There is a plethora of digital marketing strategies available to businesses seeking to reach out to new customers and visitors, each with their own benefits and drawbacks. With so many options, many brands have trouble focusing on which specific methods are best for their brand’s focus, budget and audience.

All too often, brands spread themselves too thin, whether that be based on effort or resources. Many small businesses in particular do not have the resources necessary to focus on every marketing front, meaning they should focus on what really works and what provides the best value.

Today, we’ll examine which marketing methods are worth the time and energy of small businesses, in order to avoid wasting those finite resources.

Social Media Advertising

Over the past decade, pinging users with digital marketing campaigns on social media has become the marketing tool of the masses. With the ability to spend even the smallest sums on targeting specific individuals, social media ads make for a great investment when done properly. With even just a few dollars, you can target individuals based on geography, age, interests and more. Best of all, social media ad campaigns can be easily scaled up as your brand grows, or scaled down during difficult financial times. With no minimums and no immense hoops to jump through to get started, social media advertising is very valuable – and provides an insane ROI when done properly.

Content Marketing

The creation of content takes times, but it costs no capital to get started. Whether it be blog posts, slideshows, podcasts or something entirely different, most brands merely need to invest time in order to make this strategy work. By creating valuable content that your target audience finds useful, you have a direct and meaningful way to pitch your brand to users. This strategy can help direct traffic to your website, whereby you can then attempt to convert them into subscribers, customers and so forth. This is one of the best strategies for the smallest of businesses that have no real marketing budgets, but do have time and are willing to play the long game.

Discount Website Promotions

People are constantly looking for a good deal. Particularly true for locally-based/brick and mortar businesses, offering shoppers a discount can be the difference between making the sale and never seeing them walk through the doors. Through discount and coupon websites like Groupon and the like, you can provide deep, unique discounts on products and services that customers will have a hard time turning down. While this does eat into profits on each sale, you may find that you generate a large number of new, returning customers who will later pay full price for your services.

Small businesses should target as many online platforms as they can afford. By pinging users with great deals on products and services, utilizing content marketing to organically reach new people and tapping into the flexibility of social media advertising, small businesses can enjoy the benefits of marketing scaled to their specific budgets and time constraints.