Facebook ads are typically cheaper than Google ads but have a smaller reach, while Google ads often cost more but can target a larger pool of potential customers.

Organic growth and word of mouth can turn an idea into a small business. However, paid advertising can be key for scaling up. Ecommerce companies have no shortage of online advertising platforms to choose from, but the decision may come down to the industry leaders: In Google Ads versus Facebook Ads, which is the best for your business goals?

In this article, we’ll help you answer that question by teaching you about both ad platforms.

Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads: similarities and differences

Which online advertising platform is better for your business’s needs? While they offer some similar benefits, you must consider the distinctions when deciding how to spend your ad budget. Here’s how Google Ads and Facebook Ads compare:

Reach

• How they’re similar: Google and Facebook are dominant in their respective fields (search engines for Google and social media for Facebook).
• How they’re different: Google’s reach is unparalleled—it is the most visited website in the world. While Facebook has three billion monthly users, Google is on a different scale, with nearly three billion searches per minute. 

Targeting options

• How they’re similar: Both Google Ads and Facebook Ads offer demographic targeting.
• How they’re different: While Google leans more on keywords to find an audience for ads, Facebook is able to use its user data to pinpoint a business’s ideal customer.

Ad formats 

• How they’re similar: Both ad platforms offer multiple ad formats. 
• How they’re different: Google Ads’ most popular ad, the Google search ad, is text-only. Google display ads include an image, but offer less options for creativity. Facebook Ads, however, offer greater flexibility. They are typically more visually driven and include images, videos, and carousels. 

What are Google Ads?

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) are targeted pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements, so you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. These ads appear on Google searches, the Google Display Network—a group of more than two million websites—and Google properties such as Gmail and YouTube.

How do Google Ads work?

Google Ads offers a variety of ad types, most notably paid search ads, which run text-only on a search engine results page (SERP) based on both relevancy to search words and how much the advertiser paid for those keywords. Other popular ad formats include Google display ads, which are image-based banner ads that appear throughout the Google Display Network, and Google shopping ads, which display a particular product in Google Search results. 

Google advertising is targeted, meaning advertisers can focus on their target audience based on search intent by using certain keywords and phrases, and demographic information such as age, gender, location, family status, and household income. 

Advantages of using Google Ads

Google Ads offers a variety of targeting options and ad formats, each with their own unique benefits, but its two greatest strengths are:

Extensive reach

No matter your target audience, you will likely reach them with Google Ads. Google processes more than 40,000 search queries every second, making up 92% of all search network activity and showing search ads at the top of results. And Google display ads run on the Google Display Network, which reaches more than 90% of the world’s internet users—increasing the chances of a casual browser becoming a potential customer.

Attracting a high purchase intent audience

Google Ads match advertisers to people who search for keywords that are relevant to your business. So, those who click on Google search ads often do so with the intention to learn more or even buy a product. (This is called having a high “purchase intent.”) For example, imagine winter is approaching, and you find your kid has outgrown last year’s puffer coat. You might Google “winter coats for kids,” click on a Google Ad, and make a purchase on the spot. 

3 examples of successful Google Ads campaigns

Google Ads offer ecommerce companies a variety of ways to reach their target audience. Consider how these three advertisers use multiple ad types, various landing pages, and competitor keywords and search terms to create successful Google Ads campaigns.

Verve Coffee Roasters

Verve Coffee Roasters, a coffee chain started in Northern California, makes the most out of its Google search ad copy and landing pages by giving its target audience a variety of compelling options to click. The Verve ad, which appears at the top of the SERP, has four different links, each directing the user to a different landing page: “Save 15% With 5 lbs Bags” highlights a sale, “Best Selling Subscription” promotes its signature offering, and an interactive quiz offers to help you “Find Your Coffee Match.” This multipronged approach encourages different types of potential customers to navigate to parts of the Verve site that most interests them.

Cocofloss

Cocofloss, which makes flavored dental floss, runs a Google Ads campaign that takes advantage of multiple ad types. Googling “Cocofloss” will result in the company’s Google search ad popping up near the top of the SERP. Type in relevant keywords such as “tasty floss” and “strawberry floss” and you’ll see the company’s Google Shopping ads prominently displayed. 

Nectar Sleep

Nectar Sleep, a mattress company, ran an ad campaign where Google search results for competitor Tuft and Needle ranks the Nectar Sleep website and uses eye-catching copy: “Don’t Buy that Other Mattress.” By bidding on its competitor’s name as a search term, Nectar increases the chance for shoppers interested in mattress retailer Tuft & Needle considering its product instead. 

What are Facebook Ads?

Facebook Ads are targeted social ads that appear across Meta properties including Facebook and Instagram. These ads can include images, carousels (a series of swipeable images), and videos that appear in main feeds, Stories, or Reels on Facebook and Instagram. 

How do Facebook Ads work?

Facebook ads show up in social media users’ feeds as they browse Meta apps, including Facebook and Instagram. The ads appear much like regular posts, but have the word “Sponsored” below the profile name when advertisers pay to appear in your feed. Facebook advertising offers advanced targeting options so advertisers can find their target audience based on both demographics—age, gender, location, family status, and household income—and user interests and behavior, including friends, pages interacting with, and other clicked ads. 

Facebook Ads offers both PPC campaigns and pay-per-impression (PPM) campaigns, where advertisers are charged per 1,000 impressions. 

Advantages of using Facebook Ads 

With nearly three billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most trafficked social media platform. This gives Facebook Ads a vast audience and competitive edge over Google Ads in two areas: 

Advanced targeting options

Facebook allows advertisers to reach their target audience with a precision not available to other advertising platforms. Their advanced targeting options go beyond (but are inclusive of) standard demographic information like gender, age, location, family status, political leanings, and income. You can target potential customers based on life events like a new job or pet, as well as interests, who they follow, and buyer profiles.

Brand building with memorable ads

The ability to create unique and visually appealing ads is an area where Facebook Ads outperforms Google. As a platform geared toward sharing eye-catching multimedia posts and created with mobile optimization in mind, Facebook offers its users opportunity for vast creativity. Businesses can use a variety of images and videos to create memorable ads that build their brand and meet customers where they are: on social media. 

3 examples of successful Facebook Ads campaigns

Here’s how three ecommerce companies use the engaging visuals of Facebook Ads to successfully reach potential customers. 

Rothy’s

Rothy’s is an eco-friendly footwear company with a substantial social media following (more than 300,000 followers on both Instagram and Facebook). In a video ad, it uses a blur filter to obscure a new product in the lead-up to its launch. This striking post builds anticipation and encourages potential customers to return to Rothy’s site for the product unveiling. 

Kirrin Finch

Kirrin Finch, an apparel company that creates menswear-inspired pieces designed to fit female and non-binary bodies, often shares photos of happy customers wearing Kirrin Finch clothes at their weddings. This kind of customer feature creates a connection between the brand and audience by demonstrating how impactful Kirrin Finch can be on an important and personal day for their customers. It also offers a positive testimonial to prospective customers.

Cadette

Cadette is an artisanal jewelry brand that emphasizes the craftsmanship that goes into its handmade pieces. It ran an ad on Instagram showing the process of creating one of Cadette’s bestselling pieces. Seeing the care that goes into each necklace can give the product more value in the eyes of the brand’s audience.

When to use Google Ads and Facebook Ads

Choosing between Facebook Ads and Google Ads will come down to your company’s audience, industry, and business goals. Typically, Google Ads are better for making sales, while Facebook Ads are better for building brand awareness and connecting with customers. 

For example, if your company sells a utilitarian product like space heaters, you might prioritize making sales to new customers who need your product over building a loyal following. So, you’d probably choose Google Ads. By comparison, if you run a trendy fashion company that values its cool factor, you might invest more into strengthening your brand and connecting with your audience to convince them your pieces are worth having. In this case, Facebook Ads might be the better choice. While these types of ads may not result in immediate conversions, you could cultivate a loyal customer base over time. 

Wrapping Up:

We at ShopShipShake have been working with businesses like yours with fulfilling experiences. We offer one-stop services, including an efficient supply chain, over 10 thousand of China’s suppliers, over 1,000,000 SKU and more. With a successful track record of over 100,000 clients, we are sure to deliver your orders requirements.

Let’s get in touch to build, sustain, and grow your businesses! If you would like to know more details about us, please contact us:  blog.shopshipshake.com. If you are interested in cooperating with us. Please register on: https://shop.shopshipshake.com/shop/register/business

The article originates from: https://www.shopify.com/za/blog/google-ads-vs-facebook-ads

If you’ve been struggling to meet your business goals on social media, you’re in the right place. 

Creating a social media marketing strategy will give purpose to your social media efforts. It will help you decide what content to develop and share, who you’re talking to, and what type of content performs best. Ultimately, it will help you harness social media to drive your business goals.

Here, we cover the essential steps to creating a successful social media marketing strategy, and include a useful template to get you started.

What is a social media marketing strategy?

A social media marketing strategy is a plan that outlines what content you’ll post and on which social media channels, your goals, and the tactics you’ll use to achieve them. 

Brands continue to ride the wave of social media marketing, with 33% of marketers saying they’re confident their efforts deliver a positive return on investment for their business.

Whether it’s TikTok ads or influencer marketing, social media lets brands access cost-effective marketing. Like a Swiss Army knife, a social media marketing plan can serve various marketing functions from:

• Driving traffic and sales
• Tapping into influencer networks
• Building brand awareness
• Amassing an engaged audience
• Connecting with customers and prospects
• Providing customer support

This is because you have a wide range of channels to incorporate, each with its own strengths and weaknesses to consider.

Having a well-defined social media strategy will help you build a community around your brand and, ultimately, make more sales. 

How to create a social media strategy 

1. Define your goals

Identify and clearly define what you want to achieve with your social media strategy plan. This will depend on your business, your audience, and your wider marketing strategy. Examples of social media marketing goals include:

• Increase brand awareness
• Drive website traffic
• Lead generation
• Grow your audience
• Increase engagement

Whatever you choose, this will be the guiding light for your strategy and will serve as the benchmark for tracking your performance. It’s important that your goals aren’t generic and instead focus on percentage increases or a revenue boost. For example, rather than having a goal of driving more website traffic, you should aim to increase website traffic by 5% every month, or reach 10,000 website visits a month by December. 

It helps to create goals that are SMART: 

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

This means you can easily track your goals, they aren’t wildly out of the realms of possibility, and they’re relevant to your overall business objectives. Most importantly, they have a time limit on them. This will increase the likelihood of you achieving your goals.

“I like to start by putting together a list of goals for each platform,” says Mac Steer, owner and director at Simify. “What do I want my audience to walk away from this post thinking? Do I need them to take action? How can I make that happen? Then, once I’ve got some ideas in mind and know what my goal is for each platform, I’ll figure out how best to execute those goals on each platform.”

2. Know your target audience

An effective social media strategy starts with understanding your ideal customer. Building rich context on your target audience takes time, but there are steps you can take immediately that will provide lasting value. 

“We identified our audience by researching demographic information, interests, and online behaviors, which resulted in the creation of our four customer avatars,” says Maria Mooney, brand director of Truly Free. “Knowing this information allows us to tailor content and messaging to the people most likely to engage with our brand.”

Start by researching your target audience or looking for demographic and psychographic data or observable patterns that help you form an image of who is likely to buy from you. This exercise won’t just inform your initial strategy but also help you develop a voice and tone for your brand that resonates with them.

Here are some activities you can do to get to know your target audience: 

• Run a survey: Collect quantitative data about your audience, such as their age, location, job role, and core interests. 
• Conduct interviews: Ask to speak to a handful of your best customers to get qualitative data, such as their values, challenges, goals, and pain points. 
• Research the competition: See who’s following your biggest competitors. Identify what characteristics they share, what other content they follow and engage with, and any other information you can glean from their social media profiles. 
• Check support tickets: Your customer service team has a wealth of information about your customers via support tickets. You can often find pain points and challenges here. 
• Dig into your analytics: Most social media platforms have in-built insights that show you information like the age, location, and gender of your followers. 

Once you’ve carried out this research, you can create customer personas that match each audience segment. This should include demographic information, like age and location, as well as psychographic data, like interests, buying concerns, and motivation to buy. 

You can use this information to build up a picture of your audience and tailor your content so that it resonates with them.

Here’s an example of some of the demographic and psychographic information you can use to get to know your audience. 

• Location: Where do your ideal customers typically live? Even knowing just the countries can help, but if you’re a local business or focus on one region, then it should be the cities you can realistically cater to.
• Age: What is the age range of your customers?
• Gender: What gender do they identify as? This might not be as important depending on your brand.
• Interests: What are their interests/hobbies/passions? These make for effective targeting options (e.g., food, hip hop, bars, basketball).
• Career/industry: What industry do they work in and what job titles have they held? This may not be relevant depending on your brand.
• Income level: What is the income range of this buyer persona? Are they price-sensitive or are they willing to spend more money for premium products?
• Relationship status: Are they single, actively dating, or married? This may be relevant if you’re in the wedding industry, for example.
• Favorite websites: What type of websites do they keep bookmarked? Do they browse Instagram or TikTok daily?
• Motivation to buy: What reasons would they have for buying your product? Do they want to sport a status symbol or make time to work out despite a busy schedule?
• Buying concerns: Why might they choose not to buy your product? Are they worried about the quality?
• Other info: Anything else that isn’t covered above but would be worth mentioning, such as education, stage in life (parents with newborn kids), events they attend, etc.

3. Conduct a social media audit

Running an audit on your existing social media content strategy will help you see what works and what doesn’t. It will give you a better understanding of what content formats and messaging styles your audience prefers, but it will also provide insight into when your audience is online and the best time to post. 

Here’s how to run a social media audit: 

• Analyze engagement: Check your insights on each social media channel you use to identify your top-performing posts based on the number of likes, comments, and shares. 
• Identify patterns: See if there are any patterns that show up in your insights. For example, you might find that people prefer to engage with videos on your Instagram account or that your followers are most active on the weekend. 
• Run audits on each channel: Every social media platform is different—what works on Facebook might not work on Instagram and vice versa, so run an audit on each channel you use. 

When you’ve run your audit, assess the effectiveness of each top-performing piece of content in reaching your goals. For example, if followers are engaging wildly with meme-style videos that have nothing to do with your product, you might not hit the product sales targets you were hoping for.

4. Choose the right platforms

The social media content audit will shed some light on your best-performing platforms based on your goals, which will help you decide where to focus your efforts. It can be tempting to spread yourself thin across every new channel that pops up, but it’s better to excel on two or three than be inconsistent on six different channels. 

When choosing the best social media platforms for your brand, consider: 

• Where your target audience is most active
• Your business goals and objectives
• Which platforms are easiest to promote your products on 
• Where your content performs best 

Once you’ve selected the best platforms for your business, you can create a strategy for each of them that keeps your big-picture objectives in mind. Alex McIntosh, CEO and co-founder of Thrive Natural Care, finds choosing channels easy, as the company is focused on an omnichannel experience.

“This means we want to be present where our customers are, so we publish content on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube,” Alex says. “We know that our customers and audience are using different platforms at different times, so however they prefer to consume content, we want ours to add value to their day.”

5. Develop a content strategy

Design a plan for the type of content you’ll create and share on each of your chosen social media channels. The content may vary depending on the platform and the audience you’re trying to reach, so it’s important to create a strategy that encompasses all of your customer personas and all of your social media channels. 

Defining your content mix—recurring formats and post types—makes it easier to produce social content while adding a rhythm to your posting schedule. This offers your audience both variety and consistency at the same time. Otherwise, you’ll wind up scrambling for something to publish every day.

Within your content mix, you want to have ideas you can plan for in advance, reproduce, and schedule to go out on a regular basis. For example, you might feature a customer testimonial every Tuesday and share a quote graphic every Wednesday and Friday.

Pieces that are relatively easy to create can keep your social media calendar full while you build out more elaborate assets, such as a promotional video or a blog post.

“For a content plan, we try to focus on both timeliness and value for our customers and followers,” says Alex. “One core value of our business is “leave it better,” and this is a guiding principle for our team. This means we want our social content to be something people feel good about. Whether it is a post about our regenerative farming efforts in Costa Rica or we are showcasing a new skin care product, we want our social media content to be valuable for anyone that sees it.”

The content mix you develop can incorporate:

• News: Information about what’s happening in your industry or posts that are based on what’s trending at the moment.
• Inspiration: Motivation to use your products or pursue a certain lifestyle, such as quote graphics or photos from around the world.
• Education: Share fun stats and facts or how-to posts from your blog or YouTube channel.
• Product/promotional posts: High-quality product shots of your products being used, demo videos, testimonials, or feature explanations can help you achieve your ultimate goal of getting sales. You can often run these as ads after you create them.
• Contests and giveaways. A contest or free download in exchange for an email is a great way to promote something of value to both you and your audience other than your products.
• Customer/influencer features: Shots or videos featuring your customers or the people they follow.
• Community events: Share meetups, fundraisers, or learning opportunities, especially if you’re a local business.
• Q&A: Ask your audience a question or make a request to elicit responses, such as: “Tag a friend who’s always late.” Answer a common question that you get from customers.
• Tips and tricks: Share useful information and tutorials around your products.
• Behind the scenes: Share how your product is made or what you’re doing to grow your business to offer some transparency that your audience can relate to. Giving your audience a look into the humans behind your business can go a long way in creating trust or building your personal brand as a founder.
• Repurposed blog posts: Leverage your existing content on your Shopify blog and repurpose it into engaging social media content, such as snippets, images, or teasers. 

Aim for five to seven content archetypes to start.  Balance your content mix with post formats you can create quickly and those that are more labor intensive, as well as posts that aim for sales and posts that just seek to delight and grow your audience.

Snack brand Oh Snap! Pickling Co. finds the right mix of engaging content by publishing a mix of product shots, trending Reels, engagement posts, and even a tarot card series on its Instagram to keep customers entertained and engaged.

Developing a mix of different content types will ensure you have a social media lead generation strategy that provides customers at every stage of the purchasing funnel with the information they need. 

6. Create a content calendar

Establish a schedule for when and how often you’ll post on each social media platform. This will help you maintain consistency and ensure a steady flow of content.

Start slow and then ramp up to a higher frequency as you develop your routine and figure out what works.

You don’t want to spread yourself too thin or spam your audience’s feeds. It’s fine if you only have time to post once every few days in the beginning. You can build up to one post a day and then test to see if a higher frequency actually nets you better results on specific platforms.

Ultimately, you want to focus your attention where it will have the most impact and when your audience is scrolling through their feeds. 

Each platform has a different ideal posting time depending on when their followers are most engaged. You’ll find that the best time to post on TikTok will be different than the best time to post on Instagram. If you aren’t sure where to start, think about when people check their feeds: in the morning, at lunch, during their commute, or before bed.

You’ll discover the best posting times for your particular audience through trial and error. Popular posting times will also vary depending on seasons and other variables.

What’s more important is that you schedule your posts in batches, at least a week in advance. Do it in one sitting, dedicating a few hours at a time so you can focus on other things while your social media publishing runs in the background. You can use an automated scheduling tool to load up your social media posts for the week. 

“First, we identify the themes and messages we want to communicate to our target audience,” says Maria of Truly Free. “These may include promotions, product launches, educational content, and a behind-the-scenes look into our company.

“Then, we establish a content calendar outlining the topics we’ll cover and when we plan to post them. This helps ensure we have a consistent and diverse range of content that aligns with our marketing objectives.

“Next, we brainstorm ideas for each piece of content, taking into account the specific platform and its best practices. For example, on Instagram, we may focus on visual content like images or videos that engagingly showcase our products. On Twitter, we may create short, snappy posts that are shareable and attention-grabbing.”

7. Engage with your audience 

Develop strategies to actively engage with your audience, respond to comments and messages, and foster a sense of community. No one wants to feel like they’re shouting into the void, so make an effort to start discussions and encourage interactions around your content. Alex McIntosh of Thrive Natural care says that the brand has put added importance on engaging with its audience.

“It is one thing to put out great content, but audiences want to feel like they are a part of something, and by engaging with our customers, we help them join us on our journey,” says Alex.

Here are some ways you can engage with your audience:

• Reshare content: Post customer photos and reviews to your own feeds (remember to credit the original creator). 
• Ask questions: Invite discussion by asking a question. 
• Run a poll: Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook all have a poll feature you can use to encourage engagement and learn more about your customers at the same time. 
• Jump on trends: Join in with the latest TikTok trends or trending hashtags on other channels—just make sure it’s relevant to your brand and audience. 
• Respond to comments: Engage your audience by replying to the comments they leave on your content. 

Shopify merchant Bubble Skincare does an excellent job of engaging with its followers. It consistently replies to fans and shows its appreciation for purchases and comments.

8. Leverage influencer marketing 

Consider collaborating with influencers relevant to your industry or niche. They can help amplify your reach, increase brand awareness, and drive engagement. 

Here’s how to get started with influencer marketing: 

• Find relevant influencers: Use apps like Shopify Collabs to find influencers that have an audience in your niche. Consider the platform they’re popular on and how that’s likely to impact your brand. 
• Brainstorm content: Work together to come up with content ideas that will resonate with their audience. Make sure it’s relevant to your brand and products, too. 
• Track and tweak: Measure what works and what doesn’t to see what content you can collaborate on in the future.

You don’t need to hire influencers with millions of followers to expand your brand reach. Skin care brand Plenaire works with niche and micro-influencers to reach highly engaged audiences. Not only does this help you grow your audience, it builds trust in your brand and encourages sales, for a relatively low cost.

You can work with influencers on a short-term, one-off basis or as an ongoing ambassadorship. Both have their pros and cons, but it will ultimately depend on your goal and your budget. 

“We include influencers in our strategy as well, notifying them about monthly sales and products to advertise on their blogging channels,” says Nicky Miller, social media manager at Lion Brand Yarn. 

“An example of a successful campaign was our 145th anniversary. It was the perfect moment to create dialogue about our brand and invite others to talk about us. We encouraged influencers to share videos about our brand’s history and products. We updated our logo and utilized our social media platforms to share fun facts, reels, trivia, and giveaways. The results were a success, we saw nice growth on Instagram and were featured in several publications covering our brand.”

9. Monitor and analyze performance

Use social media analytics tools to track the performance of your content and campaigns and monitor their effectiveness.

Here are some metrics to monitor:

• Reach: How many people see your social media posts in their feeds.
• Engagement: How many people like, comment, and share your posts.
• Click-through rates: How many people click through from your social content to your website or product pages.
• Conversions: How many people buy something after seeing a social media post. 

The metrics you track will depend on your goals. For example, if your aim is to increase website traffic, you should closely track click-through rates, but if you want to boost sales, then conversions is your go-to metric. 

Monitoring your metrics lets you make small changes to your strategy, rather than huge overhauls. You can be proactive in the short term and use those learnings to inform future campaigns.

10. Iterate and refine 

Continuously evaluate and refine your social media marketing plan based on the insights and data you gather. Adapt your approach based on what works best for your audience and aligns with your goals. 

Your aim now is to get a positive return on the time, money, and effort you spend marketing your business on social media. That requires deliberate action.

Your social media strategy is your plan of attack. But in a space like social media that changes by the day—with feed algorithm updates and audiences always ready for something new—you need to remain flexible and keep your finger on its pulse.

It’s important to have goals to track and check in regularly to see what’s working. Use those insights to develop content ideas, build out your calendar, and grow your audience. 

“We believe in putting our members first and providing them with the content they want and need,” says Maria. “To do this, we conducted a survey to gather feedback on the types of content our members were most interested in seeing from us. Based on the responses we received, we created a social media campaign focused on how to clean homes using Truly Free products. This campaign provided our members with valuable tips and insights, while showcasing the benefits of our products in an engaging and informative way.”

Get a better return on investment with social media

Developing a social media marketing strategy will give you purpose when connecting with your audience on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok. It will help you determine the kind of content your audience likes to see and what they engage with the most. Ultimately, this will help you grow your audience, sell more products, and increase revenue. 

Wrapping Up:

We at ShopShipShake have been working with businesses like yours with fulfilling experiences. We offer one-stop services, including an efficient supply chain, over 10 thousand of China’s suppliers, over 1,000,000 SKU and more. With a successful track record of over 100,000 clients, we are sure to deliver your orders requirements.

Let’s get in touch to build, sustain, and grow your businesses! If you would like to know more details about us, please contact us:  blog.shopshipshake.com. If you are interested in cooperating with us. Please register on: https://shop.shopshipshake.com/shop/register/business

The article originates from: https://www.shopify.com/blog/social-media-marketing-strategy

Marketing your small business spreads the word about the incredible products you have to sell. No eyeballs equals slim chances of making your first $1,000 online. 

But your customer’s attention is being pulled from pillar to post. Big brands with thousand-dollar marketing budgets drive the cost of advertising sky-high. Let’s not even get started on social media channels changing their algorithms to make it even harder for small businesses to reach the audiences they built.

It’s not all doom and gloom. You can stand out in the busiest of spaces. It just takes a little more creativity. Click here to start selling online now with Shopify

To get you started, this guide shares 17 creative marketing ideas we’ve seen from independent brands that are totally free (or very low cost) to replicate.

Free small business marketing ideas

A solid marketing plan isn’t off the table if your budget is zero. Here are 12 free marketing ideas that won’t break the bank.

1. Host a social media competition
2. Share user-generated content on social media
3. Produce video tutorials
4. Jump on trending topics
5. Partner with other small businesses 
6. Give quirky product recommendations
7. Collect customer feedback
8. Enter local awards
9. Attend local events
10. Sell mystery boxes
11. Create content optimized for SEO
12. Sell gift cards

1. Host a social media competition

To say social media platforms are oversaturated would be an understatement. Some 92% of companies will use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to reach their target audience by 2022. 

Couple that with the fact Facebook only shows posts to 5.2% of a page’s followers and you’ll see why social media is a pain-staking way to market a small business. 

Diversify your social media marketing strategy by hosting a competition. Science proves people love free stuff. So, give away something for free—such as a product bundle or trip to your HQ—in exchange for social media engagement. Have your followers like, comment, share, and tag a friend in the giveaway post to boost reach. 

Loca Foods, for example, hosted an Instagram contest that gave away dips and desserts. Participants had to like the post, follow its Instagram profile, and tag a friend. Bonus entries were up for grabs if followers shared the post to their own story:

Granted, attractive social media competitions give away expensive products. But the marketing dollars you spend on hosting a giveaway don’t have to be extreme. You can make the prize as cheap or expensive as you want. 

2. Share user-generated content on social media

Another smart way to use social media to market your small business is to use user-generated content (UGC)—something 79% of shoppers say highly impacts their purchasing decisions, likely because it’s less biased than branded content. They get to see someone in their shoes loving the product.

Incentivize existing customers to share photos, videos, and testimonials of them using your products. Do regular scans of your brand name or hashtag to see social media posts people have shared without being prompted. 

The goal is to build a library of high-quality UGC that convinces on-the-fence social media followers to buy, like this example from Andie Swim. Its previous customer created a TikTok video, which Andie Swim reposted to Instagram.

(Just remember to ask permission from the original poster before sharing UGC to your own page.)

3. Produce video tutorials

Continuing with the social media theme, video marketing reigns supreme on many platforms. Take a look at TikTok’s success. Its minute-long videos became so popular that Instagram, traditionally a photo-sharing app, launched its own version—Reels—off the back of it.

Use Shopify’s free online video maker to produce content to market your own business on social media. That could be:

• Reviews from happy customers 
• Behind-the-scenes of running your business
• Video tutorials that show how to use your product
• Livestreams co-hosted with influencers in your space

Dope Dog is one small business using this free marketing idea. Its founder, Erin Mastopietro, says, “We held Instagram live sessions with experts in our niche, during which audience members could ask questions, and we also conducted a small interview.

“As a result, we gained exposure to the audience of the expert and provided value to our followers.” 

4. Jump on trending topics

Social media is fueled by trends. Think about it: TikTok is credited for making songs go viral; artists see record-breaking streams when a dancing trend emerges. Everyone posts videos of themselves dancing to the same song.

How do you uncover trending topics before your small business’ social media content gets lumped in with the others jumping on trends? Spot them before the crowd does by:

• Asking your customers
• Reading discussions happening in forums
• Running a competitive analysis
• Celebrating annual events

Partake Foods, for example, posted this tweet that replicated Spotify Unwrapped—the music platform’s annual round-up of music a user listened to throughout the year. Only in this case, Partake Foods switched most-listened-to music out in favor of top products:

5. Partner with other small businesses

Here’s a great marketing idea if you’re working with zero budget: collaborate with other small businesses whose target market overlaps with yours (provided the products you sell don’t compete against theirs).

Let’s say you had an online store selling handmade crockery. Partner with another small business owner that sold handmade vases and lean on each other’s audience and run a co-marketing campaign, such as:

• Co-hosting a webinar
• Giving discounts to each other’s email list
• Shouting each other out on social media 
• Becoming a guest on each other’s podcasts
• Going halves on fees to host a pop-up shop 

The beauty of co-marketing is not only that you support fellow small business owners, but you get to tap into an existing audience for free, unlike the influencer marketing route—many of whom charge to publish sponsored posts. 

6. Give quirky product recommendations

Shoppers have various things running through their mind when they’re visiting a new ecommerce store. At the forefront are questions like: How do I know this is the right product for me?

Take the pain out of comparing new products with quirky recommendations. These don’t require hours of time to go into product development. Just go beyond “you viewed this, so you might be interested in this” categories that grab people’s attention. 

Digital consultant Kayleigh Töyrä recommends product recommendation lists for:

• People who already have everything
• Gifts you may keep for yourself instead
• Things you don’t need, but may want

Kayleigh adds that with clever copy to increase sales, new businesses can “up- and cross-sell in a more fun way.”

7. Collect customer feedback

Existing customers are your best friends. They’re the people who have seen your existing digital marketing strategy and purchased off the back of it. Use them as your starting point when developing new marketing ideas.

Use Shopify Apps like Post Purchase NPS Survey to send a customer feedback survey to anyone who purchases through your online store. Ask what they liked about your product, how they discovered you, and the trigger that caused them to buy. 

Use those insights to fill your social media profiles, landing pages, and product descriptions with customer testimonials.

Package Free, for example, has a highlight reel of customer reviews on its product pages. Anyone debating whether to trust the retailer is instantly reassured, undoubtedly improving the ecommerce site’s conversion rate: 

8. Enter to win awards

Being voted the “best” product in your industry is a surefire way to build credibility and attract attention. Stephen Light, CMO and co-owner of Nolah Mattress, explains that “awards offer businesses a solid shot of authority, which is one of the keys to successful marketing; you want your audience to know that you offer the best of the best.

“Regardless of your niche, there are countless awards and accolades offered that you can find with just a little digging.”

Here’s a starting point for your award submission research:

• The Best of Small Business Awards
• Best in Biz Awards
• Dream Big Awards, run by the US Chamber of Commerce 
• National Small Business Week Award, hosted by the US Small Business Association

Whichever awards you enter to win, Stephen says, “It’s a cost-effective boost of credibility and publicity that can make a big difference with very little investment. Displaying them proudly on your website can encourage conversions.”

9. Attend local events

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking all of your marketing tactics need to be online. Granted, building an online presence is crucial. But get away from the computer and meet potential customers in the flesh by attending local offline events, such as: 

• Craft fairs
• Sunday markets 
• Networking events

Check with your local council, many of which have a list of events to support small businesses in the area. Sites like Meetup and Eventbrite also round up business events in your local city. 

Can’t find any? Host your own. Find a free space to host an event (like the public library), bring your inventory along, and hand out flyers to build brand awareness. Just remember to take your business card. Anyone interested in your products but not ready to buy can have information to visit your website later.

10. Sell mystery boxes

Got a bunch of slow-moving products? Sell them as part of a mystery box—something Kaleigh Moore did for her jewelry business: “Fill it with slow-moving products and promote them as a surprise, offering at an affordable price point.”

Mystery boxes work for several reasons:

1. The human brain loves surprises. 
2. Mystery boxes induce the fear of missing out, a phenomenon that causes 60% of people to make reactive purchases. 
3. You shift slow-moving inventory and create space for more popular (and profitable) inventory.

Zac’s Sweet Shop is another ecommerce retailer that offers mystery boxes. Shoppers not only get the chance to try a variety of products at a low price, but the brand has a way to shift slow-moving or soon-to-expire food products inside each mystery box.

11. Create content optimized for SEO

Sometimes, the most effective online marketing ideas are the simplest. They just take a longer time to come to fruition. But lay the groundwork early and you’ll set yourself up for success later down the line.

That’s especially true with search engine optimization (SEO), the process of optimizing your online store. You’ll appear in search results when people are actively searching for information or entertainment, or to solve a pain point.

Tie SEO in with a content marketing strategy to get your small business off the ground. Write a blog post that targets low-volume keywords with a direct tie-in with your products. Go after those with minimal competition to set yourself up for success.

Here are some simple content marketing ideas to get you started:

• Solve a pain point your audience is experiencing
• Write a guest post for a popular publication in your niche
• Tell the story of your existing customers to help new shoppers themselves in their shoes
  

“The secret is really putting out great content. And putting out great content means a lot of different things, but to me, what I think it means is putting out content that’s relevant to your audience that people really want to read, and understanding how to monetize that content.”Trevor Crotts, founder of BuddyRest

12. Sell themed gift cards

Gift cards improve cash flow. You get the money upfront without immediately needing to fork out fees to produce or ship the product to a customer. 

Offer them through your online store and prioritize marketing them in peak gift-giving seasons, such as:

• Mother’s or Father’s Day
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday 
• Christmas

Starbucks, for example, sells gift cards year-round. But the retailer keeps an ear to the ground and creates customized gift card designs based on trending topics. Lyrics from Taylor Swift’s new song appeared on a Starbucks gift card just four days after it was released. 

Whichever season you’re offering gift cards in, post about them on social media, send email marketing campaigns to subscribers, and add a pop-up on your website to direct first-time visitors toward your gift card options. You could even offer $10 gift cards to thank existing customers for shopping with you—and encourage them to do so again. 

Low-cost marketing ideas

Exhausted free marketing ideas and looking for tactics that move the needle? Put these low-cost marketing ideas on your to-do list.

1. Offer free samples
2. Gift free products to influencers
3. Create a referral program
4. Incentivize email sign-ups with discount codes
5. Make an incredible unboxing experience

13. Offer free samples

We briefly touched on the idea that people love free things. 

If you can absorb the cost of giving away inventory for free (with the goal of turning those people into paying customers later down the line), offer free product samples to people who visit your pop-up store or market stall. You can even give samples to customers who’ve purchased a product from you as an incentive to buy again.

“People love getting a free gift, and then if they share that kind of thing, it usually leads to good sales on our end.” —David Gaylord, founder of Bushbalm

Made with Local is one brand using this low-cost marketing idea. Sheena Russell, its founder and CEO, says, “Because we are a product/food brand, we’ve had fun using Instacart to ship gifts—samples of our product—to people that we’ve recently chatted with about Made with Local. This could be business contacts, potential buyers, etc.

“You can get samples delivered to their door in less than two hours in most big cities, and folks love it.”

14. Gift free products to influencers

Influencer marketing is big business. Some 87% of consumers trust advice from social media influencers when making purchasing decisions. No wonder brands will spend $4.62 billion on influencer marketing by 2023.

But instead of paying for influencers to talk about your product, a low-cost marketing idea is to give free products to them. Many bloggers have a PO box specifically for press packages. 

While it’s not guaranteed that the items you send will be shared, the only thing you’ll pay for is product manufacturing costs and shipping fees—a small price to pay if an influencer shouts your small business out to their loyal audience. (Though you can boost the chances of having them open your gifts if the unboxing experience is enjoyable. More on that later.)

The Tur-Shirt Company tried this marketing idea. Its founder Terri-Anne Turton sent the brand’s clothing products to Instagram influencers in the parenting space. Many of them shared photos of their own children wearing the clothes, tagging The Tur-Shirt Company and directing followers toward its website.

“I gifted her two Tur-Shirts and her kids loved them—they were amazed when they worked out how they work. It was heartwarming and the orders started to flood in,” Terri-Anne says. “I had an influx of orders over the weekend totalling £1,300 of sales.”

15. Create a referral program

Granted, the goal of marketing is to drive more revenue. But that revenue doesn’t always come from new customers. Many ecommerce business owners forget about one marketing strategy with a low barrier to entry and high success rate: word-of-mouth marketing.

• “Getting customers to refer other customers is a great way to get more out of your marketing dollars. You can make this easier by using an app like Smile to incentivize customers to refer their friends to buy from you.” —Jason Wong, founder of Doe Lashes

A customer loyalty program encourages your existing customer base to recommend your products to their family and friends. Incentives can be:

• Discount codes 
• Priority access to new products
• Points to redeem on future orders 

Use Shopify Apps like Referral Candy or LoyaltyLion to power the program for you. From there, the only investment you’ll make is a small incentive for people to join through your referral program. Choose rewards like priority access to make it even cheaper. 

Derric Haynie, chief ecommerce technologist at Ecommerce Tech, did this for an online business. It added a small section beneath the customer’s email order receipt that said: “Share your unique referral code and for every customer you refer you will get a surprise gift in your next shipment and they will get a surprise gift in their first shipment.”

Derric reports this referral marketing program drove more than 15,000 referrals per month. 

16. Incentivize email sign-ups with discount codes

There’s no beating around the bush: every small business needs to build an email list.

Building a brand on social media alone is risky. You’re at the mercy of ever-changing algorithms—many of which are pushing brands into paying to reach the audiences they’ve already built. 

Both SMS and email marketing are direct lines of communication for building relationships with your customers. Get their email address or phone number (and consent to reach them in those inboxes) by making the sign-up process irresistible. For many customers, that means offering discount codes.

Research shows that 81% of shoppers enjoy receiving emails that contain special offers, making it the preferred channel to discover coupons. Those who use a discount code spend 24% more than shoppers who don’t. 

Again, this marketing idea doesn’t have to be ground-breaking. Simply create an email pop-up that offers a discount code in exchange for their subscription. Follow that up with an automated email campaign with the coupon and a list of bestsellers.

Pattern Beauty uses a discount code as the incentive for website visitors to join its email list.

17. Make an incredible unboxing experience

Earlier, we touched on the fact that UGC is a superb way to fill your social media calendars with content that turns followers into paying customers. 

The unboxing experience is a simple way to do that. More than 165,000 people search for “unboxing” on YouTube every month, with channels dedicated to unboxing experiences like Unbox Therapy amassing more than 18 million subscribers. 

These videos are clearly in demand. So, if you have the flexibility to subtract a few dollars from your profit margin, go above and beyond to make your unboxing experience share-worthy. 

Take it from Bokksu, a Japanese snack subscription box. The retailer experimented with unboxing videos on various social media platforms, as its founder, Danny Taing, explains: “We experimented with Facebook. We experimented with Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, like a whole bunch of the social media platforms Influencers there.

“What we found has been most effective has been YouTube, and specifically has to be YouTube influencers that have really engaged audiences, and that the influencers themselves really love eating.

“Our product is so hands-on and sensual in a lot of ways,” Danny says. “You have to unbox it and show the snacks, and eat it and talk about it, like a good five- to 10-minute YouTube video gets the job done a lot better than an Instagram post.”

Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive 

These free and low-cost marketing ideas prove there’s more to promoting a small business than investing in Facebook ads. The trick is to test different ideas and get creative. Attend local events. Start a podcast. Partner with other businesses in your area. Run video marketing campaigns on social media. 

Just don’t forget about the easiest source of creative marketing ideas: the customers already buying from you. 

Wrapping Up:

We at ShopShipShake have been working with businesses like yours with fulfilling experiences. We offer one-stop services, including an efficient supply chain, over 10 thousand of China’s suppliers, over 1,000,000 SKU and more. With a successful track record of over 100,000 clients, we are sure to deliver your orders requirements.

Let’s get in touch to build, sustain, and grow your businesses! If you would like to know more details about us, please contact us:  blog.shopshipshake.com. If you are interested in cooperating with us. Please register on: https://shop.shopshipshake.com/shop/register/business

The article originates from: https://www.shopify.com/sg/blog/marketing-ideas