4 Simple Ways to Improve Your Marketing Skills (Without Spending Much Money)

 

There’s no doubt that over the last few years, digital marketing and the use of social media to promote products or services has seen a dramatic increase. But with the rapid changes in technology, how do marketers, or indeed business owners, keep up in an industry that is constantly evolving, particularly in such a volatile time?

Here are some simple tips that you can adopt to improve your marketing skills without spending a ton of money.

Run Virtual Events Using Facebook Live, Zoom or Skype

The Coronavirus pandemic has meant that a lot of businesses are cancelling their events, which in turn means they’re losing money. That doesn’t have to be you. This is a great time to take advantage of technology with Facebook Live events to show your followers behind-the-scenes videos, host interactive Q & As or even run that training event you had scheduled for next month with Zoom or Skype.

Train Using Skillshare, LinkedIn Learning or YouTube

The advent of online learning spaces means that YouTube, Skillshare and LinkedIn Learning are fast becoming the go-to virtual classroom for many professionals, for little financial outlay. If you want to learn something new, from how to write a best-selling novel to how to use Photoshop, you can do so on these platforms, at your own pace, in your own time. And often you can get trial periods for subscriptions to the paid services, which effectively means you can try before you buy.

Read

When all else fails, go back to basics and pick up a book. There are hundreds of books out there that will teach you the necessary skills you need to know when it comes to marketing. All you need to do is go to your local library or bookstore and you’re on your way.

If you’re looking for recommendations, the For Dummies and Teach Yourself in a Week series are popular for a reason. But my favourites when it comes to improving your marketing skills are Gabrielle Dolan’s Stories for Work and Roxy’s Little Black Book of Tips and Tricks by Roxy Jacenko.

 

Test New Ideas

Sometimes, you won’t know if an idea will pan out unless you actually try it. But the beauty of social media marketing is that you can try new concepts almost immediately and gauge your consumers’ reactions by their responses. Perhaps you’ve been wanting to try out a new product, but your unsure of how people will respond. The best way to find out what people want is to post about it. You might even be thinking about changing up your posting schedule on Facebook. Trial it for a week and see what happens. You’ll never know until you try.

Of course, there are many other cost-effective ways you can improve your marketing skills – these are just a few. But if you’re looking for new ideas to skill-up, or just want to know where to start, give these tips a go.

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