How to Build a Marketing Strategy on a Small Budget in NZ

A marketing strategy is not a forty-slide deck. For a small New Zealand business it fits on one page, and the discipline is in what you leave off.

Part one – decide who you are for

Write one sentence: we help [specific customer] with [specific problem] so they can [specific outcome].

If your sentence includes "businesses of all sizes" or "anyone who needs", you do not have a strategy yet. Narrow until it feels uncomfortable. In a market of five million people, being obviously right for a small group beats being vaguely acceptable to everyone.

Part two – find where they already are

List the five places your best customers spend attention. Search, a specific community, a trade publication, a local event, a referral partner. Rank them by how easily you can be present there every week.

Part three – pick two channels and commit

Two channels, run weekly for six months, beats six channels run once. Choose one demand-capture channel – usually search and local listings – and one demand-creation channel – content, community, events, partnerships or outreach. That pairing is the affordable core.

Part four – fund conversion first

Before spending on traffic, spend on:

• Page speed and mobile experience

• A clear headline and offer above the fold

• Price context, even a range

• A short form and a fast, human reply

A twenty percent conversion improvement is free traffic forever. Ads are rented.

Part five – set the budget honestly

A workable small-budget split:

• 50 percent time – your hours or a freelancer's, doing the two channels

• 30 percent tools – site, analytics and a marketing home that tells you what to do next

• 20 percent media – small, targeted, only after conversion works

If your budget is a few hundred dollars a month, that is enough for the first two lines. Media can wait.

Part six – decide how you will know

Three numbers, reviewed monthly:

1. Enquiries, and their source
2. Conversion rate from visitor to enquiry
3. Cost per enquiry, including your time

Do not add a fourth for at least two quarters. More metrics at small volumes is noise dressed as rigour.

Part seven – the quarterly cut

Every quarter, kill the weakest thing and reinvest the time. Small budgets grow by subtraction. The strategy that works is almost always shorter than the one you started with.

The one-page version

• Who: one customer, one problem, one promise

• Where: two channels, run weekly

• What first: conversion, then traffic

• How much: half time, a third tools, the rest media

• How you know: three numbers, monthly

• What next: cut the weakest thing each quarter

Print it. Stick it up. That is the strategy.