It can seem daunting trying to compete when you know your competitors have a budgetary advantage. However, there’s an aspect to the nature of the internet itself that has a leveling effect, provided you’re smart about it.

The technological space lets us achieve outcomes that simply weren’t possible before, meaning that little tricks go a long way. If you want to know how to add lip gloss to a photo, for example, there are many options to check out.

There is also a plethora of filtering choices, both in terms of graphic effects and selection criteria, so being smart about seemingly little things can have a serious impact on your business model. It pays to be careful with detail.

Who Are You Trying to Reach?

Those with larger corporate budgets can cast wide nets. This means they get a huge haul of what they’re after, but a heck of a lot of wasteful bycatch too. If you have the money, you might not mind throwing unwanted fish back into the sea.

When you’re on a stricter budget, however, you simply don’t have this luxury. You have to become a target-obsessed fisherman who knows where to look for precisely the intended quarry, to the exclusion of all else. You cannot waste a dime on bycatch.

So, it’s knowing your customer. Know your platforms, know your timing, and know your pitch backward and forwards. You must be economical in everything you do, right down to the finest detail.

Focus on Appropriate Spaces

Knowing your customer goes deeper than many people realize. It used to be limited to knowing what certain people spend money on, and not much more. With the social media landscape, this has changed dramatically of late.

Now, you can know a lot more and sharpen your marketing accordingly. Where does your customer communicate? What times do your customers consume media, and where do they do so? What forms of media are being consumed? Why are these forms popular?

All of these are pin-point weapons in the right marketing hands, and all of these must be employed with high specificity. You don’t have the resources to be wasteful, after all, so pennies on the dollar are important.

Be Meticulous in Everything

If it seems like a Hail Mary, it quite likely is one. We all love the underdog story in which success is torn from the jaws of defeat through spectacular providence, but the pragmatic truth is that for every success of this kind, there are a million abject failures.

The ground is littered with the bones of ruined companies, precisely because of this. On a budget, you need to pay extreme attention to the statistical side of things and plan your moves meticulously. No false moves if you can avoid the pitfalls.

Last Thoughts

Business is cut-throat stuff, no doubt about it. Your bottom line is the ultimate key to whether you succeed or whether you add to the bone pile. The entire focus has to be on what you can reasonably expect to succeed at and making it happen.

So, taking great pains to ensure that every marketing dollar hits its mark is at the very top of your agenda. If it isn’t, it really ought to be. You aren’t Nike or Intel, at least not yet, so you can’t flood the entire earth with your message.

You have to be a lot smarter than that. Be sure of who you’re dealing with, who you’re entrusting with your budget, and who is absorbing your content. Once you’re certain of those things, you can branch out a little, but not before.