Do you know that you have incredible opportunities available to take your business to the next level as a small business owner right now?
Whether your small business has existed for years, or it’s a start-up, it’s critical to find the most effective marketing strategies to help your business succeed.
With the current COVID-19 global pandemic, many large organizations fold up and let staff go because they cannot adapt and cope with the sudden changes.
But you have something they don’t have.
Your size! And that’s your superpower!
Being a small business owner offers you some distinct and impressive advantages that large organizations can only wish they had.
In case you forgot or haven’t taken full advantage of your superpower, here are some benefits/advantages of your business size.
- You are always available to handle your clients’ questions and concerns.
- You are quick to react to changing market conditions.
- You can offer personalized, ongoing service to your customers.
With these advantages as a small business owner, you have an ace up your sleeves. Use them to upsell and out-service your competition and large organizations to win every time! Learn more here – Small is the new big in business and marketing.
Now, it’s time to discover what you can do to improve your marketing strategies.
By implementing these effective marketing strategies, you can save time and money, increase sales, and boost profits.
12 Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses
When it comes to marketing strategies, there’s no magic bullet.
It’s merely a straightforward concept with different shades, and these tips have the potential to skyrocket your growth throughout the year.
Know your unique selling proposition (USP) and your customers
Know what sets your business apart from others, especially during this global pandemic. Every business is different, and there is no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy to give you your desired results. Think about what you can do differently from your competition to gain more ground right now. And before you choose any elements to integrate into your current marketing strategy, think carefully about your target customers. Know their age, demographics, location, which of your services or products they use and why, etc. These details will allow you to develop a more effective marketing strategy that’s targeted, and you can choose channels that are most likely to produce results for you. Try different marketing strategies but focus on what works best for you and your business. Your Unique Selling Proposition Is Your Competitive Edge | Top Content Agency
Advertisement on Facebook
This medium is one of the best ways to target a specific audience is by using Facebook Ads. It’s an inexpensive and effective way to market to virtually any audience in a short time. This channel excels at advanced targeting, and using it allows you to focus on essential factors such as age, sex, location, interests, and so on. It would help if you had a solid headline, a bit of descriptive copy, one image, and a link. Most small business owners advertise on Facebook to reach their potential customers because the Facebook Ads Manager makes it reasonably simple to run and test multiple ad campaigns. So you can choose the one with the most reach and profitability without needing any advanced technical expertise.
Have a great website
You only have one chance to make a first impression. Make it count! With the world turning more to online platforms and stores more than physical buildings, your website must be updated and inviting enough to catch their attention and keep them glued. Customers make their first impressions in seconds, and having a poorly designed website is one thing that can hurt your business and put people off your company. It’s not just enough to bring customers to your site if they find the site hard to navigate, illogically laid out, or user-unfriendly; it can impact the bounce, engagement, and conversion rate. It can also negatively impact your brand and ability to build trust. You don’t have to be a developer to achieve this, you can host your website on funnels or CMS like WIX, and we can help you create the content and do research. Or you can get a professional to update your website, the cost will pay off in the long run, and it’s much better than losing potential customers.
Use Google My Business
This strategy is one of the most powerful things you can do for your business, mainly if your business targets local clients. It’s a handy tool that allows your business to appear near the top when customers in your local area search on Google for the product or your products and services. When your business ranks at the top or near the top accompanied by good reviews, your business automatically gains credibility, and prospective customers will be more willing to trust you. It’s an easy process that only requires you to optimize your profile and collect reviews and citations. With Google My Business, you can have access to all your different Google platforms and more to give your business the credibility and visibility required to increase your ROI this year.
Use Google Ads
Do you know that there are more than 40,000 search queries on Google per second? It’s a competitive world! Google Ads provides you with the perfect opportunity to advertise your business. Although it’s more expensive than many other marketing options available, no other channel has the potential to expand your business reach to numerous potential customers per second. Google Ads is a paid marketing channel that can scale as far as your budget allows to maximize output, enabling you to obtain immediate results.
Nurture leads with Email Marketing
As a marketing channel, email has several advantages and benefits. From being low cost, easy to set up, run, automate, segment track, and optimize, it provides you with an opportunity to communicate and reach your customers on a personalized level. It remains the highest converting channel for interacting with new and existing customers. This is one must-have marketing tool that you require to continually provide interesting, valuable, and relevant content that your customers will always look forward to. Use free EMS tools to help you automate and segment your emails, ensure they avoid the spam folder getting delivered and opened. (8 Email Marketing Tips to Win Opt-Ins | Top Content Agency)
Maximize Content Marketing
Your customers and prospects consume content in various ways. By creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content, you will attract and retain a clearly-defined audience and drive profitable customer action. You can have quality content on your website like blogs, podcasts, videos, articles, and more optimized for SEO on relevant topics in your industry that your customers will be interested in. Content marketing focuses more on long-term results, such as sustainable growth in web traffic, leads, and conversion. Remember to keep the content keyword optimized to make sure you rank highly on searches. If you’re considering this strategy, don’t waste resources to create mediocre content that won’t pay off. If you don’t have the time to do it right, you can hire a content marketing agency to get the job done.
At Top Content Marketing Agency, we help you get the job done effectively, efficiently, and achieve your content marketing goals.
Advertise on Social Media
Don’t underestimate the power of social media. If you haven’t joined the bandwagon, it’s not too late to join the moving train. Through social media, small businesses can effectively advertise their products or services to reach a wide audience range. In these current unprecedented times, it’s become a non-negotiable right now, and you should be investing in growing your social audiences. You can use social media influencers or consumer-generated content to reach an active audience to build a consistent direct sales funnel. The key is to identify your customers, what they require, how they want to be approached, and if social media is the right channel for your business.
Collaborate with another brand
If you want to promote and advertise your business quickly, get mass exposure, increase brand awareness, and an influx of new customers, you can partner with another company. Using the combined resources with another business helps you accomplish new things. It’s a win-win for both parties as the goal is to work out a complementary arrangement that provides mutual benefit for both businesses.
For instance, if you’re a hairstylist, you can offer free services to a beautician’s clients, and a florist can provide an exclusive discount for customers of the local bridal shop. Or, if you own a realtor company, you could partner with a cleaning, construction/renovation, or junk removal company to recommend each other’s services.
All you have to do is identify the possibility of a joint venture with your audience and that of a business that’s not your competition and then use it in a mutually beneficial way.
Offer incentives to get referrals from existing customers
If you didn’t know this, referrals from your existing customers are one of the best ways to find potential customers. They know and have used your products or services. They know people who may be interested in what you offer. Offering incentives like a free product or service, gifts, discounts, coupons, and more to your existing customers will encourage them to promote your business and bring in more leads for you. One of the advantages of these referrals is that if your customers recommend you, the prospects will automatically be more predisposed to trust you, leading to a much higher conversion rate.
Remember to continually offer exceptional customer service that will make them genuinely feel good about your business and motivated to pitch it to their friends, family, and colleagues.
Switch up your product description style
If you’re an eCommerce business owner with an online platform or store, look through your product or service descriptions. Are they all business-centered or customer-focused? Do they tell the benefits for the customers rather than state the features? The right product or service description makes your customers feel like they cannot do without that product or service. Switch up your current style to boost sales and increase your ROI.
Sponsor a local organization or event
Sponsorship marketing is one of the easiest, most affordable ways a small business can improve its visibility and brand awareness.
It helps you drive sales, target a niche market, and distinguishes your business above your competitors. It encourages potential customers to choose your business, and they will be more likely to think of you when they need your product due to that local association. Just ensure that the sponsorship matches and meets your marketing criteria and goals.
Conclusion
There are many more ways small businesses can improve their marketing strategies.
Remember, there’s no universal strategy that is guaranteed to revolutionize your business. You have to find what works for you and use it to your advantage. It takes time, persistence, and consistency to improve your marketing strategies and achieve your marketing goals.
Let’s help you improve your marketing strategies to boost sales, more traffic, and increase conversions.
Ready to get started? Contact us to discuss your content marketing plan today.