August 12, 2021
The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Business Loans
Since marketing is a costly investment, a marketing business loan may be a good option. It can provide you with the funds you need to cover a variety of marketing expenses. Often, small business owners want to invest in marketing costs, but don't have enough cash flow to afford it.
In this blog post, we'll dive deeper into what you can expect when seeking a business loan for marketing costs.
What is a Marketing Business Loan Used For?
A marketing business loan is designed to pay for some or all of your marketing strategies. The strategies you use will depend on your unique business, target audience, and goals. Several examples you should consider include:- Email Marketing: While direct mail may still make sense for your industry, email marketing is likely a more affordable and effective alternative. As long as your emails contain catchy subject lines and engaging content, they can help you promote new products, sales, events, and just about anything else.
- Social Media Marketing: These days, almost every customer has at least one social media profile. Due to this, you should market your business on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
- Content Marketing: At its core, content marketing is creating and distributing valuable content to your current and prospective customers. White papers, e-books, videos, webinars, blog posts, and infographics are all examples of content marketing.
- Event Marketing: Event marketing can allow you to get your brand out there at trade shows, conferences, festivals, and other events that your target audience may visit. Virtual and in-person events are certainly worth considering.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): If you have a website, SEO is essential. It will drive the right visitors and ensure your brand shows up in search results. With a solid SEO strategy, your website can help you drive leads and sales.
- Google AdWords: Google receives more than 40,000 search queries every second so if you’re not marketing on Google AdWords, you’re missing out. With Google AdWords, you can target the exact types of consumers that may be interested in your products and services. Best of all, you can easily measure its effectiveness and your ROI.
- Mobile Advertising: In mobile advertising, ads pop up on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Since many consumers shop on their mobile devices, mobile display ads, mobile search ads, and mobile videos can do wonders for your business growth.
- Broadcast Advertising: Television and radio advertising are the two most common types of broadcast advertising. You may want to invest in local television and radio stations as they are far more affordable and can be very relevant to your local business.
- Out-of-Home Advertising: Also known as outdoor advertising, out-of-home advertising is any advertising that targets customers when they’re outside of their homes. It may include billboards, transit ads, and digital signage.
- Affiliate Marketing: With affiliate marketing campaigns, you pay a business or individual commission every time they promote your products and services and drive leads. Once you receive the leads, it’s your job to sell to the customers and close them.
Types of Marketing Business Loans
Fortunately, there are a variety of marketing business loans available. When you do some research and shop around for an advertising business loan, you’ll likely come across the following options.- Traditional Bank Loans: Traditional bank loans are loans you take out from a bank or credit union. While they usually offer low rates and favorable terms, you’ll need good or excellent credit to qualify.
- Business Credit Cards: If you’re a fairly established business with a loyal customer base, you may spend less on marketing than a startup or newer business. A business credit card can give you the funds you need to pay for your marketing and reward you with cash back, gift cards, airline miles, and other perks.
- SBA Loans: Administered by the SBA, SBA loans come with several noteworthy benefits like low interest rates, large loan amounts, and long repayment terms. They are versatile and can be used for many purposes, including marketing.
- Business Lines of Credit: Business lines of credit are similar to credit cards but offer larger loan amounts. If you’re unsure of how much your marketing initiatives will cost, credit lines are a good idea because you can borrow as much or as little as you’d like up to a set credit limit.
- Merchant Cash Advances: If you don’t have the best credit and can’t qualify for traditional financing options, a merchant cash advance may work. You receive a lump sum of cash upfront and repay the advance via percentage of your daily credit card sales.