Marketing For Small Businesses: 10 Tips
As a small business, the first step to getting your brand out there might be challenging because of a low budget, limited network, or tight timeframe. Though this does not mean you don’t have a chance at a winning shot.
There are several key tactics to increase revenues and scale your small business. With the advancements of digital technologies, marketing your business is a lot more cost-friendly and efficient than you think.
What is marketing for a small business?
The purpose of marketing is to raise brand awareness and generate leads that will potentially convert into sales.
Whether you're planning to start a new business or already have one, having a comprehensive digital marketing plan is extremely crucial for your business success. Not only does digital marketing help promote your products and services to a wider audience, but it also drives sales and develops a brand identity.
We’ll let the numbers speak for themselves:
You can expect about 67% more leads every month if your brand has a blog (compared to ones that don’t!).
69% of searchers will use their phone to help them decide on an in-store purchase.
A whopping 93% of brands claim to have attained a new customer from a video posted on one of their social media channels.
The impacts of marketing your business online are bountiful. In fact, there are so many digital marketing strategies available that you might not know where to start!
Here are the top 10 tips for marketing a small business.
1. Define your target audience.
Before you proceed with any marketing campaigns, you need to know your target audience. This is a step that you cannot afford to skip. Many startup companies have mistaken that "anyone" is their client. It may seem possible to appeal to a large market, however, it is primarily larger corporations that can establish such an authority.
Conversely, a specific niche is where you will have the upper hand as a small business. By showing that you know your consumers’ exact pain points and interests, your marketing initiatives will be much more impactful.
Start by thinking about your existing clients or how an ideal client would look. You can even analyze your competitor’s target pool. When defining your target audience, it would also be beneficial to consider some of these aspects:
Demographic
Age
Gender
Location
Psychographic
Goals
Values
Likes and dislikes
The more you know about your target audience, the better you will craft campaigns that resonate with them.
2. Outline your strengths and know your weaknesses.
As a marketer, your job is to showcase to the world how awesome your brand is and why people should choose you.
You need to be able to identify your strengths. What makes your brand different from your competitors? Why can customers benefit from your products or services? For example, your brand boasts excellent customer service, or, your products are made with high-end materials. Once you know what sets you above the rest, you can take full advantage of it in your marketing campaigns. In addition, this information gives you room to reflect on your areas of weakness. Thus, creating space for further growth.
3. Set SMART goals and work towards them.
As you begin diving into the pool of digital marketing, you might feel confused or intimidated by the amount of work that needs to be done. This is when the power of goal setting proves its credibility.
SMART goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The methodology helps you reach your business goals while making the process much more enjoyable and efficient. By setting a personalized SMART goal, you get to cover all your bases and channel your focus into a specific initiative. This ensures that you are progressing in the right direction and that your efforts are not in vain.
4. Optimize the lifetime value of existing customers.
Did you know that acquiring a new customer is five times more expensive than retaining an existing customer? Since a customer is already compelled to trust your brand, it is more likely that they will make another purchase again. Of course, this is presuming that they did not have any complaints about your brand!
Ultimately, you are investing time and money to build brand loyalty so that customers buy from you regularly. This is what propels a sustainable business. However, just because customers are currently walking in the door you shouldn’t stop marketing for new prospects. The best way to divide your marketing efforts is by calculating the lifetime value of a customer. Once you predict the amount each customer can offer, you will be able to let your marketing initiatives come into play.
5. Try writing blogs for your website.
Businesses that utilize blogging experience twice as much email traffic as businesses that do not. It is a valuable search engine optimization (SEO) technique that allows your website to gain visibility and generate more organic traffic. Furthermore, it gives you the opportunity to show off your expertise in the field. By doing so, you educate customers about your products or services, and in return, they learn to trust your company more.
What’s great about blogging is you get to create free and authentic content all by yourself. All you need is a platform to share your work. There are a ton of sites that you can use, for instance, WordPress and Squarespace.
To make your blogs even more influential, you can add call-to-action phrases to give readers a clearer intent. For example, your call-to-action can be something along the lines of “Subscribe to our mailing list today!” While it might not necessarily be driven to making a purchase, it is a step towards building a client bank and keeping in touch with prospects.
6. Promote your brand on social media.
Did you know that over 53% of the earth’s population is on social media? On top of that, each person spends an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social networks. Social media gives you plenty of opportunities to reach your target audience.
You might think that social media is simply a platform for younger generations to interact and post silly selfies, but it’s actually an incredible business marketing tool. Not only can you maximize your SEO with social media, but you get to engage with consumers on a direct one-to-one basis. You get to post photos on Instagram, create Facebook polls, send private messages to your followers, and even organize a group!
With a social media strategy in place, you can be assured that your efforts will be greatly reflected in your company’s return on investment (ROI).
7. Boost your visibility with SEO.
SEO is one of the most effective marketing techniques. 53.3% of all website traffic comes from organic search, and SEO is proven to drive 1000%+ more traffic than organic social media.
SEO is the process of ranking your website on search engine results pages like Google. Let’s say you tried searching for your company on Google, did your website show up as the first listing? What about searching for the products or services that you offer? What position does Google display your website?
Ranking well on the search engine is a crucial element to achieving business success. To create an SEO-friendly website, you need to build quality backlinks, improve your web-user’s experience, and include relevant keywords in your website content. With an authoritative online presence, you get to drive more organic traffic to your website and increase sales revenue.
8. Consider investing in paid ads.
We’ll cut straight to the chase: it takes longer to see the results of organic marketing, though they may last a lot longer. If you’re impatient or simply do not wish to look to the long term, you can always opt for paid ads. There are various forms of paid ads. For example, Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
Paid ads are a great way to reach your target audience who already have a high intent to purchase your products or services, or have expressed interest in your brand. You might ask, how is this possible? Well, thanks to smart technology, the oversharing of information all over the web, and google knowing every last thing about us, the internet is able to find the perfect audience for your ads.
You may learn more about SEO here.
9. Consult a marketing agency for guidance.
Digital marketing is undeniably a challenging feat. Found yourself stuck in a rut? Or wondering why your performance is stagnant? There is no shame in being completely confused by the whole process!
Fortunately, there is an array of professionals who are happy to help you with your marketing needs. Whether it’s about content creation, SEO, or social media management, we are here to guide you to success!
10. Review your performances (regularly!)
Last but certainly not least, always remember to analyze your progress. Keep track of all your marketing efforts to see what’s working and what’s not.
Before you start panicking about the amount of data you have to key in and calculate, there are several free analytical tools that you can use. Just to name a few, there is Google Analytics, Facebook Business Suite (replacing Facebook Analytics as of June 30, 2021), and Instagram Insights.
Market your small business today
You probably have a long road ahead to establish your business in the marketplace, but with these insightful tips, you are off to a good start. So enough reading. Make your magic happen in the real world!
FAQs
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing, or marketing on the internet, is an umbrella term for any kind of marketing that is featured on smartphones, laptops, tablets and basically any other forms of device capable of connecting to Wi-Fi. Unlike traditional marketing initiatives that advertise on radio, TV, newspaper, and billboard, digital marketing takes advantage of apps, websites, blogs, social media, email, and online content.
How important is marketing for small businesses?
We believe that marketing is what propels your business (not solely, you still need to smile and provide good customer service!). Especially as a small business, you will need to make the most out of what you have. Marketing allows you to do this by ensuring your business reaches the ideal client and convinces them to make a purchase. By setting up your empire in the digital world, you make use of its features such as social media networks, analytical tools, and targeted ads.
Why do I need a digital marketing plan?
A digital marketing plan is your roadmap to success. It helps identify marketing strategies, refine your initiatives, and keep track of your progress. The end result is attracting more customers and developing loyalty with your brand.
Without a solid plan, you’re bound to let your decisions go haywire and potentially lead you to nowhere. On the contrary, a well-thought plan allows you to focus your time and resources towards the right steps. You will also have a clearer vision of what you want to achieve.
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