Due to the global pandemic and the crisis in 2020, the income and average checks of small and medium-sized businesses have drastically declined. In such a situation, many people don’t have time for digital services. Often entrepreneurs ruthlessly cut budgets for online promotion of their goods or services to somehow save some money. The logic is simple: it’s better to temporarily give up digital services in favor of more essential things. For instance, they would prefer to spend this money on employees’ salaries or to purchase goods.
However, refusing digital services is a short-sighted decision. Especially now that most companies have gone online, and competition for customer attention has intensified.
Let me tell you how to save on digital services in this challenging period.
Launch MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
Many business representatives had to urgently go online. With tight deadlines and a limited budget, MVP was almost the only right solution.
MVP is not a “raw” product. It is quite an independent tool with a minimal set of functions, which will help to achieve business goals and meet customer needs. Imagine that you don’t have enough funds for a full-fledged corporate website. So here, you can make a landing page and manage your traffic. Instead of a complex application or service, run a simple one with a minimal set of features.
MVP doesn’t help save money on website creation but helps extend the investment time associated with product development. It’s an excellent opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses.
The advantage of testing MVP in work helps to quickly identify errors, incorrect conjectures, etc. Therefore, you can save on the fact that mistakes won’t be scaled up in the future. Thus, running MVP reduces the probability of ordering unnecessary functions and allows you to understand which solutions require more attention to further development.
Ask for Discounts and Free Consultations
In the digital world, discounts are usually small and rare, as they are taking into account the data on the customer’s business and industry. But in t recent years, everything has changed: most agencies this year began to provide their customers with special conditions – installments, preferential terms of sale, bonuses, and so on.
It’s simple: due to the crisis, they have fewer clients, so they try to attract people in any way. Use this, ask for discounts directly, as most likely, they will respond to your needs.
Another way to save money is to ask for a free consultation. This will protect the budget and set the direction of further development, especially if you are new to the industry and have little understanding of how to promote your business. Tell them about your business, challenges, tasks, ask only direct questions.
Participate in Tenders
There are many stereotypes about tenders, but everything is much more comfortable and smoother if you need to hold a tender among digital agencies.
For example, you want to organize a tender for website development, search engine optimization, or any other digital service. All you need to do is describe the essence of the service, define the executor’s requirements, tell about yourself, and publish the tender. Then choose the best offers from the vendors, and everything is ready!
You can always choose a cheaper vendor. Especially now, in times of crisis, when agencies are fighting for each client, they are more likely to participate in tenders and are more likely to make concessions in price. Get your opportunities to choose the most suitable vendor with the appropriate competencies.
Choose Regional Vendors
Even in the capital, you can get into trouble with non-professionals. Many people probably have a story about how a famous expensive agency broke all the deadlines or made a frankly low-quality project. Don’t be afraid of the regions: good, experienced, and reliable agencies can be found even in small cities.
If you are used to interacting with the contractor personally and offline, maybe it’s high time to reconsider your beliefs? Due to quarantine, many people started working remotely and have already got used to it. Why don’t you order services from people who can also make quality products, but cheaper than in megacities? Give them a try!
Cooperate With Partners
Collaborate with partners or with other brands, or even with competitors – why not? A crisis is a difficult time when it is easier to survive together. With the help of cross-marketing, you can advertise for free on third-party resources with one condition – they will also receive a return service from you. It’s a well-known barter system.
You can also run a joint campaign or contest with another party and tell about it on your channels. You can make a mutual repost in social networks or place ads on your website and thus promote each other. You will save on advertising and get new customers from the cross-partner. These customers will be loyal because if they trust your partner, they are likely to trust you!
Choose the Right Vendors
Found an agency with a bunch of diplomas but still have no requests? Hired a copywriter from the exchange, but articles even don’t bring traffic? As a result, you are wasting your budget for promotional purposes; it is equated to death in a crisis.
To save budget, you need to choose contractors not by word of mouth, not by awards, and not by cost. The crisis is the right time to approach Internet promotion in the most conscious and rational way. The most important thing is whether the contractor will bring you profit, and the rest is not so crucial!
Pay attention to the portfolio and cases that show how the vendor solved the customer’s issue.
