When starting an online business, not everyone has the same budget to market their business. Here are some typical start-up budgets and what you can do to get started.
$0 – $100
Think you don’t have enough money to build your online business? You can get forward momentum with some free resources.
First, is the Google keyword tool. This is a good starting point for evaluating keywords in your niche. Keywords are simply words or phrases that people search for when looking for information. For example, someone looking for information on dog training would type in “dog training” or “how to train your dog.”
Once you have a keyword list, it’s time to build your website. If you’re good with computers and software, you could build your own website for free. Find free templates online. Then simply customize it for your needs. You might even consider bartering with a friend who is a computer whiz to construct your website and offer something in return like babysitting or even cleaning his garage.
If you’re not familiar with how to build a website, then use free platforms such as WordPress or Blogger. These two are blogs and come with a host of free themes you can use to customize your site. They even provide free hosting.
Advertising your website may be limited, but still available. You can network and market online for free. Create a Facebook and a Twitter account. Then, start collecting friends and contacts with your blog as the central point for providing information.
If your budget is toward the one hundred-dollar mark, you can get a domain name and hosting for your website. Even your blog can be set up with its own domain on such services as WordPress. You may still need to do some of your own website building using cheap or free templates. Consider getting an email auto-responder account. An auto-responder is a service that automates email contact with your web visitors. Check New Orleans web development.
$101 – $500
At this level, you can outsource logo and website design work. Craigslist is a free resource for finding potential freelancers. Do some market research with free or fee-based online survey services such as Survey Monkey. With the data and knowledge you get from these surveys, you have a better picture of your target audience and where to focus your efforts. A small Google AdWords or Facebook pay-per-click (PPC) campaign is useful for getting leads. For just pennies a click, in many cases, you could get good leads from keywords specific to your region or niche. You can also use PPC as a way to determine which keywords are the most effective in generating traffic. Narrow your keywords to those that are expensive or not so popular.
If you are considering adding a video marketing campaign, you can buy a good high-definition digital camera and microphone.
$501 – $1000
For up to a thousand dollars, you can also start building up your library of e-books or a home study course to use as reference. There are coaching programs that can get you up and running relatively quickly. With this budget range, you can build up more search engine pay-per-click campaigns or Facebook PPC.
In addition to outsourcing website design, you can hire someone to write a small batch of blog posts to get your traffic generating efforts off the ground.
$1001 – $2000
A budget up to $2000 gives you more freedom to play around with setting up your website and generating leads. Your options are to do it yourself or to outsource the entire operation. You may even choose to buy qualified leads in your niche. Remember, online marketing is successful when you play the numbers – which means getting lots of leads and following up with an email auto-responder campaign. Use your capital wisely to acquire good leads.
$2000 and up
If you have a budget of $2,000 or greater you could start out with a full website and hands-off social media service. These types of services offer to “do it for you,” providing a fully functional website and building a social media presence for you. This is the quickest way to get set up. While someone else does the work for you, you can focus on learning online marketing at your own pace.
Another investment is to attend hands-on workshops that take you through the process of setting up an online business from start to finish.
As seen, you can succeed at online marketing on any budget, but you must put in the effort and commitment necessary to get your business going, regardless of your budget.
