Marketing is all about reaching the people who’ll find value in your company. By creating a solid customer base, the awareness of your products or services will naturally grow. Additionally, a strong marketing strategy can give your small business growth a welcome push in the right direction.
When deciding on the appropriate marketing plan for your business, ask yourself these questions:
Among the most tried and trusted marketing strategies for small businesses are the below:
Your business’s brand is what sets it apart. A clear identity, vision, and voice will do the talking for you and leave a first impression. You might be reminded of logos and company names when you think of a brand.
But even though those are major elements, they don’t tell the whole story. There should be consistency between all the different pieces of your brand: the imagery, the tone, the mission, and more. It may be worth investing in developing a brand, whether that means spending some time brainstorming or working with an expert who can help you along the way.
Distributing valuable content is a great way to establish expertise in your industry. Content can take the form of blog posts that attract entirely new potential customers, or it can comprise emails targeted to leads you’ve already generated. It can even include webinars and demos with a target audience of potential customers clearly on the verge of making a sale. None of these types of content have to be overtly promotional – material that relates to your field without aggressively amplifying your company can generate more natural leads.
A website is a key component of business marketing. Even if you don’t sell any products or services online, it helps current and potential customers to learn more about the company. A strong website is easy to browse with clear directions. Most of your other marketing campaigns should lead your audience back to your business homepage.
A blog is a powerful tool that can help your customers get to know your business. Not only can you build trust with your readers, but you can get your name out there by partnering up with other blogs covering similar topics. Don’t wait to pitch guest post ideas and recommend your writing so that you can reach the readers who’d be interested.
It’s no wonder the email channel typically performs well. With this strategy, you’ll appear in the inboxes of the contacts you want to reach and can easily measure performance with open and click rate. Use this opportunity to share new products, special promotions, and important updates related to your business.
Small business owners often benefit from advertising locally, and using printed collateral is a great way to establish a presence in your area. Whether it be flyers, stickers, banners, or a direct mail program, this strategy is a simple, cost-effective way to bring your marketing into the world.
Is your business newsworthy? It can be! Sending press releases to local outlets and working your way up to national publications can help you target readers outside or inside your area to raise brand awareness. You can also reach out personally to local TV or radio show hosts and pitch yourself as a guest. If you do it right, you can even spin your appearance into another guest spot and, ultimately, a regular segment.
Social Media is an important way to interact with customers, provide support, and share a behind-the-scenes look into your company.
Organic social media is free: it only takes dedication and time to build audiences and make meaningful connections. Then, you can track the followers that engage with your posts.
With paid campaigns, your posts will be placed in a dedicated area of users’ feeds. On most social platforms, you’ll have control over exactly who you’re targeting based on certain demographics and be able to see detailed reports on their activity like clicks.
With an overall image and voice for your business, it’s easier to market the specific products or services you offer. Put another way, an eye-catching logo with strong branding to back it up is key to brand awareness. Your logo and all the elements of your brand should showcase what makes you stand out from the pack, though how your branded marketing does so will differ by company. B2B companies should spread awareness through building relationships, whereas B2C companies can rely on fun, instantly gratifying ads and content.
A great start is to create a referral program: offer your existing customers incentives to spread the word. These incentives can result in discounts for not just your current customers, but the new customers they recruit too. The goal is to encourage spending from new customers and continued engagement from current ones. And if you have employees, this is a great way to boost their motivation to help you grow the business.
Have prospective customers who need a trial run before they take the plunge? Arranging free consultations can help you raise awareness and establish your name as an expert in your industry. Free trials and consultations also build trust between you and your customer base for several reasons. For starters, you won’t appear to be doing what you do solely for the money. You’ll also be giving leads a chance to try your product before they commit, so they’ll have the power to make sound decisions without stress or pressure.
Consider looking into coupon deal websites and apps to promote your company through limited-time discounts. You might see a boost in interested customers who were looking to give your business a try. You can also include coupons for future visits on receipts for in-person sales, as do big-name stores such as CVS. After all, retaining your customers is far less expensive than acquiring new ones.
With an online and print presence, why not cover all your bases and consider making appearances at in-person events? You can host your own workshops, info sessions, and mixers, or you can attend local gatherings to represent your business. You can also co-host an event with another business in your area so that each of your companies can engage with both of your customer bases.
Making face-to-face connections can have a lasting impact on your business. Search for nearby networking meet-ups and bring a bunch of business cards! These rooms might be the very place where you find the co-hosting partners mentioned above or the perfect third-party firm to fuel your growth. Ideally, it’ll also be a place where, if you run a B2B company, other small business owners realize that you’re their perfect third-party partner.
If you have unique advice or industry knowledge to share, why not use that opportunity to be the spokesperson for your small business? Better yet, be the spokesperson for a whole industry. If you’re an SEO expert with unique expertise in a certain subset of online marketing, get yourself a speaking commitment at a digital marketing conference. You’ll establish yourself as a thought leader, and all kinds of companies will want to hire you for your prowess.
Even though they’re virtual, webinars fall under the category of event marketing because they bring people together. Hosting an online meeting can be a more affordable way to generate more leads . It can also help push highly interested prospects over the finish line and convert them to customers. You can also o ffer your webinar attendees seats at the table in your email newsletters for a great cross-channel strategy!
Let’s say you’re searching Google Maps for the right business to solve a problem of yours. If you see a company with no photos or details, you certainly won’t buy from it. The thing is, until you claim your company’s Google My Business profile, your business could appear just as undesirable. That’s why you should claim your profile now.
Once you do so, you should add your company’s phone number, website, and operating hours. This information will then appear in every search. It will also connect to your Google reviews – and a Maps listing full of both customer praise and business information makes you look supremely trustworthy.
Google’s Shopping tab can be a great place for you to find highly qualified online and local leads. Your ads will appear toward the top of Shopping searches and, for certain paid listings, on YouTube and in Gmail inboxes. You’ll also get full power over your budget since you can either tell Google the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for engagement or use a pay-per-click model. Google has plenty of other advertising options too.
A great way to take out ads on your own terms (and budget) is through Google Ads (f.k.a. Google AdWords). With Google Ads, you can set your terms so that you only pay for actual clicks on your ads. You can also set a maximum monthly ad spend that Google will never exceed. And, of course, traditional advertising in newspapers and on radio or TV remains on the table.
Across all your marketing approaches, you should prioritize SEO to increase the chances that your company will rank highly in search engine page results. The content marketing strategies described earlier go especially well with SEO, which is predicated on the use of relevant search terms in your online materials. You’ll also want to follow several SEO best practices in all these materials, which include your website, blog, and social media posts. The result can be more organic traffic – and customers – without a huge spend.
No matter which of the above marketing strategies you use for your small business, you should keep the following in mind:
Marketing takes passion and dedication. With the right toolkit, you can make a lasting impression on potential customers. Once you find a few strategies that work for you, you can improve them based on their performance.
Looking to invest in your business marketing? A small business loan through SmartBiz can help you achieve your goals. With low costs, long terms, and low monthly payments, you can boost your cash flow to open up more opportunities and reach the right audiences.