An effective business relies on effective marketing to draw in customers, and this requires understanding the audience you’re targeting and developing effective online and offline strategies to engage them.
Marketing strategies designed for small businesses needn’t be complicated or expensive; as a general guideline, consider allocating a percentage of revenue towards marketing expenses.
1. Invest in a Website
One of the key steps a small business should take in their effort to enhance their marketing strategy is investing in a website. A professional site offers numerous advantages that can help them attract new customers and expand their operations.
Small businesses depend on websites to communicate their stories online, build brand recognition and establish credibility.
Websites provide cost-effective marketing solutions that are more effective than traditional advertising methods, targeting specific demographics and geographic areas to maximize a small business’s marketing budget. Joe’s Coffee Shop utilized their website to share coffee brewing tips and other content with their audience resulting in increased brand loyalty and sales.
2. Optimize Your Website for SEO
Your goal when potential customers search for products or services offered by your company should be that their search results include your website in the top results. SEO (search engine optimization) is a digital marketing strategy which assists search engines like Google to index your web pages more effectively so they can rank them higher in search results.
Search engine result pages are an effective way of increasing website traffic and sales without incurring additional ad expenses. Furthermore, optimizing your website for SEO also improves usability; for instance creating keyword-relevant page title tags and meta descriptions makes your web pages more visible in search engine results and encourages visitors to click through to your webpages.
3. Create a Blog
Installing a blog onto your website is one of the best ways to generate leads and expand sales. By sharing relevant news stories through your blog posts, you can showcase your expertise while simultaneously increasing sales.
Blogging can also play a vital role in search engine optimization (SEO), with Google and other major search engines regularly indexing blogs with popular search terms, serving as seeds that draw more and more people into your website with each post you publish.
Furthermore, blog content can be leveraged in other marketing efforts. For example, posting blog articles to social media or sending them via email are just two options for using blog articles in marketing campaigns. You could even print them and mail them directly.
4. Start a Social Media Campaign
Social media provides small businesses with one of the best tools to connect and build relationships with customers, while simultaneously increasing sales without incurring costly advertising costs.
By creating a social media campaign, you can effectively target your ideal target market and cultivate an engaged community who will become brand advocates. This is particularly helpful for smaller brands with localized target markets as it allows them to interact directly with target customers in an authentic manner.
Example: A local bakery could team up with another local business to host a social media giveaway that encourages customers to buy from both shops, demonstrating collaboration and building brand loyalty. Furthermore, this strategy also helps small businesses understand their audiences better by directly engaging them, collecting feedback, and analyzing data.
5. Create a Newsletter
Submitting and sending out a newsletter are crucial parts of any marketing strategy, providing regular opportunities to communicate with customers and clients while building trust and creating long-term relationships.
Create a newsletter that provides your audience with industry news or tips they will find beneficial, such as Schwab’s investing insights newsletter which features short paragraphs with one photo and plenty of white space to avoid looking cluttered.
Your newsletter can also serve to build trust among your audience by sharing customer stories or testimonials, while if possible monetizing it to generate additional income by selling advertising space or hosting events and webinars for premium subscribers.