looking to cut costs, then traditional marketing may not be right for you. The main difference between digital and traditional marketing is the medium through which an audience encounters a marketing message. While traditional marketing uses traditional media like magazines and newspapers, digital marketing uses digital media, such as social media platforms or websites.
If you're a small business owner, you want to use the most cost-effective marketing methods while achieving the greatest outcomes. Brand awareness is at the core of traditional marketing, but is that cost effective and will that produce short term results? Traditional marketing tactics like television advertisements, radio ads, magazine articles, billboards, bus wraps, and mailers limit your ability to target and identify your EXACT audiences while costing a lot of money.
In contrast, you may successfully reach a larger audience at a lower cost by using email marketing combined with sponsored social media and digital media initiatives.
So, what are some digital marketing techniques that your company may use to keep people coming in and boost revenues?
1. The use of email marketing.
Email marketing is a great way to connect with your consumers and keep them updated on new products, services, or sales. Customers who shop through your website or sign up for your email list can earn incentives or discounts, so you'll be able to gather more first-party data, which will help with retargeting and bringing them back to buy more.
So many businesses discount the use of email marketing, which is a common mistake. Email is very much still alive. In fact, your loyal customers are waiting for the chance to purchase when a sale or special offer comes around. Email provides the ability to get that information in front of them. Better yet, email provides you with the ability to share valuable information that will keep your customers engaged while building brand affinity.
2. Setting up automated email flows.
This is part of an automation strategy that can help your business increase revenue without doing any manual work! Email flows are a series of emails that go out to your potential or existing customers based on how they interact with your website. For example, you may create a pre-purchase flow that provides first-time buyers a discount by having them fill in their email address to receive an offer.
You can even create a customer win-back flow that gets sent to customers that have not engaged with your business in 60 or 90 days, letting them know you miss them, with the intent of getting them to come back and make another purchase. With the use of email flows, you are able to grow your customer list while providing valuable data to new and existing customers or leads.
Email flows can help you earn a significant amount of your overall income. If you aren't using this incredible strategy, you are potentially leaving a ton of revenue on the table.
3. Content development.
Producing blogs is not only healthy for building and maintaining strong SEO in the long-term, but will help provide valuable data to your existing customers. Blogs can be sent out via email with the intent of driving customers back to your website, where the use of shoppable items may be spread throughout the article. This may ultimately result in sales, even though your business did not directly ask for the sale.
By developing valuable content, you are building your brand affinity and keeping your list healthy. Many of your customers don't always want to be sold to. Sometimes, it's important to give your brand a voice outside of the products you sell.
4. Paid social media campaigns.
Remember we talked about the mistake people often make as it relates to cutting marketing costs, and how your business can stay ahead of the curve? Well, as many businesses decide to jump off paid social platforms in an attempt to cut costs, you should be capitalizing on it.
By staying in front of your potential customers with the right messaging and creatives, their losses become your gains. In addition to that, you benefit from the following:
You expose yourself to a nationwide (or global) audience.
You can convert cold audiences into warm audiences, resulting in higher conversions.
You increase the traffic coming into your website, where your automated flows will start to work for you.
You increase your first-party data and healthily grow your email lists.
You can retarget customers who are on the fence about purchasing your products with different messaging techniques and creatives.
You can accurately measure data and make necessary changes to your website based on user behavior.
There are other strategies that you can consider once traffic begins to flow and customers are engaging with your brand. For example:
The use of continuous organic social media posting via platforms like facebook, instagram, linkedin, tiktok, and more.
The use of SEO and strengthening your visibility on search platforms.
While these methods are more focused on long-term growth, our goal is to provide you with the most cost effective, yet fastest way to achieve overall success. Maintaining a healthy social media presence will keep your followers engaged when you release new products, offers, announcements, and more. However, the quickest way to begin scaling your business is to focus on key performance strategies that will help you grow your customer base and keep them purchasing for years to come.
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- Leeron Cohen Ceo, LA Media Group
If you’re serious about scaling your business to new heights, visit us at LAMediagrp.com/grow and book your free consultation call with us! - LA Media Group specializes in helping businesses like yours succeed online with affordable digital marketing services.
