small business marketing strategies that actually work

50 Ideas for Your 2023 Small Business Marketing Strategy

Published: May 19, 2023

Whether you’re launching a new business or already have one, having a small business marketing strategy that includes a strong online presence for your brand is essential.

Consumers learn about local businesses online more than anywhere else, with Statista predicting the number of ecommerce users to grow to nearly 290 million by 2027 .

If you’re a small business owner with little experience in online marketing, creating a strategy to boost your online presence may feel overwhelming. Have no fear — we’ve got you covered.

In this post, we’ll help you build and optimize your small business marketing strategy using inbound marketing , setting you up to attract new clients and ultimately grow your business.

Small Business Marketing

Marketing is meant to raise brand awareness and build a pipeline of qualified leads that turn into sales. With a small business, getting the word out can be challenging due to less visibility and lack of resources (like budget or time).

However, there are key strategies that can help you scale your small business’s marketing efforts.

Whether you’re struggling with a limited budget, the time restraints caused by a smaller team, or even a lack of direction, a marketing plan appropriate for your business can guide you as you scale.

Small Business Marketing Strategies

• Know your audience.
• Emphasize your value proposition.
• Stay focused on singular goals and objectives.
• Capitalize on short-term plays.
• Double down on what works.
• Understand the power of existing customers.
• Use free promotional tools.
• Create a website to own your online presence.
• Consider blogging to attract prospects for your website.
• Promote yourself on social media.
• Collaborate with influencers to create brand awareness.
• Create short-form video content.
• Stick to a social media posting schedule.
• Invest in ads.
• Make sure you're capturing web prospects’ information.
• Use email marketing to nurture leads.
• Manage relationships with a CRM.
• Lean into word of mouth as a promotion channel.
• Connect with other local businesses.

These strategies are fundamental as you generate awareness and revenue for your organization:

1. Know your audience.

A key mistake is thinking that “anyone” is your buyer. Larger companies may be able to appeal to a wide market, but they say “the riches are in the niches” for a reason.

You’ll have the most leverage as a small business in a niche. And to develop a niche and appeal to buyers within it, you must understand their pains, problems, triggering events, and priorities.

What is pushing them to make a purchasing decision? What does it look like if they succeed? Knowing these things will help you craft messaging that resonates and makes a compelling case for your solution.

Start by thinking about your existing customers and who you’d like to work with. Then, create a buyer persona to get into your ideal client's head.

Download Free Buyer Persona Templates

2. Emphasize your value proposition.

If there’s no difference between you and your competition, there’s no reason why a buyer would be compelled to work with you.

Your value proposition is what will differentiate you from others in your space and make up your prospects’ minds that you're the provider to go with.

What do you do better than anyone in the industry? Conveying this makes a compelling argument.

3. Stay focused on singular goals and objectives.

If you’re exploring the world of marketing, you may have noticed that there are a gazillion directions you can go in. It’s tempting to do it all at once and craft a complicated machine in hopes that you covered all your bases.

However, this strategy makes it easy to take on too much.

Instead, identify where the biggest impact will be. Where is the biggest blind spot in your marketing prohibiting your growth?

Set a performance goal around that one key area and focus your resources on the activities and tactics that will achieve that one performance goal.

You can expand your efforts or pivot to other initiatives when you’ve made more progress toward that singular goal.

4. Capitalize on short-term plays.

Start scrappy. As you scale, it’s critical to see ROI sooner. This will give you the momentum and cash flow to put toward larger projects, long-term plays, and more sustainable growth models.

Tactics that take time to build (such as SEO) are poor fits for your primary initiatives because you won’t see a return soon enough for your liking. If you have enough resources to start there, great. However, don’t put all your eggs in that basket.

If you have evidence that people are taking to Google with purchasing intent for your particular solution, you may find that paid ads will give you that short-term ROI.

5. Double down on what works.

Once you have your initiatives running and you’ve experimented with a few things, pay attention to the data. This can inform you of what’s working. As you scale, it’s a good idea to double down on proven methods of generating revenue.

6. Understand the power of existing customers.

On average, acquiring a new customer costs five times more than closing an existing one. This means you shouldn’t stop marketing once they’ve made a purchase.

Identify your opportunities for repeat purchasing, upselling, and cross-selling. Because your existing customers have already made a purchase, they already know, like, and trust you.

If you’ve provided a good experience, you’ve given them a reason to do business with you again should the need ever arise.

Even if the need doesn’t arise (in cases where it’s a one-and-done purchase with no upsell opportunities), you should still delight your customers. Word of mouth is a powerful (and free) promotional tool.

7. Use free promotional tools.

Speaking of free promotional tools, it’s important to note that since you’ve committed to a limited goal and scope, there’s no need to inflate your overhead with gadgets.

Use free promotional tools where possible, and only commit to paid tools if you know they will drastically improve existing operations or performance. Here’s a helpful list of marketing tools (some free, some paid).

8. Create a website to own your online presence.

A professional-looking website is one of the most important assets you will create for your small business. This is where you will show who you are, what you offer, where you are, and how a potential customer can contact you.

It is a channel you will always own, and it has the capability of generating organic traffic in addition to being a place to send traffic from advertising and other marketing initiatives.

Your website isn’t just a simple brochure, either. You can turn it into a 24/7 salesperson by understanding how to convert traffic and turn them into leads (more on that later).

For one of the best website tools, check out HubSpot’s CMS .

9. Consider blogging to attract prospects for your website.

Blogging is a great way to generate organic traffic, particularly for those prospects who have not reached a purchasing decision yet . In addition, it can establish credibility in your space and position you as a thought leader.

To start a blog, you can use an inexpensive or free website tool to make a free site and use one of their templates.

Even if you only publish once a week, it will improve your website’s visibility online and help educate your potential customers on why they should trust your company.

If you plan to write your posts yourself, check out this beginner’s guide to writing .

Once you start writing, you can add a call-to-action (CTAs) on your posts for visitors to subscribe to your blog and receive emails.

This is a great way to start collecting leads and offering potential customers a way to get information if they aren’t ready to buy anything from you yet.

Download Free Blog Post Templates

10. Promote yourself on social media.

With billions of potential customers using various platforms daily, social media is a powerful business tool. Social media marketing can help you engage with potential customers, build brand awareness, and promote your products.

Why wouldn’t you want to be seen where your potential customers spend their time?

Download the Free Social Media Content Calendar Template

11. Collaborate with influencers to create brand awareness.

Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook are top of the list when it comes to social media platforms . But, if your small business is not yet well known on these outlets, consider collaborating with well-established influencers in your niche.

Influencer marketing is currently the top marketing trend. Collaborating with influencers is a surefire way to get your business in front of the eyes of your audience. Influencers understand their (and your!) niche.

Not only do they understand the niche, but influencers have a knack for storytelling — meaning, they’ll be able to effectively tell your business’s story and sell your brand to the appropriate audience.

Consider reaching out to influencers in your niche to add to your small business marketing strategy.

12. Create short-form video content.

Marketers know that a good marketing strategy for your small business should include more than just written content. In fact, in 2022, 44% of social media marketers focused their efforts on creating video content for TikTok.

Adding short-form video content to your marketing strategy is a great idea, as platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook make connecting and engaging with your audience convenient.

Short-form video content is easily shared, meaning you can quickly get your product or service in front of the right audience — and their friends.

13. Stick to a social media posting schedule.

You shouldn’t just post to your social media platforms hoping that something will become a viral post. Instead, you must focus on intentional content creation and posting.

After you find the social media platform that works best for your business, create a social media content calendar and stick to a regular posting schedule.

But, don’t just post every day for the sake of posting. 83% of social media marketers say it’s better to post at a lower frequency with high-quality content than daily posting.

You’ll likely post irrelevant, low-quality content when you post daily.

Take the time to create engaging, thoughtful content and schedule it for the appropriate times to stand out from the competition.

14. Invest in ads.

Organic traffic takes a while to build, and as a small business, you want to invest in short-term plays. Pay-to-play tactics that target buyers with high intent are great for short-term wins to jump-start other objectives.

80% of brands use some form of paid advertisement. Google Ads are perfect if you know that your target audience is searching the web for your product or solution. If they aren’t, you might consider social media ads instead.

Individuals on social media have less buying intent, but with highly targeted ads and enough impressions, you’ll gain the interest of your audience.

Download the Free Advertising Planning Kit

15. Make sure you’re capturing web prospects’ information.

We’ve been talking a lot about visibility and traffic but haven’t really covered how these will help drive revenue yet. One simple way to start generating leads or customers from your website is to implement a conversion tool.

A simple, free option is HubSpot Marketing Free . By using this tool to add a pop-up widget to your website , you can start collecting the email addresses of potential customers.

From there, you can send out promotions and offers and convert them into paying customers. You can also implement any of these 24 conversion tools to help you optimize your website and use it to drive leads.

16. Use email marketing to nurture leads.

Just because you’ve converted website traffic into leads doesn’t mean those leads are ready to buy yet. It’s important to stay top of mind and move them closer to a purchasing decision.

Email marketing is a critical part of your marketing toolkit, and it is the most effective method of marketing. In fact, 73% of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email.

This strategy is an easy, free, and scalable way to communicate with both new and existing customers.

Once you have an email marketing tool in place (many are inexpensive or even free), experiment with emailing out newsletters (with your sleek new blog posts) and other promotions to your database.

We know small business owners don’t have tons of free time to devote to digital marketing, so consider using marketing automation to make this process even easier for yourself.

To get started planning your email marketing strategy, check out this guide and template from HubSpot .

17. Manage relationships with a CRM.

Email marketing works best when you’re sending personalized, targeted emails. This begins with a customer database or customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Your CRM stores information about your leads, prospects, and customers so that you can keep track of customer interactions and identify sales opportunities more effectively.

HubSpot has one of the best CRMs (and, best of all, it’s totally free).

18. Lean into word of mouth as a promotion channel.

As mentioned previously, delighting customers can have a big impact on your business, primarily in repeat purchases and word of mouth.

If you provide a great experience, your customers will be more inclined to leave reviews, give testimonials, and tell their friends about you.

That’s why measuring customer satisfaction and encouraging customers to spread the word is a good idea.

19. Connect with other local businesses.

Take your business to the local community and connect with other local business owners in your area. Consider partnering with local businesses to create discounts, deals, or coupons for customers.

Start a live stream with local business owners during a promotional event or coordinate a giveaway.

Connecting with other small businesses is both great for word of mouth and collaboration. If you collaborate with other local businesses, advertise the promotion or sale on your social media outlets.

Online Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Now that we’ve covered the basics, here are tips for improving whichever marketing strategies you choose.

• Determine your brand's identity.
• Identify your buyer persona.
• Design a logo and other assets.
• Build your website with a CMS template.
• Draw up a go-to-market strategy.
• Hire a freelancer to help you scale your content.
• Consult agencies and freelancers for web design help.
• Track your site with analytics tools.
• Boost your Google ranking with SEO.
• Research keyword opportunities.
• Optimize your website for mobile devices.
• Write optimized blog posts.
• Experiment with photo and video content.
• Launch business pages on Facebook and Yelp.
• Build out your social media strategy.
• Use social media for customer service.
• Build interesting landing pages.
• Plan an email marketing strategy.
• Offer coupons in newsletters or on landing pages.
• Share your distribution channels on your website.
• Offer a free webinar.
• Try co-marketing.
• Encourage happy customers to share their experiences.
• Try out marketing experiments.

1. Determine your brand’s identity.

A consistent brand identity to promote your business will make you look more professional and help you attract new customers. According to a 2020 study, nearly 9 out of 10 people are brand loyal .

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has described a company’s branding as “what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

In other words, your brand is people's feelings and emotions when hearing your company name. It combines your brand name, logo, aesthetic, and the design of all your assets, plus the values you support, which is becoming more important to consumers .

2. Identify your buyer persona.

When you imagine a customer searching for your product or service, what are they like? What are their pain points? What is their job? Creating a buyer persona that tells the story of your ideal customer can help you optimize a website for them.

By learning more about your target customer through creating a buyer persona, you can better figure out what types of things they may be searching for so you can include those terms on your website.

3. Design a logo and other assets.

To start getting the creative juices flowing, consider your color scheme and peruse palettes with Adobe Color or Coolors . You can create your own or look through pre-made or customized color palettes.

To create a logo, I’d recommend checking out Upwork or Freelancer .

There are free and less expensive options for designing your own logo online, although using a freelancer or agency can give you a higher quality product and connect you with a designer who can change and update your brand assets as your company grows.

4. Build your website with a CMS template.

If you’re a tech-savvy small business owner, you’ll probably want to build your own website. A content management system (CMS) makes the process simple.

Most CMSs offer customizable templates for your site that you can get for free or for a small fee. There are templates for various skill levels — from beginner all the way to advanced.

Once you’ve created your website, most CMS platforms offer plugins to help you optimize your content for search (look for SEO plugins). This will help you rank better in Google — which we’ll discuss more in-depth in a bit.

5. Draw up a go-to-market strategy.

Once you’ve activated all the tools you need to promote your product or service, you’ll need to create a promotional plan that aligns with the customer journey.

Consider which content will attract, engage, and delight your prospects and how you will convert them into a customer.

To help you plan out this process, use this template.

6. Hire a freelancer to help you scale your content.

If you need help creating regular blogs or promotional content, consider hiring a freelancer over investing in a full-timer. Try Upwork for a freelance blogger, videographer, or photographer.

You could also consider hiring a marketing agency for a larger project.

7. Consult agencies or freelancers for web design help.

If you aren’t technical and want a website built for your small business, you can use a freelancer or a marketing agency specializing in web design.

This is a great option for businesses with an existing website that needs to be updated and revamped for SEO to help improve your Google ranking.

To find a freelancer or marketing consultant in your area, you can use Upwork (filtering by design/creative), Codeable (for WordPress experts), or Freelancer .

8. Track your site with analytics tools.

If you’ve never made a website and aren’t entirely comfortable with the technical elements, many free tools and services can help you get started.

When you create your website, implement Google Analytics or HubSpot Marketing Free (both of which are free products) so you can easily track who’s looking at your site.

9. Boost your Google ranking with SEO.

If you already have a business, have you ever searched for yourself or your product/service online? If so, did you think, “Why isn’t my website showing up on Google?”

If so, you probably thought, “How do I rank on Google?” or “How can I improve my Google ranking?”

There are a lot of factors that play into why a certain site or page appears in the top spots on the Google (or another search engine) search engine results page ( SERP ).

Backlinko reports some of Google’s top factors, which include having relevant keywords (and their placement on your site), the length of your content, having high-quality content, how fast your page loads, how often you post content, and more.

When it all boils down, Google tries to find the best content to present to the person searching.

For example, if I’m searching for the best salon in Newport, Rhode Island, it wouldn’t be helpful for me to find a web page of a salon that has closed down and is located in Newport, Kentucky.

It would, however, be helpful for me to find a salon in my area with great Yelp reviews, an easy-to-navigate website, and contact information readily available.

Google always wants to surface the most relevant, highest-quality piece of content.

To rank higher on Google, you can leverage the power of SEO . To start learning everything there is to know about this powerhouse marketing tactic, check out The Ultimate Guide to SEO.

HubSpot explains SEO as “techniques that help your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

This makes your website more visible to people looking for solutions that your brand, product, or service can provide via search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.”

In other words, it’s the basic concept of structuring your website and blog posts to be in the best shape for appearing first on search engines.

SEO strategy usually consists of a few things. These include buyer persona research , keyword research, and on-page SEO research.

These three areas can help you learn how your target market is searching online and position your business to get discovered by the right people.

10. Research keywords opportunities.

Keyword research is an extension of buyer persona research. You can use the personas you’ve created to search for the best keywords for your brand, then use a tool like KW Finder to find related keywords for your target audience.

Then, you can do some on-page SEO research and optimization. This is where you put those keywords in the correct places on your website — like in the meta description, page titles, and H1 tags.

11. Optimize your website for mobile devices.

Most Google searches are done on mobile devices , so it’s important to have a site that looks clean and is easy to navigate when someone enters it on their smartphone.

A mobile site can also be beneficial for SEO, with search engines like Google, which reward you with a higher ranking if you have a mobile site.

You don’t have to be a tech expert to build a site that looks good on mobile. In fact, most CMS platforms like HubSpot already offer mobile-optimized templates.

12. Write optimized blog posts.

Content and blogging are extremely important for your search engine ranking. The more often your desired keywords appear in your high-quality and helpful content, the more likely you are to appear in search results.

A great way to become an authority on your topic, product, or service is to blog.

Make sure you’re writing with SEO in mind — use these SEO tips for bloggers or leverage a WordPress plugin like Yoast .

13. Experiment with photo and video content.

According to HubSpot Research , more than 50% of consumers want to see videos from brands. Additionally, most social media apps, like Facebook and Instagram, are embracing more visual layouts.

To keep up with these trends, it’s a good idea to make a few marketing videos. If you use these tips , producing a few can be quite inexpensive.

14. Launch business pages on Facebook and Yelp.

If your business is focused on a local area, the most important accounts for you are Facebook, Yelp, and Google’s business feature.

Having high Yelp reviews improves your authority online and helps your search ranking. You can claim your business on Yelp for free, customize your profile, add pictures, and ask for reviews.

The same thing goes for registering your Google business page. You can register your business with Google (for free) and add pictures.

If you’ve ever searched for your business in Google Maps and been disappointed not to see it, it’s because you haven’t claimed it yet!

On Facebook, you can create a Facebook business page so that people can find your location and hours.

For any business, having up-to-date social media accounts will help you be found and engage with prospects.

Create a Twitter account , Facebook page , learn how to use Instagram , create a Pinterest page (if relevant), and use them to discover new clients.

15. Build out your social media strategy.

While Facebook and Yelp will be great tools for local searches and reviews, platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter will offer you even more opportunities to share your posts, content, and promotions.

If your customers can purchase your products or services online, these platforms will also give them another way to find you.

Be sure not to spread yourself too thin by joining too many platforms at once. To make strategizing easier, here’s a guide to the five types of social media platforms and the pros and cons of each.

16. Use social media for customer service.

Once you’re on your chosen platforms, be sure to answer customer or follower questions when they ask them through post comments or direct messages. This will make your company look responsive and credible.

Here are some great examples of how brands have used Twitter for customer service.

If you have the means, consider hiring a social media manager with community management experience.

On top of posting content on a regular schedule, community managers are charged with responding to questions or concerns of followers.

Interested? We published a guide on what it takes to be a great social media community manager.

17. Build interesting landing pages.

A landing page offers your potential customers a free resource in exchange for filling out a short contact information form.

When they receive the resource, they might be even more pleased by your company and more interested in buying the full product.

Because landing pages raise your chances of customer conversion, you want yours to look enticing. To get started, read this landing page guide to learn more about what makes this strategy successful.

Then check out these free and professionally designed templates .

18. Plan an email marketing strategy.

Once you start creating regular content and building out landing pages, you’ll want to share them with the prospects who seem most interested in learning more about your product.

For this reason, we suggest building an email marketing strategy.

While you want to be careful not to bombard those who sign up for your email list with too many emails, you want to send just enough to keep your prospects informed and engaged.

Here’s how our metrics improved when we streamlined our email marketing strategy.

If you’ve never sent regular newsletters before, you can use HubSpot or a number of other affordable tools to create and send an email with a professionally designed template.

Many email tools also offer basic analytics that allow you to track open and click rates.

19. Offer coupons in newsletters or on landing pages.

Placing a coupon in your marketing emails can engage and delight your audience. After buying a product or service at a discounted rate, they might also be more willing to pay full price.

If you have a subscription service, offering prospects a code for a free trial can also be helpful so they can test it out.

20. Share your distribution channels on your website.

Once you have a few social media accounts and a newsletter, connect them to your website so your visitors can follow you.

One way companies do this is to display all of their linked social icons and a newsletter sign-up CTA on all pages of your website. A good place to include these is on the top right corner or the footer of each page.

This way, they’re visible but aren’t distracting from any content.

21. Offer a free webinar.

A webinar allows potential customers to sign up for a short online course hosted by you. These courses are usually between 30 minutes to an hour and allow you to give tips and answer questions related to a topic your brand is familiar with.

While this strategy can help you boost your credibility in your field, it can also offer you potential leads and sales opportunities .

22. Try co-marketing.

Is there a local business in your area that isn’t a direct competitor but offers a product or service to a similar target audience?

Consider working with them on a cobranded campaign where you promote each other on social media, via email, or in your blog.

While you’ll give your partnering company added promotion, it will also allow their fanbase to learn more about you.

23. Encourage happy customers to share their experiences.

When a happy customer talks about how great your company is on social media or a review site, your product or service looks like a good investment.

Even on social media, word of mouth is still a huge factor in someone’s purchasing decision .

If a prospect sees a friend raving about your business on Facebook or if they post a photo of a meal from your restaurant on Instagram, they might be more likely to go.

After all, 71% of consumers are more likely to purchase based on social media referrals .

If customers tell you they love your product, encourage them to share the experience on Yelp, Google, or social.

If you have a physical business, you should place signs up with your account handles so customers know who to tag if they post a picture of your product.

24. Try out marketing experiments.

If you’re interested in a new social platform or a new marketing trend, don’t be afraid to experiment. If an experiment goes well, you could be ahead of the game, and it never hurts to be a thought leader in your industry.

When you experiment with a new marketing strategy, have a solid hypothesis or question in mind. This will keep you focused on the end goal and reduce the desire to chase the next big thing as it comes along.

Also, prepare for your next steps if you get good or bad results. Here’s a quick guide to leading a successful marketing experiment.

Small Business Advertising Ideas

Now that we’ve covered some marketing strategy basics, let’s look into how you can put your advertising dollars to work. Below are some ways to tackle advertising for small businesses.

• Set up Google My Business.
• Consider PPC ads with Google & Bing.
• Run social media ads.
• Sponsor products on Etsy & Amazon.
• Leverage user-generated content.
• Develop a referral program.
• Advertise with your local chamber of commerce.

1. Set up Google My Business.

Creating a free Google My Business profile is a simple first step to helping potential customers find your business. It only takes a few minutes to add your business contact information, business hours, photos, and a list of your services.

Another perk of having a Google business profile is that you don’t need a storefront to create one. Your profile also comes with analytics that can help you better understand how customers are connecting with your business.

Additionally, you can check out and respond to customer reviews and learn what keywords brought them to your business page.

2. Consider PPC ads with Google & Bing.

Using pay-per-click (PPC) ad programs like Google Adwords or Microsoft Advertising can also help drive customers to your business. If you’re working hard on SEO, but are still looking for an extra boost, consider PPC advertising.

With this search engine marketing technique, you use Google AdWords or Microsoft Ads to show up as an advertised listing in search results.

Before you dive into PPC, you’ll want to make sure your landing page is as optimized as possible. If you are paying by the click and those who click on the page don’t convert, you will lose advertising dollars.

To help you get started, read this Ultimate Guide to PPC . Then, use this PPC planning template to create an optimized campaign. You can also use a few handy tools and software to edit, track, and report on your campaigns.

3. Run social media ads.

Most major social media platforms offer affordable advertising options that can help you target your posts to a specific audience.

While many small businesses have been advertising on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for years, Instagram now allows brands to advertise through its Shoppable tool .

Pinterest is also an excellent option for small businesses to advertise. In fact, Pinterest users say the platform has more influence on their purchasing journey than other platforms.

Shopping ads on Pinterst drive three times the conversion of other competing platforms.

4. Sponsor products on Etsy & Amazon.

If you’ve already set up shop on Amazon, you can boost your products by participating in their sponsored products program.

This cost-per-click ad program generates ads from your product listings and automatically targets your ads, making it a great option if you’ve never created a campaign before.

If you’re a maker and sell your wares on Etsy, consider using Etsy Ads to advertise your products. Similar to Amazon, this is a cost-per-click model with a default minimum daily budget of one dollar.

With Etsy Ads, your products will stand out in Etsy Search, category pages, and marketing pages.

5. Leverage user-generated content.

Some of the best advertising you can get is from existing customers. Happy customers can vouch for your brand and add social proof to your marketing campaigns.

Ask your customers to leave reviews, or if they’ve already created content on social media involving your brand, ask permission to share it.

6. Develop a referral program.

Speaking of enlisting the help of your existing customers, you can incentivize them by using a referral program . Offer a discount, free gift, or other perk in exchange for them bringing in new customers.

Referred customers are 18% more loyal than those who aren’t and spend 13% more on purchases. Since these new customers will have been referred to you by someone they know, they’re more likely to have a positive customer experience.

7. Advertise with your local chamber of commerce.

If you have a storefront, advertise with your local chamber of commerce.

Each city is different, but you can typically be featured on their website, promoted on their social media channels, and included in their email newsletter for an annual fee.

It’s a great way to get your brand out there and an excellent opportunity to network with fellow small business owners.

Start Marketing Your Business Today

Small business owners looking for a way to track ROI and brand awareness need digital marketing.

Not only is digital marketing a must-have for promoting your products or services, but optimizing your online assets is also critical to your business’ overall success.

You may have a long road ahead to build your online presence, but any steps you can make will have a huge impact on your business.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Small Business Marketing 101: Using Email, Social, Video and More

Introduction to small business marketing 101.

Whether your small business has existed for years, or just recently started up, finding the most effective marketing strategies is critical. That’s because small businesses don’t have the same resources to execute as larger scale firms. In fact, you may be the founder and CEO who has also taken up the mantle of marketer.

That’s why Sprout Social worked with our amazing partners at HubSpot, Animoto and Campaign Monitor to put together this guide to small business marketing.

Together, we’ve covered some of the most frequently discussed topics among small business marketers. We’ll continue to work with more partners to expand on these topics over time. For now, keep reading for the following:

• HubSpot on inbound marketing for small businesses
• Animoto on video marketing for small businesses
• Campaign Monitor on email marketing for small businesses
• Sprout Social on social marketing for small businesses

Small business marketing with inbound

Would you rather have your customers searching for you instead of the other way around? Look no further than inbound marketing. In this section, HubSpot discusses the importance of inbound marketing for small business, the basics of getting started and how to choose the right channels for your organization.

Let’s talk about a framework for bringing the ideal customer to your website. It’s used by tons of businesses, big and small, and it can work for you as well.

What is inbound marketing?

One quick definition we at HubSpot use is to think of outbound marketing as “push” marketing and inbound marketing as “pull.” Rather than interrupt customers with disruptive ads or unethical sales tactics, you attract them via valuable content that helps them accomplish their goals.

To further elaborate, it’s about three pieces:

You attract prospects and customers to your website and blog through relevant and helpful content.

Once they arrive, you engage with them using conversational tools like email and chat and by promising continued value.

Finally, you delight them by continuing to act as an empathetic advisor and expert.

The inbound methodology isn’t specific to marketing, by the way. The same process and mindset can be used in sales and services, too.

So, how do you actually do inbound marketing?

Inbound 101: The basics for getting started

There have been many books and courses on inbound marketing, so we won’t be able to comprehensively cover the idea here. Rather, we’ll give the 80/20 so you can start to take action. After you get your wheels on the ground, you can always go back and learn more about the methodology.

So what are the basic steps for getting started?

• First, map out your ideal audience, aka your target market. Who do you want to sell to?
• Second, map out the channels you can use to attract, engage and delight your customers. Where do they hang out and how do they communicate?
• Finally, begin crafting content and messaging that will be used to attract, engage and delight customers. Make sure you have analytics in place, because you’ll need to constantly learn and update your strategy based on the results you get.

Let’s dive into each one of these individually.

Know your personas & target markets

It’s possible you know your target market and have already built your buyer personas , but even if that’s the case, it never hurts doing this work again and learning more about your customers. The more you know about your customer, the better you can craft your messaging and strategy.

In defining a target market, you narrow down your audience to the level that you can choose correct marketing channels and start to define a buyer persona for messaging.

In building a buyer persona, you create a representative model of your prototypical customer. As in machine learning, you need to split the difference between perfect accuracy and perfect utility . In other words, you should gather enough data and information to make a buyer persona largely accurate to the real world, but you shouldn’t gather too much information and make it too complex.

How do you gather data to inform your buyer persona? There are many ways, some easier, some harder, depending on the stage of your company:

• Customer interviews (phone or in person)
• Digital analytics
• Surveys (on-site polls like Qualaroo and customer surveys )
• User testing
• Live chat transcripts and intelligence via sales and service teams

You’ll want to answer core questions about your ideal buyer, such as:

• What are their motivations and fears?
• How do they prefer to make purchases?
• How much research do they do and what kind of content is useful to them?
• How do they interact with brands? What do they prefer the relationship to look like?
• Who do they look to when they’re making decisions? Who influences them?
• Where do they hang out? How can you reach them?
• What type of language do they use?

All of these things will help you a) choose channels and b) craft messaging.

Just don’t create a silly made-up buyer persona with a cute name just to go through the motions. Also, it probably doesn’t matter what your buyer persona’s favorite color of car is unless you’re selling paint or used vehicles. Stick to the stuff that’s important and knowable.

Map out your channels and tactics

When you have a target market and buyer persona, you can look into different channels. There are only so many inbound marketing channels:

• Facebook Ads (suggested reading: Are ads inbound? )

Some channels won’t work for your business no matter how hard you try. For example, virality probably doesn’t make sense if you sell dish soap.

Similarly, some channels could potentially work but will take so much effort and risk to pull off, that you should probably table them for the time being in favor of higher impact channels. For example, if you’re a LawnStarter (lawn care) or ProTranslating (translation services), social media may not pay off.

Though oddly enough, MoonPie kills it on Twitter

To identify your best channels, use this heuristic: “how does a customer buy this type of product?”

In the case of lawn care, it’s usually when their lawn grows too long and they need someone right away. SEO and search ads are perfect to capture this type of demand.

Some products, such as Chubbies or Airpods , are naturally viral. Just optimize the viral components and add a little wind to the sail.

Others make a perfect fit for content marketing, such as B2B software companies like Wordable or Mutiny . These products tend to require a little bit of upfront education, and their target customers are accustomed to learning via blogs, webinars and ebooks.

Content often works well for SaaS products

In any case, just think about it and discuss with your colleagues before jumping into a channel. Don’t simply join a channel because your competitors have or because it’s new and buzzworthy. We don’t need more gurus or businesses trying to make it big on Snapchat, and we especially don’t need more businesses trying to go viral on Reddit. Do what makes sense for you.

Create content and execute on the playbook

Any inbound channel—nay, any marketing channel—will require some sort of messaging strategy. How you execute on messaging will largely determine how effective the channel becomes.

Let’s say, for example, we want to use blogging and SEO as our inbound channel. This usually forms the basis of such efforts, as it’s an owned channel, and you can generally compete with very large players and win some or much of the time on quality and 10x content .

Now, what do you blog about?

While you can answer this question many ways with some degree of validity, we like to follow the Pillar + Cluster model .

In plain English, your “pillar content” represents the big topic you want to rank for, and “cluster content” represents supporting content that relates to your big topic. Hyperlinking pages together shows Google they’re related to each other.

For example, let’s say your big topic is “personalization” For this, you might create a pillar page called “The Ultimate Guide to Web Personalization.”

Then you could create several cluster content blog posts to support the pillar page. These could be on topics like:

• How to personalize email newsletters
• Top personalization tools in 2019
• Personalization examples
• How to measure ROI from personalization

…And on and on.

We like to start backwards from our product and branch out from there. So, basically, what’s the end goal? Define that product page, and then come up with high traffic pillar page ideas that can support that. From there, break topic ideas off of your pillar page to create long tail blog posts. A good way to find long tail ideas is on Answer The Public .

Soon, you’ll bring in tons of traffic, and then you’ll simply have to worry about converting that traffic into leads, users, demos…whatever your goal conversion is.

Unfortunately, that’s a huge topic, and one we can’t crack into here. So here are some resources on email marketing and conversion optimization to check out:

• Lead Magnets – Ideas to get people to sign up for your list
• Web forms guide – Best practices to get form completions, no matter the purpose)
• A/B testing guide – Everything you want to know about running your own tests

Obviously this is a short primer on inbound, and there’s a lot more to talk about. But if we could boil it down to the simplest possible summary, we’d say, “Define your audience, go where the fish are and craft your messaging in a way that resonates with them.”

This sounds easy, but it takes a lot of work. In fact, we’ll end by emphasizing the need to keep learning and improving.

Make sure you have proper analytics in place, and continue to improve and optimize your inbound funnel.

When it works, it really works. And when it really, really works, you can build a moat that is hard to compete with.

Small business marketing with video

Is your growing business interested in taking advantage of the power of video? Then you have come to the right place. This section discusses the importance of video marketing for small business, how to overcome hurdles in video marketing. It ends with ideas to consider for your own strategy.

According to Forbes , 90% of consumers say videos help them with buying decisions. Sixty-four percent say that watching videos makes them more likely to purchase. Forbes also reports that businesses that use video in their marketing see a 41% increase in search traffic compared to those that don’t.

Video has taken social media, and marketing in general, by storm.

But for small business owners or marketers, it may feel daunting. Here at Animoto , we’ve spoken with countless small business owners that already wear a lot of hats. We know adding video to the mix may feel overwhelming—especially without the time, resources or technical expertise needed for video creation.

But guess what? Video marketing isn’t as time-consuming or difficult as you may think. We’ve put together a quick guide to help you get started (and show you how easy it can be). We’ll share:

• Why video matters for small businesses
• How to overcome the hurdles to video creation
• Small business video ideas
• Tips and tricks for small business video creation
• How to get started with video marketing today

Let’s dive in!

Why Video matters for small businesses

Video affords marketers at businesses of all sizes a massive opportunity. We’ll take a quick look at what video can do for your marketing on social media, on YouTube, on your website, in your emails and even in your store or at an event.

Social video for small business

According to a recent Animoto survey , consumers rank video as their number one favorite type of content to see from brands on social media, and 93% of marketers using video on social media say it’s landed them a new customer.

Video has become increasingly important on social media, where it generates 1200% more shares than images and text combined. Video can be incorporated into your social marketing throughout the customer journey to maximize the success of your campaigns.

YouTube video for small business

You’ve likely already heard that YouTube is the second largest search engine, after Google. What does this mean for you? More consumers than ever (including your own customers) search YouTube for product reviews, how-tos and more.

Creating YouTube videos means that you’ll get in front of more customers searching for videos related to your industry and products or services.

Website video for small business

Did you know that the average customer spends 88% more time on a website if it has video? Pretty incredible, right? There are all sorts of ways to incorporate video into your website, including an introductory video on your

• Product videos
• A personal video for your about page that showcases your small business story

And guess what? These videos can also be repurposed to share on YouTube and social media.

Email video for small business

Including video in email can lead to an up to 19% increase in open rate and an up to 50% increase in click-through rate, according to Campaign Monitor .

The even better news? Adding video to your emails isn’t as complicated as it may sound. In fact, the videos don’t actually have to play in your email. Rather, you can simply link out to them and mention “video” in your subject line to start seeing results.

In-person video for small business

Video doesn’t have to be limited to the web. You can also use it for your in-person marketing—in your shop, at events and trade shows and in sales sessions. Loop a video on a screen to attract foot traffic or include videos to make presentations more engaging.

Overcoming the hurdles to video marketing

Our recent survey on the State of Social Video Marketing showed that marketers aren’t making as many videos as they’d like. The reasons? They say video requires too much time and budget and the tools and software seem too complicated.

As a small business owner, you likely face similar hurdles. We’ll break them down here and show you why video is easier to get started with than you may think.

Myth #1: Video is too time consuming

There’s a common misconception when it comes to video that it takes days (or even more) to create a single video. In truth, this may be accurate when it comes to professional productions with big production crews, designed to be run as television ad campaigns. However, creating videos for social, or to embed on your blog and website, doesn’t have to take a ton of time.

You can get started with as little as a couple hours a week, and as you get better at making videos, you’ll need even less. You can repurpose photos and videos you already have or use stock imagery to save time on production.

We’d also like to call out that even big brands with big budgets have started opting for less polished social videos for a more authentic look. You don’t have to spend hours to reap the benefits of video.

Myth #2: Video is too complicated

But even with the time set aside, a lot of small businesses don’t use video because they believe they don’t have the expertise. Yes, some video editing softwares require advanced know-how. But a wide range of video editing solutions cater to non-professionals. And you can use these to create professional videos on your own. We promise you.

We should also mention that, when it comes to social video especially, you don’t need heavy production. A lot of the most engaging videos are short clips with just a few shots, or even a single clip with text on it. Start simple and as you get more familiar with video creation you can try new, more complicated things.

Myth #3: Video is too expensive

Finally, video production doesn’t have to break your budget. As we mentioned above, you likely have the photos and video clips you need to get started. If you don’t, you can use your smartphone instead of an expensive video camera.

Add text over your video clips and you don’t need to worry about expensive audio equipment (85% of people watch with the sound off anyway). And you can tie it all together with an inexpensive, easy-to-use video editing tool.

Small business videos ideas

Okay, so now we’ve convinced you that you need video. But what types of videos should you make? This is one of the biggest questions faced by small business marketers looking to get started with video. We’ve rounded up some small business video ideas and examples for inspiration.

And to help you out, each of these video examples includes a template that you can customize to make your own .

About us video

Share the story behind your business. Who are you and what products or services do you offer? An About Us lets you show off the people and story behind your business, which can work especially well for small and growing businesses.

Product story video

A product video ad, which we’ll get to next, works when you want to close the deal and make a sale. But telling the story of your product or service can engage with potential customers on a whole other level. Telling the backstory of a specific product can make for share-worthy content, as you can see in this example. Do you offer a product with an interesting backstory?

We promised a product video ad, and here it is. A video ad should be short and sweet. It introduces your product to the target audience and provides a clear call to action (CTA) so they know how they can purchase.

Fun social video

Looking for a quick video idea for your social media pages? Try a quote. Quote videos take little time to make and rack up shares to boot. Just pair a nice photo or video clip with a quote that’s relevant to your business or industry.

How-to video

A how-to video lets you showcase your expertise. Answer a question you hear a lot from your customers or share an insider tip based on your industry expertise. Share it on social media and YouTube too, where potential customers are searching for answers. You can also share your expertise with a list or step-by-step instructional video.

Blog teaser video

If you’ve got a blog or other content on your website, try creating a short video teaser to promote it. Make sure to include a clear call to action with the link where viewers can go to read more.

Testimonial video

With testimonial videos, you can share social proof and help new customers feel comfortable doing business with you. While you can actually shoot interviews with your customers to create testimonial videos, there are some easy alternatives too. Try using quotes from Yelp, social media or customer emails, paired with accolades and imagery of yourself or your product.

Video tips and tricks for small businesses

We hope we’ve inspired you to start making videos. Before you dive in, here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your video marketing.

• Get started with what you have . You likely already have photos and video clips you can use to create your first videos. Look on your phone, your desktop, your website, and your social media profiles for content to get started with.
• Plan for sound off . When creating videos for social media, remember that 85% of people watch with the sound off. Use text to tell a story that translates whether or not viewers turn the sound on.
• Keep mobile in mind . More and more viewers watch videos on mobile devices,. Make text large enough to read and go for a square or vertical format for videos designed for mobile or social media.
• Target your video ads . With the targeting capabilities of Facebook Ads Manager and other social platforms, you can reach the audience most likely to engage with your business or product.
• One size doesn’t fit all . Creating a video for Facebook? For the Instagram feed? Twitter? An Instagram story? Different types of formats and content work best on different platforms, so plan your video content accordingly. Here’s a cheat sheet to help you out.
• Use your smartphone . You don’t need fancy equipment to get started. We’ve all got great professional cameras in our pockets. Your phone shoots better video than you think!
• Pay attention to lighting . Good light (or lack of it) can really make or break the quality of your video. Don’t have professional lighting equipment? Try shooting outside in the sunlight, next to a window or simply turn on as many lights as you’ve got indoors.
• Pay attention to audio . Similarly, the state of your audio can have a big impact on the quality of your video. When recording, listen with headphones to make sure everything sounds OK. And remember, even if you do plan on using audio you should plan for sound-off viewing and use text or captions.

Animoto for small business

Ready to dive in? We’re here to help. Animoto provides everything small businesses and marketers need to drag and drop their way to powerful and professional videos. With customizable video templates, designed with success in mind, Animoto makes it easy for anyone to create their own videos in minutes. With over a decade in the industry and partnerships with Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn, Animoto is used by more than one million businesses worldwide.

Video templates for a variety of small business use cases, including all the ideas we shared earlier in the article, can be selected and customized. Add your own photos, video clips and text. Then, add your logo and update the colors to fit your brand and you’re done

We invite you to try it for free today. Happy video making!

Small business marketing with email

Email marketing is a must-have for business, but that doesn't mean it's easy to get right. In this section, Campaign Monitor discusses why email marketing is important for your small business, how to send amazing emails and, most importantly, how to scale your efforts.

When you started your own business or started working at one, there were probably a few hats you were expected to wear—like creator, CEO, founder or visionary.

But as your business grows, there will inevitably be a few more hats you have to put on—hats that may not fit quite as easily, like email marketing aficionado.

At Campaign Monitor we want to empower you with email marketing tools and tips that are powerful yet simple, so you can get back to doing what you do best.

Email marketing is alive and well

With so many options for marketing a new and growing business, you may struggle to decide where to focus. Research supports prioritizing email marketing. Let’s take a look at the stats:

• There are over 3.7 billion email users in the world currently, which means the projected number of users by 2021 is 4.1 billion.
• 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI.
• Email marketing drives $44 for every $1 spent .
• 89% of marketers say email serves as their primary channel for lead generation.

Before your first send

So you’ve decided to implement an email marketing strategy. Now what? First, you need to understand the purpose of email marketing: to create, secure and nurture relationships.

Yes, you’ll likely meet other goals along the way, like increasing customer engagement and ROI, but don’t lose sight of the people whose inboxes you’re sending to. With this in mind, we’ve compiled a few tips for maximum success.

1. Start with a plan

There’s no right or wrong formula for your first email marketing plan, as long as it answers the following questions:

• Why am I sending emails?
• Who am I sending them to?
• What value can I offer subscribers?
• What are my email marketing goals?

Once you’ve answered these questions, it’s time to map your customers’ journey. Think of this like mapping out a route for marathon runners; make sure the path is clear of barriers and the signs point the right way. You need to be familiar with the journey your customers take from lead to conversion so you can anticipate any needs or questions they will have along the way.

2. Segment your audience

When setting up your email subscription form, consider the information you’ll need long-term. Name and email address are the traditional fields, but collecting additional demographic information will help you to segment your audience into groups based on age, gender, location or another variable.

Rather than send the same mass email to your entire list every time, segmentation allows you to send customized and relevant content that your subscribers will more likely engage with. After all, proper email list segmentation can double email open rates.

As an example, Facebook segmented their list based on location and invited users to events in their area:

3. Personalize your messages

Once you’ve divided your list into groups based on purchase history, interest or other variables, it’s time to create content specifically for the people in that group. Maybe something they indicated interest in has gone on sale, there’s an event happening in their area or you want to address them by name and recommend something they’ll love.

One of our favorite ways to do this using Campaign Monitor is by inserting dynamic content into your message. This shows your audience that you understand and care for them, and it will add an extra “wow” factor that will surprise and delight them. And in case you needed additional convincing, MarketingSherpa ’s research shows that open rates increase by 41% when a personalized subject line is used.

See how Lyft uses the information they’ve gathered about their customers to create a pretty cool personalized email:

4. Scale your efforts

So you’ve mapped out a plan, organized your list into segments and created personalized content that drives engagement. It’s time to take all the tools and tactics that work and scale them to reach more people. At this point, automation is your go-to.

By scheduling emails to meet your subscribers at each point in their customer journey (which you already mapped out in step #1), you’ll continue to ensure that your content is relevant and fulfilling your customers’ needs. Plus, automated email messaging can increase open rates by 70.5%.

Paravel uses automation and personalization to send customized trip “postcards” to their customers:

5. Measure your success

You made it to the final step—see, that wasn’t so bad. The best way to continue to improve and refine your email marketing skills is to look at the data and find out what works, what you could do better and what you can live without.

Keep an eye on your metrics, try to retarget the subscribers who don’t engage and maintain good deliverability to ensure long-term email marketing success. Seventy-seven percent of ROI comes from segmented, targeted and triggered campaigns, so find what works for you and continue to help it grow.

What to look for in an email marketing platform

When it comes to email marketing platforms, there are a lot of options to choose from and ideas to consider. We’ve given you tips and tricks to begin creating your email marketing strategy, but choosing the right provider can make or break your business growth. Of course, you’ll want to choose a provider that can grow with your business in terms of subscriber list size and functional capability, but what about features to enhance your segmentation, personalization and automation?

If you’re looking for a service provider that will help you focus on your subscribers’ needs, design beautiful emails and scale your success, Campaign Monitor could be the perfect fit. With robust features for segmentation, personalization and automation, as well as 24/7 access to customer support, our team is here to help you drive engagement and increase ROI. Happy sending!

Small business marketing with social

Social media is a critical channel for growing your audience, showcasing your organization, and creating lasting relationships that will yield delighted customers. In this section, Sprout Social discusses the value of social for small business, how to get started on social and shares tips for advanced audiences.

Sprout Social works with thousands of small businesses to help them improve their social marketing strategy while also saving time online. Over the course of working with so many organizations, we’ve gotten good at helping guide their social strategy.

Here we’ve put together the essentials for small business marketing on social, but for a more comprehensive guide you can see our entire guide to social media for small business .

The value of social media for small business

Social is essential for driving your inbound marketing strategy, sharing your videos and increasing leads to email.

But social media is also important on its own.

Social media is valuable for businesses of any size or industry, and finding customers on social media has a direct impact on sales and your bottom line.

In fact, those individuals who follow you on your social channels are 57.5% more likely to buy from you.

But it doesn’t stop there. If you can actually manufacture a great positive social media experience that number increases to 71%.

These numbers prove your brand should capitalize on the power of social media for small business marketing.

We’ve broken the next sections down by where you may be in your social strategy, including information for those just getting started and more advanced tips for those with an established presence.

Getting started with small business marketing on social

1. define your social goals.

If you don’t know what you want to accomplish on social media, then you’ll never know when you succeed or fall short. Without this, you’ll likely struggle to maintain a nimble strategy.

Goals can vary wildly from one industry to the next. While a retail company may look for direct purchases from social, someone in higher education may look at new enrollment rates.

Our recent Sprout Social Index asked social marketers about their biggest goals. You can use their responses to help you choose your initial social media goals, then refine those as you get a better sense of what social marketing can provide your business. We’ve included a cheat sheet to define each item below.

• Increase brand awareness: How familiar social users are with your brand
• Increase community engagement: Authentic conversations you have with your followers
• Increase web traffic: The number of website visitors driven from social channels
• Generate sales/leads: Individuals who purchase your goods or services, or those who fill out a website form, from social channels
• Distribute content: Sharing your content to your social channels.
• Increase brand advocacy from customers: Getting happy customers to share their experiences on social
• Support customers: Using social to respond to customer inquiries and create better customer experiences
• Grow influencer marketing program: Increase the number of influencers discussing your brand on social

2. Define your core metrics

Think of your social goals as the destination and your core metrics as the map that helps you get there. Once again, we’ve provided a cheat sheet to some key metrics for social media marketing below.

Impressions : The number of times an individual saw your message

Engagements The number of times an individual has interacted with your message, including:

Engagement Rates : The number of engagements divided by the number of impressions

Site Visits : The number of times someone visited your profile page

Mentions : The number of times your handle or brand was mentioned on social. Followers : The number of individuals who follow you on social, usually shown as an increase or decrease over time

New Sales/ROI : The new revenue generated from social visitors, trackable with UTM tagging and website analytics

3. Target your audience and social networks

Social media provides one of the best ways to reach a targeted audience, but first, you have to identify that audience. Consider things like:

Remember the more specific you can get, the better. This will enable you to create a strong social media marketing strategy around these individuals and take a targeted approach to reach the right people at the right time.

Once you know who you want to reach, you’ll have to figure out where they are. Earlier in this guide, HubSpot noted that not every single inbound channel works for small business marketing. The same is true for specific social media networks—not every single one will make sense for your business. Social networks have varied user bases. Don’t invest in one network if your core audience is on another.

Before choosing a platform, ask yourself things like:

• Which platform best fits your B2B or B2C interactions?
• How often do you publish content?
• What’s the lifespan of your content?
• Are you using social media for customer service?
• Are you engaging with user-generated content?
• Can you automate parts of your social media?

The answers to those questions will inform the networks you should choose.

4. Figure out what to share

To figure out what content to post, look no further than what has worked best in the past. If you’ve published to social media before, tools like Sprout Social , Twitter or Facebook Insights can help you understand what resonated most with your audience.

Below is an example of how to view your Sent Messages with Sprout ( available with a free trial ).

Sort your messages by your key metric and you’ll see the top posts for that metric. Look through a handful to find any consistencies and leverage that insight when choosing what to publish.

5. Build your publishing calendar

Once you know what kind of content works, you can create social media posts to automatically publish at the times and days of your choosing. Additionally, you can use a social media publishing tool like Sprout Social to visualize your entire Publishing Calendar, across all of your networks and profiles.

Automatically export your calendar as a PDF to share with other key stakeholders throughout your organization.

6. Respond to inbound messages

Unless you sell the most niche product in the world, your customers likely post about it (and you) on social media. Whether they directly tag you or use certain keywords and phrases that relate to your company, it’s your job to respond to their messages to create a better user experience.

Monitor your social channels for conversations or posts that warrant a response. You can use a social media engagement tool to pull in the conversations that directly mention you or mention something relevant to your organization.

7. Analyze your results

Once you’ve established the metrics that matter most to your brand, and spent time on social channels posting and engaging, you can start to track the impact of your efforts.

The frequency with which you analyze your social media results will likely depend on your time and how much you utilize social. Remember that it’s important to track metrics to optimize your strategy. You can use a social media analytics tool to automatically run high-level or in-depth reports if your time is limited.

Advanced tips for small business social

1. search social for new opportunities.

We’ve established that small business marketers must respond to social media posts that tag or mention them. For a more advanced tactic, we suggest monitoring social media for conversations on topics related to your business, and then joining in.

Let’s say you own a pizza restaurant in Chicago that prides itself on its gluten-free offering. By using a social media listening tool , you can track everyone who mentions a term like “gluten free pizza” in the Chicago area.

These conversations will populate in your inbox in real time so that you can reach out to anyone looking for a recommendation and suggest your restaurant.

2. Run competitive analyses

Keep an eye on your competition’s social media strategy. Doing so will help you understand the industry and how you measure up as well as develop unique ideas to stand out from the crowd. We’ve created this entire guide on running a competitive analysis , including a free template to help you conduct your research.

3. Leverage relevant hashtags

Hashtags help you get your content in front of new audiences on social media. Not sure which to use? Our free Hashtag Holiday calendar contains a ton of ideas. Just make sure that the hashtags you use actually make sense for your brand and you’re not forcing it.

4. Create great visuals and videos

Earlier in this guide, Animoto shared the importance of video:

“Video has become increasingly important on social media, where it generates 1200% more shares than images and text combined. Video can be incorporated into your social marketing throughout the customer journey to maximize the success of your campaigns.”

They also shared some tips to make creating videos easier on your team. Now that you’ve bought in, make sure that you share any and all videos you create with their guidance on your relevant social channels.

5. Get your teammates on social

Social media poses so many opportunities for businesses that it can feel a little overwhelming at times. As a small business marketer, you may be in short supply of resources, but if there is anyone at your organization that can help you keep up, then invite them to join you.

If your concern is in doubling efforts or reducing how secure your accounts are, then never fear. Social media collaboration tools can ensure that you effectively manage your presence as a team.

6. Boost your content with paid ads

If you don’t get the impressions you hoped for on social media, it could make sense to boost your views by putting some paid advertising dollars into your posts until your presence takes hold. Each native network has its own paid social functionality, or you can use a paid social tool to quickly boost your posts.

Using a social media tool

A social media marketing tool like Sprout Social saves you countless hours managing your presence. Long gone are the days that you should find yourself manually logging in and out of each social profile when it’s time to publish a message, respond to customers or get your social media analytics.

Learn all about Sprout Social for your small business and start a free 30-day trial today.

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10 Small Business Marketing Strategies That Actually Work Avoid the pitfalls of small business marketing and achieve long-term goals by choosing the right strategies.

By Christian Nwachukwu • Feb 21, 2022

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

As a small business owner, you know your vision and plan matter. To start a successful business, you'll need an ironclad business plan that includes financials and a marketing plan.

If you're a small business owner, then you know that marketing can be tough. It seems like everyone is competing for attention, and it's hard to stand out from the crowd.

Related: How To Write A Business Plan | Entrepreneur.com

Whether you handle marketing yourself or you have a marketing department, some strategies can increase visibility to boost awareness for your brand. Ready to learn more? Keep reading for 10 small business marketing strategies that work.

1. Know how to target your audience

When it comes to marketing your small business, it's essential to target the right audience. By developing a strategy that focuses on your ideal customer, you'll be able to reach more people who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer. So how do you go about doing this? Here are some tips for targeting your audience effectively:

• Know your target market
• Define your niche
• Research your competition
• Create buyer personas
• Use in-depthdemographic data
• Segment your audience
• Tailor your marketing messages
• Don't forget offline marketing

Related: 6 Ways to Market Your Small Business for Less Than $100

2. Leverage cold email marketing

When it comes to small business marketing, cold emailing is one of the most effective strategies. It's a great way to connect with potential customers who may not be familiar with your business. Here are a few tips for using cold email to market your small business:

• Start by creating a list of potential customers.
• Research the companies you want to target and find out who the decision-makers are.
• Draft a personalized email that introduces your business and explains why you think the contact would be a good fit for your products or services.
• Send the email and follow up with phone calls if necessary.
• Keep track of your results and adjust your strategy as needed.

Related: Email Marketing - Entrepreneur

3. Advertise your business online

When it comes to advertising your business, there are several different strategies that you can use. However, not all of these strategies will be effective for your business. To find the best digital marketing strategy for your small business, you need to do some research and try out a few different tactics.

One of the most popular online marketing tactics is social media advertising. This involves using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to promote your business. You can create ads that target specific demographics, or you can simply post about your business on your social media apps.

Since most people are on their mobile devices frequently, using social media posts or Google Ads to promote your brand may be a better marketing idea than using direct mail efforts. The internet also functions as the hub of word-of-mouth marketing, with in-person experiences being reflected on review and referral sites like Yelp.

Related: 4 Free Small Business Marketing Tools

4. Use influencers to build brand awareness

When it comes to marketing your small business, you can't afford to overlook the power of influencers. Influencers are individuals with a large online following who can sway the opinions of their followers. In other words, if an influencer promotes your product or service, their followers are likely to take notice.

There are several ways to work with influencers to build awareness for your small business. One option is to reach out to them directly and ask them to join a marketing campaign to promote your product or service. Another option is to partner with an influencer marketing agency that can connect you with influencers who are a good fit for your brand.

Related: What to Know About Influencer Marketing in 2022

5. Connect with local businesses

One of the best ways to market your small business is to connect with local businesses. When you partner with other businesses in your area, you can share resources and promote each other to your customer base. You can also collaborate on marketing initiatives and events.

To connect with local businesses, start by networking with other business owners in your community. Attend business events and join online forums and groups that focus on local business collaboration. You can also reach out to local businesses directly and offer to collaborate.

6. Offer incentives and discounts

This can be in the form of a percentage off your products or services or even a free item with purchase. You can also offer loyalty programs, which give customers rewards for continued patronage. Whatever incentive or discount you choose to offer, make sure it's something that your customers will find valuable.

7. Build an email list

Building an email list isn't hard. It doesn't take much time or any special skills to do, and once it's done, it saves you a lot of time in the future. Here are some ideas for building your initial newsletter subscribers:

• Offer something valuable (and usually free) like a white paper, eBook, free webinar, or coupon code for joining your mailing list
• Ask people who complete certain forms on your website to opt-in to receive updates from you via email
• Use social media platforms to post about how excited you are about launching your new products/services and share where to sign up for them using links that lead directly to the sign-up form
• Include a sign-up form on all of your website pages and blog posts

8. Automated marketing

Running a small business can often be an all-hands-on-deck situation, especially as you start up. Because you and your employees have so much to juggle, automation might be just what you need to boost efficiency and increase communication consistency.

Automation can also help you and your team take back your time, as it can provide more freedom for job tasks, collaboration, and creativity.

Consider automation platforms for:

• Social media content calendars
• Email marketing (eCommerce shopping carts and abandoned carts, and email list blasts)
• SMS notifications (loyalty program, discounts, and shipping notifications)

9. Invest in search engine optimization ( SEO )

Another popular online marketing strategy is search engine optimization (SEO). This involves optimizing your website so that it appears higher on search engine results pages. By investing in SEO, you can improve your website's ranking in search results and attract more visitors.

There are many different SEO techniques that you can use, and it's important to choose the right ones for your business. If you have a limited budget, you may want to consider using online marketing tools like Google AdWords or Facebook Ads. These tools allow you to target specific audiences with your ads, which can help you save money on advertising costs.

If you have a small marketing budget, check out these five affordable small business SEO softwares:

10. Blog about the latest trends and events related to your business niche

Blogging is a great way to connect with customers and share information about your business. When you blog about the latest trends, news stories, and events related to your business niche, potential customers can learn more about you and what you offer. This can help you attract new customers and build trust with existing customers.

Related: Top Social-Media Marketing Essentials for Small Businesses

Ready to build your small business?

As you continue to grow your small business, your marketing efforts matter. You need to understand your target audience, create multiple marketing channels, maintain consistent content marketing efforts, and follow a messaging system that aligns with your brand's mission.

Visit Entrepreneur today for more marketing tips , customer experience ideas , and how to analyze your marketing platform metrics .

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20 Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses In 2023

Quick links:

It’s no secret: Maximizing the potential of digital marketing can bring your small business a consistent flow of customers and accelerate your growth .

The problem is that most businesses get lost in the noise or simply don’t know what they’re doing—leading to wasted resources and even failure.

In fact, 20% of small businesses fail in their first year while 50% fail after five years in the business.

That’s why we’ve come up with a list of effective marketing strategies you can use as your guide this year.

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20 Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses

Here are our top 20 marketing strategies for small businesses in 2023: 

Lead Magnet Nurture Sequence

• Host A Webinar
• Collaborate With An Influencer

SMS Marketing

• Host A Giveaway

Invest In Sales Funnels

• Strategic Blogging

Conversion Rate Optimization 

• Offer A Referral Incentive

Grow Your Own Facebook Group

• Invest In Paid Ads, But Do It Right

Guest Posting

• Have Some Fun On Twitter
• Instagram—With A Personal Touch

YouTube Tutorials

Get customers to share the joy, run tiktok campaigns.

• Host A Twitter Space

Update Old Content

Coupon sites.

Our first marketing strategy is a lead magnet nurture sequence. 

You can use a lead magnet to offer something of value in exchange for contact information—like an ebook, guide, or video series. Once someone subscribes, you can send them an automated email sequence that introduces them to your business and offers more valuable content.

This is a great way to connect with potential customers and convert them down the line.

For example, if you run an ecommerce business for gym equipment, you could offer a PDF with tips.

Some examples include:

• A training plan for your particular target audience
• A list of healthy protein-rich meals that can boost their fitness goals
• A list of exercises that can help them get better results from working out

The benefit of this is that you're:

• Educating your subscribers
• Helping them connect to your brand
• Getting their contact information so you can market your products

Host a Webinar

Webinars are an effective marketing strategy too as they allow you to connect with potential customers in a more personal way. You can offer valuable content, answer questions and get feedback from attendees using a customer feedback tool.

You can offer both free and paid webinars depending on your strategy.  

Pro tip: Include a " call now button " for both options to nudge viewers to take a certain action that is in line with the webinar's goal.

With a free webinar, you would probably want to sell a higher-ticket item inside or you could simply use it to grow your audience, which works too.

On the other hand, a paid offer could be an additional revenue stream for your business. Or, you could also use it as a low-ticket front-end offer and again sell higher-ticket upsells in the background. In either case, it's recommended to use the best webinar software to maximize your results.

Collaborate with an Influencer

Influencer marketing is also one of the most effective ways to increase brand awareness because it allows you to get in front of your target customer by leveraging the influencer’s audience.

Influencers , especially micro-infuencers who have less than 100K followers, can be very powerful advocates of a brand. Their audience consider them trustworthy and are very likely to listen to what they say regarding a certain product or brand.

For example, FootAsylum, a clothing and shoe retailer targeting millennials in the UK, runs a YouTube channel to collaborate with famous Influencers such as Harry Pinero, Chunkz, or Nella Rose.

This is an approach you as a small business can take too. You just need to find micro-influencers whose audiences are your target customers. If you own a local business, this might be a local influencer. 

Keep in mind: The purpose of these videos isn't about instantly getting a direct purchasing action from the viewers. Instead, their purpose is to make viewers remember FootAsylum more and feel positive about it.

Extra tip : Try to come up with content collaboration ideas you can do with an Influencer that get the target audience talking about the content or your offer. That's a lot more effective than saying sign up here for a 15% discount.

SMS marketing is another highly effective marketing strategy for small businesses as it allows you to reach a high percentage of your audience with minimal effort.

You can use SMS marketing to send out:

• Text blast about upcoming changes or updates
• Alerts about offers or sales
• Information about new products or services
• Reminders about appointments or events such as giveaways

SMS marketing is so effective that a lot of big brands continue to use it. One example is Domino’s Pizza:

Small businesses should not hesitate to try SMS marketing, considering the fact that its avg open rate is 99%. 

Host a Giveaway

Giveaways are an effective tool to help you grow your audience and get people interested in your products or services.

They work because they're a way to:

• Introduce people to your brand/products/services
• Generate leads
• Create excitement and buzz around your brand
• Reward your customers

For even more reach, you could even combine it with Influencer Marketing. Or you could host a Giveaway, collect contact information and offer a special deal in the winner's announcement.

Here's an example: "Congratulations to John F. for winning the $200 Gift Voucher. But, if you weren't the lucky winner, we still wanted to thank you so much for taking part. That's why we thought we'd give you 25% off your next order. Valid for seven days."

This works well because they already expressed interest b y taking part. 

Now you use urgency to trigger the action.

Most small businesses don't put enough thought into their sales funnel,  which is a big mistake.

A sales funnel is simply the journey your customer goes through when buying a product—from first contact until a completed purchase. 

A sales funnel allows you to:

• Nurture leads until they're ready to buy
• Provide value to your audience
• Establish yourself as an authority in your field

Nowadays, we have a lot of software that can help create this process. Some examples include ClickFunnels and Kartra.

With these software platforms, you can also create checkouts that have one-click upsells or order bumps that boost your conversions.

For example, let's say you're selling a fitness ebook as a front-end product for $37. On the post-purchase page, you could give your users another one-time offer for your group coaching package for $79 per month, which is usually $99 per month.

The cool thing about this is that you already have your user's credit card information, so if they hit the "buy now" button, they purchase instantly—without having to type in their billing info again.

Now you have the potential to turn that $37 sale into a $79 per month subscriber—increasing your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

Smart Blogging

Smart blogging is another excellent small business marketing strategy to increase your online presence . Targeting low competition keywords is a great way to increase your organic traffic.

You can use tools like Ubersuggest, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to help you find keywords that have a low competition score and create SEO-optimized blog posts on them.

These tools will also help you see your competitors' keywords to target in your campaign.

From there, you can create better content than your competitors to increase your chances of "stealing" those keywords from them.

More traffic isn’t the only way to make more revenue. Increasing your conversion rate is just as important.

Conversion Rate Optimization is the process of increasing the percentage of your visitors that buy from you, i.e., optimizing for conversions.

Some of the variables you can improve or tweak are:

• Call To Action Elements
• Page Design & Layout
• User Experience
• Headlines & Copy

To test these variables, we recommend A/B Testing.

This is the process of testing two different versions of a page to see which one converts better.

Offer a Referral Incentive

One of the best ways to increase your customer base is through referrals.

You can do this by offering a referral incentive that helps you turn one customer into many.

One brand that used to have a popular referral program is Airbnb.

They used to offer their customers $25 for every new customer they refer, and the referred customer also gets a free night's stay.

That’s a good deal for the customer too, which is one reason why Airbnb grew so rapidly. 

What you need to remember with referral incentives: You need to have a good customer retention process and know your customer LTV. This allows you to create a better referral program. You can also use a QR code generator to create personalized referral codes for each customer, making it easier for them to share with their friends and family

Growing your own Facebook group is another excellent way to increase your customer base.

The great thing about Facebook groups is that they're a targeted audience.

You can also use Facebook groups to drive traffic back to your website.

Plus, the discussions that people have in your branded Facebook group allow you to gain useful insights which you can use to improve your product or brand. 

Invest in Paid Ads, But Do It Right.

Many businesses invest in paid ads and fail. But more often than not, they fail because they don't have their sales systems and funnels in place.

For example, sending a user directly to the sales page is rarely effective, although it is in some cases.

Most of the time, you first want to collect their contact information and then promote a paid product later.

Plus, you shouldn't only be targeting new customers - but also ones that have already been on your website. For this, you'd be using retargeting ads where the CPC often is lower, while the conversions are higher because they know your brand.

So make sure to use all the available tools before jumping into paid ads.

Guest posting is one of the easiest and quickest ways to get in front of a big audience.

Building an audience of 20,000 people takes time. However, you can also get yourself in front of 20,000 people by writing a relevant, high-quality article on a website that has an audience of that size.

And that's incredibly quick, so reach out to some people in your network and make that guest post.

Have some fun on Twitter

Who doesn't like to have some fun? Twitter is an engaging social media platform that's fast and helps you connect with your audience.

The most famous example of this is Wendy’s, who are known for taking a dig at McDonald's and other competitors…

But what's important here is that they do it in a fun way, and their entire Twitter page's goal is to make their audience laugh—all positive feelings and talk connected with their brand.

Instagram — with a personal touch

Instagram is an excellent social media platform with a lot of potential. But you need to have a personal touch in your content if you don’t want to get lost in the noise.

One great example of this is Gary Vaynerchuk, known for his energetic and passionate speeches. A lot of people follow him for his personality.

Here are some tips you can use to create Instagram content with a personal touch:

• Include photos of yourself, your team, influencers, or customers in your content
• Incorporate user generated content in your posts
• Be authentic: Use original photos instead of generic stock photos ‍

YouTube tutorials, guiding users on how to best use the various features of your product, don’t just benefit your existing customers. It is also an effective way to market your product. 

These videos may appear on the search results for related search terms so it definitely helps increase brand awareness.  

This is an approach that GetResponse and many other software companies use.

You can also create campaigns that make customers share their reviews of your products or services.

One great example of this is Coca-Cola's campaign a few years ago, called "Share a Coke."

The idea was that customers could find their names on Coke bottles and cans and then share photos of themselves with the coke.

This was a huge success, with over a billion social media impressions.

You can do something similar by offering discounts or free products in exchange for sharing a review.

You can promote this in your email marketing campaigns or on post-purchase pages.

Expert tip: As a small business, you don’t want to be wasting your budget on marketing that isn’t generating actions. Bigger businesses may have huge ad spends and content budgets where they recoup the conversions later down the line.

However, with a smaller budget, you need to ensure that the money you’re spending is generating conversions or actions that lead to conversions. 

TikTok is probably the newest and hottest way of promoting your business. While the user base is mainly younger, a lot of adults use it too. 

Compared to other social media platforms, it has excellent organic growth rates and it's a great way to connect with your audience.

You can use humorous or creative videos to promote your brand on TikTok—such as finding songs or famous audio clips that you can somehow connect to your brand.

Or you can join in on the trends to get high impressions organically.

Host a Twitter Space

Twitter spaces are a new feature the platform has. They’re essentially voice sessions with a host or influencer.

They're excellent for quickly getting in front of a large audience and promoting your product or brand.

You can use them to launch a live product or run a contest.

Plus, you could even host paid Twitter spaces as an additional revenue stream.

Hold the compose button on your home screen to get started and you will see an option for spaces.

From there, you are ready to go. You can also promote it via email to get more people inside.

The world moves fast so the content around it should too. Therefore, updating old content is crucial to keeping your website relevant.

But it's not just about keeping the content fresh. You can also use it to increase traffic and improve SEO.

Google likes fresh content because it's what the user is looking for in most cases. So if you have old content that has dropped in search results rankings, take a look to see if you can update it.

Bonus tip: Updating old content is especially effective when you're already ranking close to page 1. If, afterward, you move up to page 1, you should see a nice spike in traffic.

Getting your business on coupon sites is a great way to get more leads and customers. It's also an effective way to increase brand awareness. 

The great thing about most of these sites is that they have high traffic so that they will feed you customers.

Plus, once you start getting on the bigger coupon sites, the smaller ones will add you too.

Some of the most popular coupon sites include:

• RetailMeNot
• Dontpayfull
• LivingSocial
• Coupons.com

You can also get on industry-specific comparison sites like Trivago or TripAdvisor. Or if you own a restaurant partner up with delivery services like Uber Eats.

Small Business Marketing Strategies: Final Thoughts

That's it. Those are our top 20 Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses in 2023. We hope you find one or two that you can use to help your business grow.

As a small business strategy, choosing one or a few ideas is more effective than trying too many. So ensure you aren’t doing too many⁠—because it’s better to do the ones you chose correctly. 

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Small Business Trends

25 types of marketing strategies for small businesses – which ones do you use.

You’re a small business owner. You don’t have an endless marketing budget , or an abundance of time you can spend doing the marketing yourself for the that matter. You do, however, need to market your products or services to remain competitive. What do you do?

Fortunately, there are plenty of marketing approaches small business owners can adapt to successfully market their businesses without breaking the bank!

Marketing Strategies for Small Business

Check out the following 25 types of marketing strategies that prove effective for small businesses.

Get Yourself a Website

Don’t have a website yet? With around 59% of the world online , businesses that don’t have a website are likely to be missing out on a serious chunk of the market. You don’t necessarily have to sell your products on your website. Simply making it an online portal to share information about your brand, customer testimonials, prices and expertise, will put your business in the global spotlight.

Data and analytics are the foundations of measuring the success of your website, such as how many visitors it attracts, how long visitors stay on your site, and how they are finding your website.

Get Savvy on Social Media

It’s free and it’s there for the taking. Establishing a presence on a few of the numerous  social media sites can help small businesses build up relationships with customers. Posting engaging content on social media can promote your services or products to a wide audience. Use Google Analytics to track the success of your social media marketing campaigns.

Try Google My Business

One of the most cost-effective marketing strategies for small businesses is to list your company for free on Google My Business (GMB). GMB is particularly powerful for businesses wanting to target local clients, because it immediately gives your business visibility on Google.

Don’t Forget Email Marketing

Email remains one of the highest converting channels for nurturing leads. Email marketing for small business typically involves highlighting new products, special offers and other important business updates, and prompting your email list recipients to click through to your website. Email marketing statistics can be measured and used to ensure subsequent email campaigns are honed and are more tightly focused.

Write a Blog

Writing and regularly updating a blog will help increase awareness of your brand. It will also help improve your website’s rankings on the search engines, making it more likely your business will be found online. Boost engagement by encouraging readers to ask questions while making sure you to any comments.

Attend Networking Events

We might be engulfed in the digital age, but face-to-face networking still holds great importance in the world of business marketing. Do a quick search on any relevant networking events in your area, and make the effort to attend them. How do you measure the success of business networking , you might ask? How many business cards you’ve handed out, of course!

Network Online

Don’t have time to physically go to networking events? Then participate in online networking activities instead. LinkedIn is the leader in social networking for professionals, so make the effort to be active there and on similar platforms.

Offer Consultation Services

If your business involves providing professional services, why not encourage people to have access to your expertise by offering free consultations? This is a great way of building your brand awareness and helping you to be seen as a leader in your industry.

Experiment with Facebook Advertising

Join the two million small businesses actively advertising on Facebook. Affordable Facebook advertising is an effective and inexpensive way for small businesses to market to their target audiences. Facebook advertising also excels in advanced targeting, which enables you to target a specific audience based on particular demographics, such as location, gender, age and interests.

The effectiveness of Facebook ads can be measured by creating a report that measures and monitors a number of metrics, such as the click-through rate of the adverts.

Try Google AdWords

With more than 40,000 search inquiries made on Google each second, Google has an unparalleled ability to get your business before an all but limitless audience. Google AdWords involves Google assigning a quality score to your ad, which depends on the relevance, landing page your ad sends traffic to and click-through rate.

Read more on this topic in our Google Adwords Tutorial .

Explore Coupon Deal Sites

Another marketing strategy for small businesses strapped for cash and time is to use coupon deal sites to promote products or services. By offering limited-time discounts on coupon sites like Groupon, your business will enjoy mass exposure and could benefit from a flood of new customers.

Host a Webinar

Hosting a webinar — seminar online — is one marketing strategy businesses tend to overlook. Holding a webinar about a subject in which you have expertise can be an effective way to bring new subscribers to your email list. Encouraging your webinar participants to send you feedback about the webinar or seeing how many subscribe to your emails, are good ways to gauge the effectiveness of this online event.

Looking for a tool to run your webinar? Here’s our list of webinar services .

Get Endorsed

Getting your products or services endorsed by others is a great free marketing tactic for small businesses. Better still, getting your brand endorsed by a celebrity or recognizable figure in your field would create some incredible excitement about your brand.

Brush up on Keyword Marketing

Having a website that is keyword-optimized to your specific industry and business is crucial to the success of your online marketing ventures. Research the optimum keywords for your business, then set about introducing them in a natural way into the content on your site to help boost its rankings on the search engines.

Get started with these tips on doing keyword research for small business .

Create Landing Pages

What is a landing page ? It is an important marketing tool for small businesses helping create awareness and engagement with specific content. Landing pages prompt visitors to provide data through different call-to-actions in exchange for information, which can result in a significant increase in conversions.

Win a Business Award

There’s nothing quite like attaching an award to your business to promote its credibility and appeal. Making the effort to enter a business award competition will give you an incredible amount of free publicity in the first place, win or lose. And winning will give a huge boost of added publicity — at least in your industry.

Get Active on YouTube

With a staggering 1.9 billion users every month, YouTube is a portal no small business can afford to ignore. Making a short but inspiring video related to your products or services can be an effective way to drive interest to your business. Gage the success of your YouTube video by seeing how many views it gets, or, better still, how many inquiries you receive as a result.

Try Other Pay Per Click

Certainly Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are not your only two options for this kind of advertising. Other options include Microsoft ads and Ignite Visibility . They might not be free marketing tools, but pay-per-click ads can certainly be effective. Simply select your keywords, write an ad and let these networks do the rest.

Do Charity Work

One marketing strategy you may have overlooked is getting involved in charity work. From attending local charity events to donating funds to important causes, being actively involved in charity work is an effective way to boost your business’s corporate responsibility and credibility.

Sponsor Local Sports Teams

It might cost you something, but compared to putting an ad in a newspaper, sponsoring local sports teams is a great PR tactic for small businesses. Each time the team plays, the name of your company will be on display for all the spectators to see.

Create a Company Newsletter

A well-written newsletter can be a cost-effective way for small businesses to build communication and rapport with customers and prospects. To make your newsletter successful, keep the content informative, entertaining and digestible. These steps improve the chances of the newsletter being clicked on, opened and read when it’s sent out to your subscribers.

Contact the Media

Get your brand media attention from the local press by reaching out to journalists. Having one single article published in a paper about an inspiring or innovative aspect of your business can be a great way of generating interest in your brand and ultimately reaching out to customers.

Look after Existing Customers

Remember to look after your existing customers to help them remain loyal to your brand. The odd free gift or free offer won’t go amiss in helping your business retain its existing customer base.

Offer Incentives to Staff

Referrals can be the most effective means to find new clients and your staff provides a great opportunity to acquire referrals. Treat your employees to vouchers, freebies and other incentives involving your products and services so they spread the word about how great your company is to friends and family.

Read this for tips on getting employees involved in social media to promote your brand.

Partner with Other Businesses

Teamwork is what drives business success. Combining knowledge and resources with other companies can bring mutual marketing benefits to all involves. Simply identify a segment of your business which complements the products or services of another company. Then work with them on marketing initiatives benefiting  you both.

Exploring Future Horizons: Innovations in Marketing Strategies

As the world of business and technology continues to evolve, so too do the strategies that empower small businesses to market effectively. Here are a few innovative trends and concepts to watch for in the realm of marketing:

• Voice Search Optimization: With the rise of virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, optimizing your content for voice search can enhance your online visibility.
• Augmented Reality (AR) Experiences: Incorporating AR elements into your marketing campaigns can offer unique and interactive experiences for your audience.
• Video Live Streaming: The popularity of live streaming on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube provides opportunities for real-time engagement and storytelling.
• Personalization at Scale: Advanced data analytics and AI are enabling businesses to deliver personalized experiences to customers on a larger scale.
• Micro-Moments: Capitalizing on consumers’ immediate and intent-driven actions, micro-moments involve delivering the right information at the right time.
• Inclusive Marketing: Celebrating diversity and inclusivity in your marketing campaigns can resonate with a broader range of audiences.
• Blockchain for Transparency: Blockchain technology can enhance transparency and trust in marketing by tracking data and transactions securely.
• Ephemeral Content: Content that disappears after a short period, like Stories on Instagram and Snapchat, can create a sense of urgency and FOMO (fear of missing out).
• Chatbots and AI: AI-powered chatbots provide instant responses to customer inquiries, enhancing user experience and efficiency.

As these trends continue to shape the marketing landscape, staying open to experimentation and adapting your strategies accordingly will be key to maintaining a competitive edge.

Have we missed any types of marketing strategies? If you have any marketing secrets you’d like to share with us, don’t hesitate to comment below!

Further Reading

• One Page Marketing Plan

Team Strategy Photo via Shutterstock

What I often say is: In the same way a brick and mortar business would (in most cases) have a storefront, or at the very least a door + an initial contact/reception area, then so too would a business that uses the internet. I’ve been a proponent of blogging for years.

Vishwajeet Kumar

Social Media and Email Marketing is one the best ways to drive traffic to my blog and its works great to me. Thanks for sharing this awesome post with us all

I’m rather more into internet marketing strategies. I’m active on social media, I’m blogging and use GetResponse for marketing automation and landing pages. I don’t exactly work outside of the internet. I like the idea of sponsoring a team sport. That could be pretty cool. Perhaps one day.

Wow great post. All covered in just one. I think email marketing is the best. I had a website I got it’s marketing done from on of the global digital marketing company name “Symbicore” in Winnipeg. After I got my business marketing done I get to see more and more results. My business gained popularity. Likewise, whatever the marketing strategy be, what matters is it’s results.

Thanks, It extremely informative article. As a new business owner with lots of other people already doing the same business, it is useful for all

Very Comprehensive post much insights in it to learn leading marketing strategies as most of the time digital marketer getting stuck, How to make full proof strategies?? I think these strategies will work.

Very informative post. I think you can also add Mobile marketing strategies like Bulk SMS and Cloud IVR services for small businesses.

Love this blog! I think Facebook ads can be a very valuable tool depending on what industry you’re in. It’s also important to mention a reasonable and consistent budget is vital for successful Facebook ads. If you’re working with a couple of hundred dollars monthly, it can take the ads much longer to just get through the learning process. There’s also not very much room for testing to find the best ads. Just something to keep in mind!

Worth to mention: listen to Your clients and build 5 large articles that contain all answers. Clients apreciate firm and 100% solid business approach. This strategy will boost also company website traffic and generates high position in SERPS. At the same time clients will be happy because of company guides (especially with infographics and embed YT movies).

I think you have covered almost every common and effective business strategy and this article turned into a helpful list of powerful strategies where small business owners can select some to start with. Thanks for this great article.

Thanks for sharing this extremely informative post. It is covering almost all in one.

Great content, informative article for business owners. These tips are still valid even during tuff times.

The Digital Branding Company primarily focuses on the customer problems with respect to branding in the digital world. With the evolution on the digital landscape, the digital marketing is no more a choice for the companies. We are global and currently render digital strategy roadmap, digital marketing execution, SEO, SEM, website design, email marketing, mobile app marketing, social media marketing in USA, India, UAE and Singapore.

ViralAd is a Creative Marketing agency focused on growing building multi location companies. Our innovative approach to digital marketing has transformed the industry and delivered remarkable results to clients of all sizes and markets.

Appac Media believes that the right blend of innovation and technology can enable a brand to reach its goals and outshine in its market. With our specialized services in the development of logo designs, responsive websites, designing brochures and leaflets, conducting creative marketing campaigns, online marketing, SEO marketing, social media marketing, search engine marketing, and a lot more we have always exceeded the expectations of our clients with results.

Alfa Digital

Thank You for such an informative Article. Alfa Digital is also providing the same facilities

Great content, informative article for business owners.

This article is a really good article, Which I have read for the first time. Your efforts will be beneficial to us. Thanks so much for sharing.

Great content, informative article for Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

Nice Article

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19 Awesome Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses

Today, I’m going to show you 19 different marketing strategies that have a proven history of success for small businesses.

Half of these options will probably be viable growth strategies for your unique business.

Four of them are probably worth testing out over the next month.

And one of them has the potential to skyrocket your growth over the next year.

These work really well if you want to find inexpensive ways to promote your mobile app .

Once you’ve achieved product/market fit, your growth is simply a matter of smart marketing on the front end and a good customer retention on the backend. By the end of this article, you will know exactly what to do next with your marketing.

But before we get started, let me share a secret with you.

There Is No Magic Marketing Strategy

There is no magic bullet.

The goal of marketing is to connect your business’ value to the right customer base. It’s a simple concept but it can take on a million different shades.

• What demographics make up your customer base?
• Where do they live?
• Where do they hang out online?
• How do they look for products in your niche?
• Who do the listen when making decisions relative to your product?

The answers to these questions determine which marketing strategies will be viable and which will be a waste of time.

In other words, the key to success for your business is not Facebook Ads.

It’s not SEO.

It’s not conference networking.

There is no magic, universal strategy that will revolutionize your business. I have literally no clue what will work for you, because I don’t know you. I don’t know your business. I don’t know your customers.

But fortunately, you DO know your business! You DO know your customer base!

And after reading this guide, you will have an expanded awareness of viable marketing channels, any of which could hold the key to your future growth.

Eight of the channels we will discuss are strictly digital strategies, which will be conducted online. The other eight are a bit more general, with strategies that can be conducted offline (although many have online applications as well).

Let’s get started.

1. Facebook Advertising

Two million  small to medium sized businesses advertise on Facebook; it’s an inexpensive and effective way to market to virtually any audience.

Image Credit: ibisinfotech.com

Facebook ads excel at advanced targeting. They allow you to target a specific audience based on location, interests, age, sex, online behavior, and many other factors.

Creating Facebook ads is very easy. You just need a solid headline, a bit of descriptive copy, one image, and a link.

Promote your app icon here as well.

The Facebook Ads Manager also makes it fairly simple to run and test multiple ad sets, allowing you to hone in on a winning formula and reach profitability without needing advanced technical expertise.

That said, many new users have a lot of difficulty succeeding with their initial campaigns. It takes some persistence, but on the plus side, Facebook’s popularity has produced numerous 3rd party tools that can help you succeed.

If you decide that Facebook is the right channel for you, I’d recommend using a tool like AdEspresso  to run your campaigns and speed up your journey to positive ROI.

If you run a business that has a strong visual component, it might be worth trying out Instagram Ads  instead. As a subsidiary of Facebook, Instagram Ads benefit from the same data base and targeting options, while allowing you to connect with an audience that is better primed for visual sales.

Additional Reading

• Facebook Advertising Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide  by Neil Patel
• How to Run App Install Ads On Facebook  by Aki Merced

2. Google My Business

Ranking your Google My Business  (GMB) listing is one of the most powerful things you can do for your business.

In fact, if you run a local business targeting local clients, I would dare to say it is THE most powerful strategy available to you.

For example, if someone searches for a “Portland contractor”, this is what they see:

What you are seeing here is one paid ad, followed by THREE Google My Business listings before we even see the normal organic search results. If you can rank your GMB listing in these top 3, you can pull in large numbers of highly qualified leads day in and day out without needing to spend a dime on ads.

Google My Business combines all your different Google platforms into one central place, which includes your Google+ profile, Google Maps profile, your Google reviews, access to data on Google Analytics and Google Insights, and more.

If you have a unique brand name, you can even get a large display like this to show when people search for that name:

GMB immediately gives your business credibility and visibility, and as I said before, if you run a local business, it should be #1 on your priority list.

And best of all, ranking your GMB listing is really not that hard. It simply requires you to optimize your profile and then collect reviews and citations.

• How to optimize your Google My Business listing: expert tips  by Graham Charlton
• 7 SEO Mistakes That Leak Money From Local Businesses  by Jacob McMillen

3. Google Adwords

There are more than 40,000 search queries on Google every second. No other advertising method has the potential to get your business before that many pairs of eyes.

Google Adwords is sort of the godfather of online marketing channels. It’s been around a long time. It’s competitive. It’s expensive. And if you know what you’re doing, it can work very, very well for you.

Despite being a paid channel, Adwords’ goal is still to deliver relevant search results to users, and as a result, it will be less expensive for you when you are utilizing proper on-page SEO .

Google assigns a quality score to your ad, which is dependent on CTR (Click Through Rate), relevance and the landing page your ad sends traffic to. This quality score factors into the bid rate you will need to get an ad displayed, with higher scores lowering the bid cost.

Unlike many of the channels we will discuss today, Adwords is a remarkably symbiotic channel that can be paired with many other strategies to maximize output. As a paid marketing channel, it also allows you to obtain immediate results and can scale as far as your budget allows.

• The Complete Google AdWords Tutorial  by Jerry Banfield
• The Iceberg Effect: How Your AdWords Strategy Is Slowly Drowning  by Johnathan Dane

4. Content Marketing

18% of marketers say that content marketing has the greatest commercial impact on their business of any channel in 2016.

Image Credit: SmartInsights

Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience and drive profitable customer action.

Unlike paid advertising, content marketing focuses more on long-term results. The initial payoff tends to be low, but the long-term, sustainable growth in visitors, leads, and customers can single-handedly carry a business.

Content marketing is not easy, however, and requires every element to be done right:

• Quality content
• Relevant topics
• Optimized for SEO
• Optimized for readers
• Consistent content creation & promotion

Content is not limited to blog posts. It includes videos, podcasts, online courses, and a host of other mediums in which people consume information.

It’s important to understand that every small business can rely on content marketing. From food delivery apps to B2B consulting, professional services, white label apps , and more, content marketing is versatile for every possible use case.

If you are considering this strategy for your own business, make sure you have the time and capital needed to get going with no initial ROI, and then DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Too many businesses these days are just wasting resources creating mediocre content with no payoff, now or ever.

• Getting Started With Content Marketing  by Content Marketing Institute
• Why You Need a Growth Model For Your Blog (And How to Create One)  by Devesh Khanal
• How to Start a Blog in 2020 (and Make Money): Free Easy Guide to Start Blogging Today  by Ryan Robinson

5. Organic Social Media

Using social media for business is really a non-negotiable.

67% of consumers  use social media for customer support, and 33% prefer using social media instead of the telephone. If people can’t find your business via social media, they will look for your competitors who ARE present on preferred social channels.

The real question isn’t whether you should have active social media accounts, it’s how much time and resources you should be investing in growing your social audiences.

For some businesses, it makes sense to invest heavily in organic social media growth.

For example, Instagram users that follow fashion influencers are actively looking to purchase new styles. By building an active, fashion-savvy audience, a clothing retailer can build a consistent direct sales channel.

For other businesses, investing in Instagram might not make sense.

The key is identifying where your customers are and how they like to be approached. If social media is the answer to both those questions, it’s the perfect channel for your business.

• 7 Step Beginner’s Guide To Effective Social Media for Small Business  by Jamil Velji
• The Ultimate Guide To Creating The Perfect Social Media Calendar  by Sandrine Sahakians

6. Coupon Deal Sites

Whether you sell a product or offer a service, you can use coupon deal sites like Groupon to quickly promote your business.

Coupon deal sites amass massive audiences, grouped by location, and then allow local, regional or even national businesses to offer limited-time discounts to their members.

Benefits include mass exposure, targeted local advertising, increased brand awareness, and an influx of new customers. The cost comes in the form of low revenue per sale. In the case of Groupon, you are required to discount your product by at least 50%, and at least half the revenue goes to Groupon.

In other words, unless you are running a 300% markup, you will lose money on your Groupon deal. It’s essentially paid advertising.

The primary purpose for using coupon deal sites is not sales. The more significant your discount, the more popular your deal will be. The goal is to get people in your door or trying your product, and from there, your customer retention strategies  kick in.

As an added bonus, many new potential customers will browse your website even if they don’t decide to purchase the deal.

But be warned!

If your deal gains traction, you can quickly be overcome by more customers than you are prepared to handle, and if you don’t do the math correctly, you can lose a lot of money. It’s important to be ready and to have a plan for handling different tiers of new business.

It’s also important to have flawless customer service during the period after running your deal, with the expectation that your coupon-driven customers will be even harder to please than normal customers.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Follow deals going on in your area and see how they play out. If you can, talk with fellow business owners who have run deals and learn from their experience.

And make sure – for the love of all that is good and decent – make sure you do the math.

• Doing The Math On A Groupon Deal  by Jay Goltz
• The Real Cost of Groupon and What it Means to Your Marketing Planning  by Mana Ionescu

7. Email Marketing

Email marketing is the cornerstone of digital marketing.

Most of the people who visit your site will not buy from you immediately. Capturing contact info for additional marketing and “lead nurturing” is the best way to sell in 2016, and email remains the highest converting channel for interacting with leads.

Email marketing funnels begin with a “lead magnet”. This is something compelling you offer your website visitors in exchange for their email address. Possible options include a free digital download, a free service trial, a “seat” at a webinar, site membership, a coupon, etc.

Here’s an example from HubSpot :

HubSpot offers a reliable and feature-packed email marketing tool that’s suited for growing businesses — for free. The tool allows you to create professional marketing emails that engage and grow your audience. You can start from scratch, with the easy drag-and-drop email builder, or use one of the goal-based templates available. 

Other benefits of email marketing include:

• Global reach
• Easy to automate
• Easy to segment
• Immediate communication
• Easy to setup and run
• Easy to track and optimize

There are a lot of marketing channels that are hard. As you may have noticed from the above list, email marketing is one of the few that can be described as “easy”.

• How to Build Your Email List: The (Better Than) Ultimate Guide by Aaron Orendorf

8. Webinars

A webinar is essentially a seminar that takes place online. It can be in the form of a presentation, demonstration or discussion.

Image Credit: boss.influxentrepreneur.info

Webinars are often used as lead magnets for email marketing and the right topic can drive a large batch of new subscribers to your list. It can also be used to build credibility with your current subscribers.

Webinars can also be recorded and used as standalone products or even a series of products. They are a great medium for both live and recorded training.

Webinars tend to be more engaging than simple videos, even if they are used in exactly the same way. The actual start time and live Q&A tends to make people feel like they are receiving significantly more value than if they were watching a video with the exact same information.

You will need webinar software to run a webinar that utilizes the following functions:

• 2-Way Audio – the presenter speaks while the viewers are muted, but the presenter can “turn on” individual viewers so everyone can hear their question
• Screenshare – the presenter can share their screen or switch to video for whiteboard teaching or live demonstration
• Polls – the presenter can invite viewers to take a poll or provide feedback in other ways

Webinars work very well in certain niches. You’ll have to test one out to see if it works with your target audience.

• Webinar Marketing: 15 Steps to Revenue Generating Webinars  by Georgiana Laudi
• How to grow your business with webinar marketing  by Ross Beard

9. Promote A Free Consultation

When it comes to professional services, people want access to expertise.

If you have done a good job of positioning yourself as an expert or authority in your niche, promoting a free consultation is a great way to generate new leads. If you have a good interpersonal sales process in place, it also sets you up to close a large percentage of leads.

A lot of service providers worry about disclosing too much info in a free consultation. They feel like potential clients will just take the info and run.

In reality, the exact opposite is true. While freeloader types might grab and go, they were never going to buy anyway. The type of people interested in paying for quality will be impressed by the value you provide in the consultation.

After all, if you can provide so much value in 30 minutes to an hour, they will believe that your claims are true and that hiring you is the right decision.

This can be used both online and offline. It can be advertised via pamphlets, newspapers, signs, or even word-of-mouth. And it can be prominently displayed on your website and social media channels.

This strategy won’t be ideal for every businesses, but if you offer an expert service or a high-priced service, it is very much worth considering.

• Should You Offer Free Consultations?  by Courtney Johnston
• 6 Ways To Make Free Consults Work For You  by Laura Simms

10. Offer Staff Incentives

Referrals are one of the best ways to find new customers, and who better suited to obtain referrals than your current staff?

Your employees know your product or service. They know your customer base. Some of them will take initiative without financial motivation, but most won’t, and those you bring in new business should be encourage to repeat the process with financial or otherwise meaningful reward.

Offer incentives to your staff members who refer new clients. Research proves that it doesn’t necessarily have to be monetary; incentives can even come in the form of:

• A sleep-in day: staff get to to sleep in late for a certain period of time.
• Membership to publications (of their choice).
• Vouchers for massages, movie nights, restaurants.

Like any type of compensation, incentives are about matching your business’ goals to the goals of your employees. If you can find out what they want most, you can motivate them to help grow your business.

It’s also important to give them the tools they need, whether that’s a customized landing page, printed coupons, a special discount for employee referred clients, or whatever.

Hold training sessions and teach your staff how to effectively promote your business, but remember that this form of marketing will only work if they genuinely feel good about your business and are properly motivated to pitch it to friends, family, and acquaintances.

• How to Create a Referral Program that Boosts Retention & Rewards Employees  by Joe Flores
• Determining The Most Effective Rewards For Employee Referrals  by Dr. John Sullivan

11. Advertise In Niche Print Media

While much of the world has moved online, print media still exists, and in some niches, it still thrives.

In fact, as recently as 2014 , retail consumers cited printed materials as the chief sources of information behind their purchasing decisions.

As print media continues to decrease in overall popularity, pricing for ad placement lowers as well. In the right niches, it is now possible to run effective ads at incredibly affordable prices.

That said, print media is rarely effective as a solo marketing strategy. It is best used in conjunction with online marketing strategies, with the two channels arranged to compliment each other and create an engaging experience for potential buyers.

• How To Combine Print And Digital Marketing Campaigns  by Jeff Bullas
• Is Print Marketing Really Dead?  by Chris Holloway

12. Write A Column

If you are a decent writer, sharing your expertise in the form of weekly or monthly write-ups can do wonders for your brand.

This isn’t usually a situation where you get paid, but it’s also not a situation where you have to pay. These columns give you the opportunity to make consistent contact with an audience, building an actual relationship with the publication’s readers. That audience then begins to think of you when they think of experts in your field.

On the more accessible end, local newspapers or non-profit magazines are often looking for quality contributors. One the more exclusive end, publications like Forbes, Inc, and Fast Company are made up almost exclusively of unpaid expert columns.

But believe me. These experts make bank thanks to their place on these influential platforms.

Make sure that what you write about is valuable to the target audience. This isn’t lowkey advertising. It’s a chance to access and build trust with an audience someone else worked really hard to build.

Plus, even if you don’t land a column, you might be able to land a guest post, which can be incredibly valuable as well.

Some ideas for articles you can write include:

• How-to guides
• Current events commentary
• Interviews with interesting people
• Reporting on trends or events
• How to Secure Guest Posts on Big Publications (WSJ, Forbes & HuffPo)  by Sujan Patel
• How I Wrote for Fast Company, Copyblogger,& Entrepreneur  by Aaron Orendorff

13. Join Local Business Groups

Joining local business groups will give you the opportunity to meet up with other like-minded people who already share some common ground with you: owning a business. While a lot of more general entrepreneur groups exist, there might also be some niche-specific groups and meetups in your area.

These groups are a great opportunity to bounce ideas off other smart people, share referrals, find talent, and identify new opportunities.

They are also a major catalyst in expanding your network around the city in which you live. Connections tend to multiply, and if your group takes networking seriously, you can leverage your seemingly minor connections into much significant ones.

While these groups are typically best found online, it’s preferable to have in-person meetups for the bulk of your interactions.

Lastly, these groups can lead to joint ventures and profitable partnerships, which we will discuss more in the next section.

• Top 10 Business Networking Groups You Should Join  by Brian Morris
• How To Find A Mastermind Group  by Pat Flynn

14. Partner With Other Businesses

Teamwork is always more effective than singular effort, and combining resources with another business can help you do things you could never accomplish on your own.

It’s typically best to target companies in your local area, even if your clientele isn’t local. Your goal is to work out a complementary arrangement that provides mutual benefit for both businesses.

Some joint venture examples include:

• A PPC agency could partner with a CRO agency to refer clients to each other.
• A coffee shop could offer free coffee vouchers to a plumbing company’s customers.
• A marketing company could partner with an accounting firm to recommend each other’s services during new client onboarding.
• A real estate agent app that features vendors for photography, staging, or cleaning companies.
• A beauty therapist could offer free manicures for a hair stylist’s clients.

There is really no limit to what’s possible. Simply identify crossover in your audience and a non-competitor’s audience and then find a way to tap into that crossover in a mutually beneficial way.

• Why Small Businesses Should Partner Up With Other Brands  by Web Smith
• 5 Tips To Partnering Alongside A Business For The First Time  by Deborah Sweeney

15. Direct Mail Marketing

Like print media, direct mail marketing is not dead.

As online channels become more and more saturated with content, fewer companies look to direct mail, and that means opportunity for you.

Like with any marketing strategy, success comes down to targeted creativity. You can’t just spam people and expect a return on your investment. Just like you need to compel people to click your blog post headline, you need to compel mail recipients to open your letters.

Start with the envelope, which will never be opened if it looks like a run-of-the-mill promo piece. Stand out. Use a colored envelope. Use an unusual shape, size or material. Make it look interesting.

If possible, handwrite the address on every envelope or include something bulky inside to make the envelope lumpy – anything you can do to grab attention

Compare this envelope:

Image Credit: Freelogoservices

With this one. You’re more likely to open the following envelope, right?

Image Credit: KezzysCreations

The next thing to focus on is the content. If you want the best results, your headline has to be enticing, and your copywriting needs to hold the reader’s attention through the duration of your pitch.

Like most offline campaigns in 2016, direct mail is typically run in conjunction with an online marketing funnel.

• How to Create a Direct Marketing Campaign  by Entrepreneur.com
• How to Plan Your Direct Mail Marketing Campaign  by George Oliveira

16. Speak At Events

In terms of branding and establishing yourself as an authority, few things are more impactful than being a speaker at popular events in your niche.

While invitations to speak at larger events are often extended as a result of accomplishments or visible influence, you can also work your way into these opportunities by becoming a talented speaker and delivering great talks at smaller events.

Or you can simply use it as another marketing channel, by speaking at some of these types of events:

• Local clubs – think Rotary, Lion’s, Chamber of Commerce.
• Business networking groups.
• Specific interest clubs (photography, hiking, sewing, etc.)
• Browse local events on Eventbrite.com and Meetup.com.
• Check events in your local newspaper and magazines.
• Big companies and their employees.

Be prepared, and treat every event like a big deal.

• How To Start Speaking At Events  by Chris Brogan
• Why I Get Invited to Speak at Events (And How You Can Too)  by Rohit Bhargava

17. Small Business SEO

Small businesses are often tempted to give short shrift to SEO in their overall marketing, perhaps because mega-corporations such as Walmart and Amazon invest millions in dominating the search game. While it’s true that there will always be a competitor out there who has built a better small business SEO operation, it’s also true that today’s small business owner can’t afford to neglect search.

Here’s why:

• It works . A well-planned and executed SEO strategy will yield results in terms of increased organic traffic and better positioning.
• It’s cost effective . Compared to pay-per-click, social media marketing, and even purchasing email marketing lists , SEO delivers a respectable return on investment.
• It dominates market share . About 90 percent of consumers search a product or service online prior to making a purchase. They won’t find your business if it doesn’t show up in search.  
• Mobile search is exploding . This year, Google announced that mobile search outpaced desktop search for the first time, and in fact, Google Search is the 4th most popular app in the United States.

Of course, if you operate a local business, you really can’t afford to ignore SEO in your marketing plan. Google’s latest algorithm favors local businesses in its search results in an effort to deliver the highly relevant and individualized results today’s consumers demand. This is especially true for consumers who use Google on their smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices.

If your business has a mobile app, give yourself kudos for being ahead of the curve for marketing and SEO. The exponential growth in mobile search is a huge boon for businesses who capitalize on the SEO advantages of a mobile app.

Your mobile app helps SEO in two distinct ways:

• Google is now treating as a “universal” result in mobile search. Apps with optimized titles and good ratings and reviews will float to the top, displacing even mobile websites with top organic rankings.
• Google considers “high quality” apps to be a positive factor in ranking mobile search results. This means that deep links between your app and website could improve your mobile search rank.

If your business markets to a highly mobile audience or relies on mobile search for traffic and leads, you might want to consider adding a mobile app to your marketing strategy.

18. Link-Building for Small Businesses

The Google algorithm factors the quality and quantity of sites that link to you in your search rankings. In fact, some SEO consultants even recommend that fledgling businesses actually buy links to boost their ranking. That tactic, however, may do more harm than good.

There is no question that high quality links build authority and credibility, ultimately improving your ranking, but changes in the Google Penguin algorithm actually penalizes sites containing too many low-quality or “spammy” links. The key is building links the old-fashioned way—by creating useful, relevant content that people want to share.

For SMEs, this means investing the money and resources to develop highly shareable, top quality content . Long-form blog posts and in-depth articles, infographics, and video tutorials are examples of high performing content likely to garner links.

19. On-Page Optimization

If keyword research is the foundation of your SEO strategy, on-page optimization undergirds the rest of the search infrastructure. On-page optimization includes everything from optimal keyword density to site load speed that helps Google evaluate and rank your page. Great keywords won’t deliver results without good on-page optimization. Here’s a look at the basics:

Page titles should have an H1 tag (most content management systems do this automatically) and include a keyword and your brand name, if applicable. Limit your title to about 55 or 60 characters, which is all that displays in search results.

• Meta Descriptions

While metas aren’t technically factored into search, they do give the searcher more information, entice them to visit, and often serve as a call to action. Limit them to about 150 characters or so.

• Site Load Speed

Use Google’s Page Insight tool to see how your site stacks up. Aim for a score of 85 or better and make any recommended changes or fixes marked with a red exclamation point. If time and resources allow, make “yellow” fixes, as well. 

• Schema Markups

Adding schema markups is one of the most powerful ways to boost your website in the SERPs. Schema tells the search engine what your content means, not just what it says, which changes the way the content is indexed. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper makes it easy to add schema markups to your site.

• Keyword Density

While there is no “optimum” keyword density percentage, there are some best practices to follow, such as including keywords in the title, meta, and anchor text, and avoiding keyword stuffing on the page. Use natural language and aim to drop the keyword at least once in the first 100 words of copy on a page.

• Social Sharing Icons

Social media has a prime place in small business SEO; Google bots make a direct connection between your website and your social media profile pages . Include relevant social icons on your web pages—it not only improves your search, it adds credibility for visitors who land on your site.

Be sure to look at all your pages, including landing pages, product pages, and your company blog and implement SEO best practices across the board. Don’t forget ALT tags for images on your site; while the impact is small, the cumulative effect could make a difference in your rankings.

Conclusion & Summary

Well, that’s the scoop: 16 proven marketing strategies that have worked for thousands of businesses and can work for you.

Here’s the full list:

• Advertise on Facebook
• Rank your Google My Business listing
• Use Google Adwords
• Invest In content marketing
• Grow your organic social reach
• Run a coupon deal
• Build an email marketing funnel
• Host a webinar
• Offer a free consultation
• Incentivize employees to refer new clients
• Advertise in niche print media
• Write a column
• Join a local business group
• Partner with other businesses
• Launch a direct mail campaign
• Speak at events
• Small Business SEO
• Link Building
• On-Page Optimization

While only half of these are probably worth considering for your unique business, I’m guessing at least four of them are great fits, and as I said at the beginning of the article, one of these channels has the potential to skyrocket your growth this next year.

Evaluate the criteria I talked about at the beginning.

Use the answers to select four viable channels from today’s list of marketing strategies for small businesses, and then run small tests with each strategy to see what fails and what performs.

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Marketing is the backbone of every small business. It connects prospects to your products and services and helps them understand how to use them to solve their problems. Generally, companies spend between 7% and 10% of their total revenue on marketing. That percentage could be higher or lower depending on unique business needs.

However, the most important thing is knowing the proper marketing techniques before investing your money. Here are four smart marketing strategies small business owners can use to market their products and services.

1. Emphasize Your Value Proposition

Unless you’ve innovated a new product, you’re likely selling products and services that are already on the market. In order to stand out, write a great value proposition explaining why clients should choose your products over others. Identify your customers’ pain points and explain how you intend to solve them.

Define the benefits of your products and services and what makes them more valuable than others. It’s easy to position yourself as the best provider of a particular product or service if you can connect the value of your products to the customers’ problems. A unique value proposition will help you attract new customers and retain existing ones.

2. Start a Referral Program

A referral program is an invaluable resource small businesses can use to attract new customers and keep existing ones happy. Encourage your customers to tell others about your business in exchange for a reward for every referral. Besides word-of-mouth referrals, they can write reviews and comments online about their experiences.

Businesses can also give referrals. And it’s simple. For example, if a customer asks for a particular product you don’t offer, you can direct them to a business that offers the product. You can request the other business to do the same so you can build each other.

3. Consider Blogging

Consider creating blog posts to generate traffic to your website. It’s a great strategy to build trust with prospects who’ve not made a buying decision yet. Post informative content about your industry at least once a week. Use simple language that resonates with your target audience. People always use simple words when searching for information online.

If you don’t have enough money to pay for hosting, a domain, and website design, you can get a small loan and use your car as collateral. Search for “ title loans near me ” to find the best lenders in your area.

4. Leverage Social Media

More than 4.62 billion people use social media today. Social media can help you build brand awareness, reach a large audience, and engage with customers and prospects. Unlike traditional media, social media offers a two-way interaction. You interact with your fans and customers directly, and they also get a chance to interact directly with your brand.

Know your target audience and connect with them on social media platforms. Research the content they love and use it to make an impact. For instance, you can post customer success stories on Facebook and share industry news on Twitter.

The news and editorial staff of the Bay Area News Group had no role in this post’s preparation.

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Home Blog Marketing 10 Small Business Marketing Strategies That Actually Work

10 Small Business Marketing Strategies That Actually Work

The success of every business hinges on its attitude and plans to have a solid, purposeful marketing strategy. A lot of businesses nowadays continue to decline in productivity and revenue because they’re ignorant of the need to have an effective marketing strategy that can help drive sales and awareness for growth. 

To say the truth, it’s extremely hard for any business to grow dramatically without a good marketing strategy. For small business owners who want their business to grow abruptly, you need to adopt good marketing strategies to achieve your goal. 

In this article, you’ll learn of 10 marketing strategies every small business can incorporate to make sales, increase their business visibility and amass more profits .

Top 10 Marketing Strategies for Every Small Business

Below are some marketing strategies you can use to drive sales for your small business:

Use Social Media

In this 21st century, many of our day-to-day activities are related to the internet. Many people visit the internet every day and social media is one of the favorite places people visit online. Social media awareness for your business can contribute largely to the increase of your revenue in a short time.

So, if you’re planning on increasing your small business sales, social media marketing is a good marketing strategy to implement. You can create a business account on any social media platform and start posting frequently about your products or services. With frequent posts on social media, your target audience will become aware of your business and want to patronize you.

Email Marketing

As a small business trying to increase its revenue, email marketing should be a good recommendation. We’re in a digital world where many things can be done just by using smartphones. This change has boosted people’s curiosity and attraction toward technology. Nowadays, when people wake up, the first thing they check is their smartphones (surfing social media and email) to get updates.

Since you’re starting small, marketing your products and services via email can hugely impact your business’s monthly cash flow. All you need to do is to get the email address of your target audience and send them messages every morning. Customers who read about your products in the morning have a chance of patronizing your business.

Start Blogging

Having a business website is good, but that’s not enough to make your products or services known to your audience. You need to engage yourself in additional tasks like blogging for an effective marketing strategy. You can start this by writing blog posts that provide solutions to the problems of your audience.

Quora, for example, is a popular website that provides people with all kinds of answers to their questions. You also emulate the same technicality while writing a business blog. Start answering the FAQs (frequently asked questions) of the audience in the form of a blog post.

Video Marketing

You can improve your sales rate and gain more customers for your business through video marketing. The use of Video content is one of the most effective marketing strategies you can adopt as a small business to increase your sales and revenue.

By making videos of your products and services on platforms like Youtube and Tiktok you can increase the demand for your products and services by customers and increase your revenue. It’s that simple. People will always be more interested in what they can see, which is why video marketing is good.

Try Podcasts

If you have the skill of oratory or public speaking or you’re a good storyteller, then you may want to try podcasts as another one of the few small business marketing strategies that work. Podcasting is a strategy that you can use to market your business products and attract buyers.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

One best ways you can strategically market your products or services in this era is through SEO marketing. That is, trying to rank high on the search engine. You can drive more potential buyers to your products through the optimization of your website to be visible on Google.

Use Influencer

When you look at big brands like Nike, Puma, Pepsi, and so on, they are always contracting social influencers. They use footballers, musicians, and even actors to promote their products and services. That’s because such people have a great influence on the choice people make when it’s time to make a purchase.

AI Marketing

As a small business that’s still in its early stage, AI marketing may be the right marketing strategy for business. With AI marketing you’ll get to save a lot of your money and still get to make a lot of sales. There are tons of tools available to g uide you through different marketing plans like Content marketing, Video marketing (animation), etc.

You can reach your audience with your products by investing in ads. Facebook ads are one of the best marketing strategies you can adopt to increase the sales of your business. This is because Facebook ads can help you segregate your audience based on their age, gender, location, and what interests them.

Partner Marketing

Partner marketing is another one of the small business marketing strategies that work. You can attract more customers to your products and service, and increase your profits and popularity by doing partner marketing.

Small businesses are often incapable of affording expensive marketing campaigns. The reason is clear to everyone– they’re still small. However, there are few small business marketing strategies that work, and they are not expensive . These strategies are available for small businesses to upscale their businesses. Any of the listed marketing strategies in this article can be implemented by small businesses for growth and an increase in revenue. 

We are dedicated to helping creative and small businesses thrive. Whether you're a freelancer, a small business owner, or a creative professional, we're here to provide you with the latest insights and trends in the world of business. From marketing tips to growth advice, we cover a wide range of topics that are designed to help you grow your business and achieve your goals. Thanks for visiting our site, and we look forward to sharing our knowledge and expertise with you!

Common Mistakes New Entrepreneurs Make When Starting Their Business

Free & low-budget marketing ideas for any small business, you may also like, content marketing courses to help your small business.

As proven by many marketers, content marketing is an essential need for every business. This article will provide you with courses you can take to acquire useful information on how to use content marketing to grow your business. 

10 Content Marketing Tools For Small Businesses

If you want to adopt content marketing in your small business, or you're already using it but want more results, this article will provide you with some content marketing tools you'll need to generate powerful content.

10 Effective Small Business Content Marketing Strategies

Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to develop a small business. If you are a small business owner who understands the value of content marketing, here are 10 effective strategies you can adopt to achieve your marketing goal.

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8 marketing strategies for small businesses.

The success of a small business has a lot to do with its marketing plan. Marketing is used to attract the customers needed to keep a business viable and operational. Marketing strategies are used to help a business achieve sales goals and branding initiatives. Through a variety of tactics, marketers work to attract the right customers to the business.

When business owners sit down to write their marketing plan, they need to consider what makes sense for their small business. What is working in the marketplace? And where should they start?

Here are 8 marketing strategies to set your small business up for success.

1. Establish a Brand

For a small business’s customers and potential customers to know what their company is, does and stands for, they need to have a clear brand identity. Once they have decided on their company’s identity they need to match it with a suitable name, logo, colors and imagery that conveys their brand to customers.

Small business owners might decide to establish a brand look with the help of a freelancer or by collaborating with an established agency. This process can be costly but in the end, it is worth it. Think about the recognition of established brands like McDonald’s or Starbucks and how that recognition is tied to their brands, logos and colors.

Once a company has its logo, it should put it on everything: advertising, business cards, website, envelopes, and email signatures.

2. Know Your Customer

There is no such thing as a one size fits all marketing strategy . Each business caters to a different niche in the market and therefore each company requires a marketing plan is specific to their goals and needs.

Before deciding on tactics and a strategy, small business owners need to better understand who

their target customer is by asking these questions:

• What is their demographic?
• How old are they?
• Where do they live?
• What online services do they use?
• How do they look for products?

Knowing these things about their target customer will help a business develop a targeted and effective overall marketing strategy that will focus on the channels that will produce the best results.

3. Create a Website

Websites are the modern-day business card. It is the first thing potential customers see when the Google company name and the first chance a company to make an impression. A website is the foundation of a marketing plan. Companies can use their website to provide their customers with more information, grab free traffic via search engines, drive people to their social media and establish themselves as an authority in the marketing through helpful content.

If your company doesn’t have a website yet, it is easy enough to get one.

Buy a domain name: Choose the name you want, see if it is available and pay a monthly or annual fee associated with owning that domain.

Sign up for web hosting: This is where another company hosts a company’s webpage on their servers and manages serving it up to their customers. This is often available through the same company where the domain name was purchased.

Get a content management system (CMS): This is used to both create and update the website over time. There are a number of free templates but if a company wants something more unique or customized, they can pay $50–$100 for premium themes.

4. Use the Power of SEO

The most prevalent way traffic is directed to a website is through Google searches. As Google algorithms change, a company needs to make sure to keep their page keywords optimized to make sure they are ranking high on searches.

Having a site show up on the first page of results hugely increases the chances of that website getting clicked on, so a company should do everything in their power to make sure that’s where they are in a Google search.

5. Get Listed on Google

A useful tool for local businesses with local customer bases is Google My Business . When people in the same area as a company search on Google for a product or service the company provides, the company will appear in the top searches.

When potential customers see a business’s profile and it is accompanied with a good review or finds the listing at the top of their list, the business gains credibility and people will be more willing to trust the business.

6. Advertise on Facebook

One of the best ways to target a specific group is using Facebook Ads . A business can focus their adverting on demographics such as age, sex, location, interests, online habits, and more.

Setting up advertising on Facebook is easy and relatively inexpensive. It is a great way for a business to reach a maximum number of potential customers in a short amount of time.

7. Email Customers and Potential Customers

There are many advantages of using email as a marketing strategy. It is easy to do, can be automated, provides instantaneous communication, costs very little, and can reach a large number of potential customers.

Once email addresses are added to an email list, it is important that a business provides interesting, valuable, and relevant content to their list so the emails get opened and not just merely diverted to spam mail.

8. Use Google AdWords

Remember, the key is for people to find you when they search on Google, and by using Google AdWords , you can greatly increase your chances of people seeing your name.

Google AdWords is more expensive than other marketing tactics we have discussed here but should still be considered as it is a powerful marketing tool. The key is for people to find you when they search on Google and by using Google AdWords, a business can greatly increase the chance of people seeing their name.

What Are the Best Types of Advertising for a Small Business?

Watch the video to learn about 7 types of advertising to consider in your digital marketing strategy—including 3 that are beneficial for almost every small business.

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40+ Small Business Marketing Strategies That Actually Work

If you're a small business owner, then you know that marketing can be tough. It seems like everyone is competing for attention, and it's hard to stand out from the crowd. But don't worry, we have sought the opinions of experts and they share these small business marketing strategies that work:

#1. Know Your Target Audience

‌‌"I believe that a marketing strategy can make or break a company. As a business leader, I have learned that having a simple yet effective marketing strategy in place is of utmost importance for any type of business. As a member of the retail industry, the simple and best marketing strategies that have been tried and tested are to know your target audience and to maximize online advertising. Having these strategies in place are good ways to jumpstart your business. Be consistent in your business processes, and always keep your eyes on achieving a common goal. There is no one fits all strategy for a business. Find the ones that work best for your industry, and stick to it."

Thanks to Emily Cooper, Oliver Wicks

#2. Collect Reviews From Customers

"Collecting reviews from my customers on platforms like Google My Business increases my odds of getting new customers. Good reviews symbolize people’s trust in a business and over 90% of people check reviews before approaching a business. The more good reviews you have the more customers you’re going to get."

Thanks to A guide to advanced aesthetics

#3. Never Wait For a Bigger Audience

"A strategy that actually works is to never wait for a bigger audience to share your best work. People think they need to grow

their newsletter to a certain size before sending out an email or growing their Instagram following before posting their first live video. In reality, it's doing these things, even if you're doing them to an audience of 0 at first, that makes you grow. This is the time for practicing your craft and you can always reshare as your audience grows and new people join the party but never make the mistake of holding yourself back until you've reached arbitrary number goals, or you might never get there at all."

Thanks to Johannes Larsson, CEO of Financer.

#4. Put an Emphasis On User Design And Value On Products

"Our marketing plan is fairly simple. We put an emphasis on user design and value in our product. In the beginning, we reached out organically to thousands of real estate investors through public forums seeking advice. When we launched, we sent our site to all of them. Following that, we have had explosive organic growth. We have spent under $100 in paid advertising. We believe that a more grass roots approach is optimal in the beginning of a company especially as SaaS. We plan on scaling with more paid ads once we understand how we can improve our product. Happy to answer any other questions."

Thanks to Moe Soloff, Owner, Leads Rating.

#5. Getting Placement In Top 10 Blog Articles

"Our secret marketing weapon for growth is getting placement in "Top 10" blog articles. For example, "Top 10 Best Sunglasses for Women."  These articles are so powerful because they are one of the first places customers look when starting their buyer journey. The publications generally have a lot of inherent trust (aka social proof) so conversion rate is generally extremely high."

Thanks to Philip Pages, Founder at PostPurchaseSurvey.

#6. Give Existing Customers The Much Needed Value

"There is a widespread misconception among businesses that marketing is just for the new and potential consumers. Marketers tend not to give existing consumers much value, due to which they lose out on many potential leads. Try to give your repeated customers a personalized experience as it acts as a customer retention key. Focusing on such little things can help build a relationship between the business and the consumers, increasing the chances of lead generation and profitable transactions."

Thanks to Eamonn Turley, Multiquotetime.

#7. Leverage Influencers

"We've seen great success with influencers specifically on YouTube. The key is to set up affiliate partnerships where both parties make money when your products are purchased. Having an influencer whose goals are aligned with yours is an unbelievably powerful marketing superpower."

Thanks to John Cammidge, Owner, Jcammidge.

#8. Make Use Of Posters

"There are many places to post notices and adverts for free, including supermarkets, public areas, and shopping malls. However, you should strive to make your poster fairly visible and offer detachable tabs that clients may submit for a discount using this strategy, even though it is hit-or-miss. To see where the most leads are coming from, use different colors for each area. If you know where your leads are coming from, you can focus your marketing efforts there."

Thanks to Vishesh Raisinghani, the Financial Expert at PiggyBank.

#9. Industry Network

“We provide specialized digital directory signs that are installed in large commercial buildings, malls, and office lobbies. The point is that we need to be identified early and at very specific events as a solution. Planning for solutions such as ours can begin as early as conceptual drawings, but also later during ownership transitions. For this reason, we focus on building key industry relationships by networking with architects, property management staff, and construction companies.

Building relationships intentionally with the right people fosters referrals and expands our network to be seen as a leading solution for signage that traditional advertising could not accomplish. Identify whom your business should network with, and take steps to build those relationships. This will pay dividends over time for you.”

Thanks to Sam Rogers, Owner, Digital Directory Express

#10. Search Engine Optimization

"SEO simply refers to the process of obtaining free, natural traffic to your website. Basically, if you can reach to the top of the SERPs, or at least page one, you've succeeded with SEO. It takes time and patience to rank on the first page of search engines. It's not a one-time marketing strategy that you can develop, apply, and then forget about. To progressively move your website up the search engine results pages, you'll need to fine-tune your SEO efforts."

Thanks to Taylor Murchison, SEO Growth Director, On The Map Marketing.

#11. Having a Quality Website

"Our marketing strategies switch year over year. The main part of our current marketing strategy for 2022 is to grow our organic traffic. We are working on SEO to make sure all our pages are optimized. We are writing 2-3 new blog articles every week, and updating our old articles to make sure they have great information and google optimized. We have been doing this for the last couple of months and already see an uptick in traffic and conversions. We then make sure quality backlinks are going to our pages focusing on the keywords that we are focused on.

Soon as we get our page in the top 3 for the keyword we are focusing on, the orders increase dramatically. Social Media comes and goes and tracking techniques changes make it harder to retarget potential customers. Having a quality website that is fully optimized has been the best strategy for us."

Thanks to TJ Schieber, We Buy Houses Atlanta Georgia.

#12. Concentrate on Market Segmentation

"Market segmentation entails dividing a larger market into smaller groups based on demographic data or purchasing habits. Then, as your target audience, you can select one of these segments. Marketing to a very specific group of potential customers is far easier than trying to appeal to a large group of people."

Thanks to Ankush Sharma, DataToBiz.

#13. Marketing Through Thought Leadership

"As an online small business in a highly competitive industry, we've had to employ a number of unique marketing strategies in order to differentiate ourselves from major competitors and attract clients. One of the strategies that we've focused on in recent years is marketing through thought leadership, something which has bolstered our online presence and increased our authority in the industry. We're always on the lookout for ways to share our expert knowledge, whether that be by providing comments on market conditions or writing research pieces to be shared on our blog.

We often engage with journalists and bloggers looking for insight on the US office market, something which has opened the door to many additional opportunities, to the point where we're frequently contacted for comment without needing to pursue opportunities. This form of digital PR is completely free and can result in great exposure for your brand."

Thanks to Michael McCarty, CEO, EDGE Fall Protection, Inc.

#14. Invest In Customer Retention

"Your small business's long-term success depends heavily on customer retention, and you can't argue with that. Making a sale to a brand new customer is 6 times harder than to an existing one. If you want more customers to keep coming back for more, you must improve your customer service skills. To accomplish this, the first thing you should do is figure out where you're losing customers. Determine your customers' definition of success and assist them in achieving their goals. As a small business, you have the privilege of creating meaningful and honest relationships with your clientele, and you really shouldn't waste it."

Thanks to Jess, Practically Green

#15. Post Case Studies on Your Website

"Case studies show how effective your product or service is. Your case study can focus on how your customers can cut expenses, produce more leads, or grow into new areas, especially if you have a B2B audience. Case studies can be in the form of movies, infographics, or blog articles, among other formats. To begin, choose a case study subject whose experience with your company provides a compelling story. Maybe your product or service helped them achieve a critical objective, or they saw significant benefits after switching from a competitor. Your case study should live on your website as a demonstration of how your product or service works through the eyes of an existing customer, regardless of the details."

Thanks to Jacob Sherman, Sales Development Executive at New Reach Agency.

#16. Referral Networks

"Referral networks are extremely beneficial to a business, as they often contain customer referrals who are rewarded with discounts or other incentives for each referral. Referral networks, on the other hand, include business-to-business referrals. If you've ever said something along the lines of, "We don't do/sell it here, but X down the block does," make sure you're getting a reference in return. Regardless of your industry, make sure you build a referral network that shares your values and commitment to excellence."

‌‌Thanks to Liam Quirk, Enofaber

#17. Search Engine Optimization

"SEO is the process of optimizing your website for Google and other search engines. By investing in SEO, you can improve your website's ranking in search results and attract more visitors. It works. A well-planned and executed SEO strategy will yield results in terms of increased organic traffic and better positioning. Compared to pay-per-click, social media marketing, and even purchasing email marketing lists, SEO delivers a respectable return on investment. It dominates market share. About 90 percent of consumers search for a product or service online prior to making a purchase. They won’t find your business if it doesn’t show up in Google's search engine."

Thanks to Alex Shute, Editor-in-Chief, FaithGiant.

#18. Employ Email

"There are several benefits to employing email as a marketing tool. It is simple to implement, can be automated, allows for quick contact, is inexpensive, and can reach many potential customers. The business must send engaging, meaningful, and relevant information for the emails to be opened rather than filtered as spam."

Thanks to Luke Shaw Ph.D, The Best Degree Review.

#19. A Blog

"A blog is one of the most important online channels you can own as a small business because it allows you to establish yourself as an expert in your industry and create valuable content that's optimized for SEO. The best way to start a blog for your business is with WordPress, which has millions of plugins and themes that ensure your blog is optimized for SEO and customer experience. Once you have a blog, make sure to promote it on all of your online channels and update it regularly with fresh content."

Thanks to Roger Huang, Head of Growth Operations, Springboard

#20. Focus On Educating First and Selling Second

"It is so important to focus your marketing efforts on educating first and selling second. People don't like to be sold to. Therefore, provide value 80% of the time and ask for the sale 20% of the time. You can educate consumers by sharing interesting articles related to your industry on your social media channels, sending out a weekly newsletter with helpful how-to tips, producing a weekly informational podcast for your website visitors, etc."

Thanks to Nathan Liao, Founder, CMA Exam Academy.

#21. Internal Social Marketing

"One of the best marketing strategies is what we call ISM – “Internal Social Marketing.” This is essentially using your existing customers to grow your business from the inside out. Say you’re a restaurant owner who does catering for offices and parties. We create sweepstakes that are free to enter for everyone. The grand prize is a full dinner, free of charge, for an event. The kicker is that everyone who entered will receive a small discount on their next purchase (say, 5% or 10%).

What does this do? It promotes groups of people to share in the hopes their group gets selected, and it builds awareness of your brand. Today, most businesses are perfectly content to give away their product to market themselves instead of giving away their money. By the end of the sweepstakes, you’ll have a lot of entrants who have discounts, but there'll be a lot of new customers in addition to existing customers."

Thanks to Lee Mamane, Promotion LA.

#22. Customer Base

"The first thing that any business needs from its marketing is a customer base. For small businesses, the only way to create this kind of base is through word-of-mouth advertising. Word of mouth advertising happens when satisfied customers tell people about your products or services, and those people become new customers.

To start getting positive word of mouth, you need to create happy customers who are eager to share their happiness with others. Aim to get referrals from at least 25 percent of your customers, and you will notice a positive shift in sales."

Thanks to Becky Usanga, Techy10

#23. Do an Inventory of Your Current Activities

"Your money and time are valuable. One or more of these categories should be the focus of your small business's marketing strategy. Take a look at your whole marketing strategy and see how much money you're spending compared to how much money you're making. When it comes to marketing, where do you put the most effort? What about the money? If you're dreading that one small company marketing approach you do every day, does the effort pay off? Those small business marketing methods that deliver results, don't take up too much time and don't break the bank are the most successful ones to try out. For the time being, only concentrate on those."

‌‌Thanks to Martin Luenendonk, FounderJar

#24. Reviews and Referrals

"We usually work on reviews and referrals from our clients, those who took our services and we delighted them with the outcomes and progress. This is a highly effective and result-oriented business move that every business owner must take to spread the word for their business and offerings. Without word of mouth, marketing for your business all by paid means can be very difficult and costly. So the small businesses should chase their clients to collect reviews on Facebook, Google Business, Trust Pilot, Clutch, and other business listings."

Thanks to Usama Hashmi, Growth Marketer, Ideators.

#25. Be Present On All Platforms Your Competitors Are

"Small businesses should be present on all platforms where their competitors are present. This is a key to attracting relevant traffic from the same grounds where their competitors are getting it. If you list your business on all those online places, your chances of getting noticed by the same relevant audience and personas are exponentially higher than without listing. At the beginning of our digital marketing campaigns, our primary aim was to get listed on more than 50 business portfolios, directories, and B2B listing websites such as Goodfirms, Linkedin, Glassdoor, etc. In the next month, we were already getting hundreds of referral traffic from these websites, and ultimately, we were getting a few qualified leads as well."

Thanks to Jonathan Merry, Bankless Times

#26. Make Your Initial Clients Your Affiliates and Referrals

"This tip will be more promising than any other business tip specifically for small business owners. With this, you can actually maximize the outcomes from your current clients, not just in revenues but in building a solid clientele. The only requirement, in this case, is to deliver exceptional services to them, delight them with your attitude, services, professionalism, and communication. Once done, your clients will easily become your referral and affiliate and they will bring in new leads and clients from their circle."

Thanks to Muhammad Alhan, Marketing Manager, 10pearls.

#27. Google Maps and Google My Business

"For our small business, we found Google Maps, and Google My Business to be very effective and result-oriented in terms of bringing regular clients, orders, and business. On our dashboards, almost 80% of leads come through Google maps, from local people searching or calling for our services once they see our business on the maps. This simple marketing strategy is highly fruitful for small businesses."

Thanks to Hamza Manzoor, Co-founder, Urgent Resume.

#28. Content Marketing

"Content Marketing is one of the best marketing strategies we leverage at Local Furniture Outlet. By creating content that is related to products and services we offer, we are able to provide solutions to customer pain points while creating a unique brand outlook for our business. The carefully curated, high quality content is then distributed through different digital channels including social media, blogs, newsletter, and so on. Leveraging different types of content including articles, blog posts, videos, and infographics provides you with a series of avenues to generate more leads that eventually transform into sales."

Thanks to Aaron Masterson, Founder, Local Furniture Outlet.

#29. Nurture Your Existing Clients First To Get Leads and Referrals.

“If you are a business owner who is tight on time, our top marketing tip for you is to nurture your existing clients first to get leads and referrals. Focus on developing a strong relationship with them and ask them to always leave feedback or review, and spread the word of mouth. This is the quickest way to get high-quality leads for your business. Another piece of advice is to hire a professional marketing virtual assistant so you can save more time in doing this. They can definitely help you with PPC campaigns, FB ads, email marketing, content writing, blogging, and other marketing efforts which are all very important to increase your visibility and reach, and generate leads for your business."

Thanks to Pavel Stepanov, Virtudesk.

#30. Leverage Online Ads

"You may utilize your targeted prospects for this. Furthermore, you may place advertising on several sites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Ads, and many others. You may run advertising on the channel after prospecting, which is more advantageous."

Thanks to Christopher Andrew, 420 Expert Adviser.

#31. Use Search Engine Optimization

‌"Search engine optimization (SEO) can be an important aspect of your online marketing strategy. SEO can help your website rank for certain keywords. Keywords are the phrases that people search for on search engines. When someone searches for something related to your product or service on a search engine(Google), SEO helps people learn about your website! It's also very useful for small or medium-sized businesses with limited advertising budgets, because you can optimize your website so that it still ranks ahead of your competitors in the natural rankings! In addition, consumers usually trust the first few natural search results on Google more. So, imagine automatically associating trust with your brand and business!"

Thanks to Jessica Weight, Dream Team Fundraising

#32. Set Sail with the Support of Word-of-Mouth Promotion

"Using your customer's voice to get them to speak about their experience with your company is one of the most cost-effective small business marketing tactics. That means first creating a fantastic product or service, and then delivering it to your clients in a spectacular way.  Encourage clients to communicate about your small business on social media and share their thoughts, increasing your chances of attracting new customers."

Thanks to Geoff Cudd, FindTheBestCarPrice.

#33. Marketing Automation

"A marketing automation system simplifies the process of navigating the seas: For small businesses, marketing automation solutions have become more accessible and affordable than ever before, allowing you to get the most out of your money. Using next-generation solutions, you can automatically gather visitors from your website and deliver the relevant message to them at the perfect time."

Thanks to Martin Lassen, GrammarHow.

#34. Take Your Business Online

“As more and more customers spend a majority of their time online, so too has the importance of the online presence of your business. Investing in SEO is a fantastic way to increase the visibility of your website, and thus its exposure to online users. By optimizing your website with targeted keywords and creating content such as blog posts that are informative, you’ll increase your website’s reputation and your standing in Google’s search rankings.”

Thanks to Mitch Hard, Overdraft Apps

#35. Use LinkedIn For Prospecting

"The most effective LinkedIn prospecting strategy I’ve discovered that generates qualified leads, is to reach out to first degree connections once or twice a year to request a 15-minute call to catch up. It’s a manual process that takes time, since I customize each note, but it works. I’ve landed half a dozen clients after generating a dozen leads via this strategy the past 2 years. Specifically, I send a 2-3 sentence (brief is key) note to request a call and include a link to our latest agency news at Anvil. If the timing is right (it’s all about timing) they respond with interest and we schedule a call. Although my response rate is low (1-2%) the conversion from response to lead is high (30-50%). Once they are qualified and go to the proposal stage, the conversion rate is very high (60-80%)."

Thanks to Peter Beeda, FHA Lend Mortgage.

#36. Running Dynamic Remarketing Ads

"Running dynamic remarketing ads has been most effective for me because firstly, setting them up is very easy on the Google Ads platform. Secondly, through dynamic remarketing ads, I could target my audience (shopping cart abandoners) with highly personalized messages (ads had images of products that customers added into their shopping cart but did not end up buying)."

Thanks to Erik Wright, New Horizon Home Buyers

#37. Develop a Good SEO Strategy

“Over half of all online actions start on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Most of them come from organic searches from these websites, making it extremely important for your small businesses to consider improving their Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Developing a good SEO strategy can help you increase traffic, generate leads, close sales, improve your brand loyalty, and position your website on top of your competitor's. You can learn SEO through courses online, or you can work with a digital marketing agency. They can assist you with improving your website with SEO-specific strategies in mind. This is an excellent strategy as over 35% of all traffic comes from local sources, so ensuring you have a strong SEO will make sure your customers will be more likely to find your business when searching for your services.“

Thanks to Rich Rudzinski, Tragic Media

#38. Help The Community

"One of the best small business marketing strategies is to help the community. In trying times, helping the community is important, and ultimately it is the small businesses that provide the backbone for every economy. Helping the community will remind people of that and they will, in turn, help out these businesses."

Thanks to Findithealth.

#39. Stay Consistent In Your Messaging

"It may sound obvious, but way too often different people across a company (or even across a single team!) present their messaging differently. They focus on too many differentiators, ruining the effect of one strong message that should be communicated. If you sell water bottles, do you claim that you satiate marathon runners, use BPA-free plastic that's safe for babies, AND have big, easy-to-unscrew caps for older people with dexterity issues? Yes, you can have various features, but don't confuse your audience with too many factors flying at once. Make sure that your messaging has a focus."

Thanks to Richardson Kelly, Jooksms.

#40. Run Google Ads

"A tested and true small business marketing strategy is running Google Ads. I feel like many small business owners don't give enough time or effort to give this strategy a chance. There are many different styles owners can try, like local ads, shopping ads, or retargeting. They don't have to be expensive, start with a small budget of $10 a day, dial in your campaigns, and ramp up your spending from there. All businesses need leads and customers, and Google Ads is one of the surest ways of bringing potential customers to your store or website."

Thanks to Michael Dadashi, Owner, Infinite Recovery.

#41. Don't Ignore SEO

"When operating a small business, margins are everything. Getting a solid ROI is crucial, especially in terms of marketing. We’ve found great success with SEO on a smaller, more local scale. SEO can be an unattractive prospect for some businesses mainly due to the fierce competition and might of mega corporations, but you can’t ignore search engine optimization.

‌‌We wanted to drive highly local, targeted traffic to our website. SEO was a great fit for us, it’s far more cost effective than PPC ads and social media marketing. We also considered the fact that most consumers actively search for a product or service online prior to purchasing or even engaging with a business. Visibility high in the search engine results page is absolutely essential then. Google now actually favours local businesses first in the search results due to a recent algorithm shift, so SEO really cannot be ignored."

Thanks to Greg Tuohy, Docutec.

#42. Leverage LinkedIn Lead Form Ads

One of the best small business marketing strategies for B2B companies is by leveraging LinkedIn lead form ads, and sponsored DMs to retarget website visitors who otherwise would leave the site and never return. We recommend segmenting visitors into 3 stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. Based on which pages of your website they visited, you can display the most relevant offers. Doing this has allowed us to maximize our ROI from SEO and Google ads."

Thanks to Chris Mitchell, Intelus Agency

#43. Don't Neglect Face Adverts

"It is only through an effective marketing strategy that small businesses can stand out in between the giants. While it may seem impossible, through focusing on the fundamentals of your business and taking advantage of new tools, small businesses can definitely carve their own share of the market. One such tool I'll definitely recommend is not neglecting Facebook adverts. Facebook provides the bridge between connecting targeted audiences to your organization while also generating word of mouth that can help solidify your company's name."

Thanks to Henry Ford, Owner, Skilled Golf.

#44. Build Your Reputation

"One of the most successful small company marketing methods is to have a solid reputation in your field. Being a featured speaker at a formal event demonstrates to prospects and clients that you are a subject matter expert in your profession. Consider contacting local groups that conduct frequent conventions, exhibitions, and workshops. Pitch your speech to them and you'll be included in their programming for their next event. This may be a virtual event rather than an in-person one, since people prefer remote conferences now due to their convenience, but speaking through video chat may be just as successful."

Thanks to Jessica Lipton, Elevate Delta 8.

#45. Use The Same URL From Last Year, Instead of Creating a New Landing Page For Your Easter Promotion

"Instead of creating a new landing page for your easter promotion, use the same URL from last year. If this is the first time you are doing an Easter promotion, create a URL that’s not tied to the current year. Last year’s URL is already indexed on Google and ranking for your keywords, so why start over each year? You will keep building page authority and get more traffic if you use the same URL every year. Of course, you can still make changes to the page itself."

Thanks to Leslie Gilmour, Cube Digital.

#46. Cold Email

"Cold emailing is one of the most successful tactics for small company marketing. It is an excellent technique to establish contact with prospective clients who may be unfamiliar with your brand. When marketing your small business via cold email, you can begin by compiling a list of potential customers, researching the companies you wish to target and identifying the decision-makers, and then crafting a personalized email that introduces your business and explains why you believe they would be a good fit for your products or services. Additionally, send the email and, if required, follow up with phone calls. Keep an eye on your outcomes and make any adjustments to your plan."

Thanks to Mark Taylor, Director, What Removals.

#47. Have a Clear Brand Identity

"For a small business’s customers and potential customers to know what their company is, does and stands for, they need to have a clear brand identity. Once they have decided on their company’s identity they need to match it with a suitable name, logo, colors and imagery that conveys their brand to customers. Small businesses owners might decide to establish a brand look with the help of a freelancer or by collaborating with an established agency. This process can be costly but in the end, it is worth it. Think about the recognition of established brands like McDonald’s or Starbucks and how that recognition is tied to their brands, logos and colors. Once a company has their logo, they should put it on everything: advertising, business cards, website, envelopes and email signatures."

Thanks to Admir Salcinovic, PriceListo.

‌‌‌‌With the right marketing strategy, the returns on your investment would be overwhelming.

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6 Small Business Marketing Tactics That Actually Work

By Joydeep Bhattacharya

If you are planning to start a small business or have an existing one, its success depends on how well you market it.

In the US, there are nearly 30 million small businesses that are competing to become successful.

As per a survey of 500 small businesses by Visual Objects, 71% of them plan to increase their social media spending, 29% plan to build a website, 25% plan to use digital marketing, 21% plan to use SEO more, and only 8% plan to use augmented and virtual reality.

Even if you do not have a handsome budget, there is much more for a small business owner to do to attract their target market and maintain their customer base. Thus, focus on marketing strategies to boost your business.

Let’s first understand why marketing is important for your small business and then jump into learning marketing tactics that will actually work for your business.

Importance of Marketing in Small Business

To sustain or grow your business in the market, small business owners need to map appropriate marketing techniques relevant to the type of the business.

Here are the reasons explaining why marketing is important for your business:

Make Your Target Audience Aware of the Existence of Your Business

For a small business, it is easy to get lost in the huge business hub if you fail to have a good marketing strategy.

Your business may offer great products and services, but if your potential customers do not know that you exist, then you will not have sales. Thus, marketing helps you make people aware of your business.

Educate Target Market About Your Product and Services

Effective marketing strategies help small businesses to educate their target audience about the products and services.

Nearly 54% of social media users utilize it for researching products and services.

You can use social media platforms to display your products or email marketing to make people aware of any new product launch.

Give Boost to Your Business Sales

At the end of the day, the existence of your business is to make money.

For nearly 50% of small businesses, driving sales and building brand awareness are the two top marketing priorities. Besides, opting for customer experience automation is another channel that small business owners should take seriously.

Therefore, as long as you are marketing your products and services right, you can always drum up your business sales quickly & easily.

Help You Compete with Larger Businesses

A great marketing program helps small businesses to compete with large businesses for their market share.

Small businesses can provide greater amounts of attention and value to their existing and potential customers with the help of the right marketing tactics.

Marketing Strategies to Set Your Small Business Up for Success

According to the Outbound Engine-Marketing-Survey 2019, 50% of small businesses do not use a dedicated marketing strategy.

Small businesses often have a limited money constraint where they have to cope up with a limited marketing strategy, which obviously, impacts the visibility of the business in the market.

Below are some basic tactics that actually help you to grow your business and can earn a high return on investment:

1- Search Engine Optimization To Rank On Google

SEO is the process of optimizing your business website in a way that makes it easier for search engines to find your business online.

If you have a higher rank on Google, then there are higher chances of attracting customers to your website. Around 49% of small businesses invest in SEO, ignoring the fact that SEO is one of the most impactful ways to generate new leads and grow a business audience.

Best ways to do SEO:

• Create a Google My Business account
• Request reviews from your customers
• Optimize your website with local keywords
• Create blog posts or videos that relate to the local community
• Use location pages
• Focus on getting high-quality backlinks

2- Email Marketing To Target Potential Customers

Email marketing is one of the easiest and budget friendly techniques of marketing strategy. It can also be automated, providing instantaneous communication while reaching a large number of potential buyers.

Around 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months. Email marketers are witnessing their email ROI skyrocket, with the latest numbers of $42 to $1.

3- Social Media Marketing To Engage And Nurture Customers

Social media marketing is another technique a small business should use to reach a larger audience.

The average time people spend on social media is around 2.5 hours each day. It becomes easier to reach a larger audience through social media. Also, it is one of the inexpensive methods.

You can use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, or Instagram depending on your target audience. For instance, Lines shares regular updates on their Facebook page to engage with sports fans. It helps them nurture their target audiences for more engagement.

Here are the best ways to use social media marketing to grow your small business:

• Create high-quality content that triggers the emotional response of consumers.
• Create social media contests to get your followers tagging their own network.
• Collaborate with influencers for establishing brand trust.
• Create user-generated content using brand hashtags.
• Provide a quick response to your customers’ questions and queries.

4- Pay-Per-Click Advertising To Generate Instant Leads

Pay-Per-Click advertising allows small businesses to display their ads when customers look for certain keywords on search engines. While this can result in a costly bidding war, local markets are frequently less competitive, and the PPC model allows you to keep your spending under control.

Bid on certain keywords like “pharmacy near me” based on factors, such as keyword relevance and landing page quality. Advertising platforms utilize an algorithm to display your ads in the search engine result pages (SERP). You can use Google AdWords and PPC campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.

Here are the best ways to make the most out of pay-per-click advertising for small businesses:

• Create different campaigns for the search network and the display network. If you have a limited budget, then focus on the search network to get a good ROI on your advertising investment.
• Be strategic with your ad’s reach and focus on a specific geographic area.
• Focus on your products that are already popular.
• Boost your quality score by focusing on ad relevance, CTR, and landing page experience.

5- Content Marketing To Improve Branding

Over 91% of businesses use content marketing. In fact, around 70% of consumers learn about a business through an article.

Content marketing focuses on creating and delivering valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and maintain a specific audience. It eventually drives profitable consumer action.

Building a relationship with your consumers and search engines through this technique is quite time-consuming. However, once done correctly, it can position your business as an industry leader and build a long-lasting impact on your audience.

6- Customer Experience Optimization To Retain Customers

Offering a good CX helps to retain customers and promote brand advocacy. With the help of Customer Experience Optimization, your business takes the steps needed to optimize the entire customer journey to acquire, nurture, and retain them for longer.

Investing in customer service is vital to reduce customer frustration and keep them happy. Satisfied customers are more likely to recommend your business to others and generate repeat orders leading to long term profits.

Final Thoughts

Small businesses can definitely grow their business when they follow proven marketing techniques and practices. You should choose a marketing mix rather than going for just one.

It is equally important to evaluate your results and see which strategy is working best for your business. Finally, revisit your marketing strategy and make the necessary changes.

Joydeep Bhattacharya is a digital marketing evangelist and author of SEOsandwitch.com . He is a regular contributor on publications like Wired, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Hubspot and several other sites.

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6 Small Business Marketing Tactics That Actually Work

Whether you’re going to establish a small business or already have one, how well you advertise and which marketing tactics you use is critical to its success.

There are more than 30 million small enterprises in the United States that are vying for success. Small companies are planning to spend more money on social media , building a website, using digital marketing, and SEO, according to a poll of 500 firms by Visual Objects. Only 8% of them intend to employ augmented or virtual reality.

Even if you don’t have a lot of money, there is still a lot that a small business owner can do to attract and keep customers. This is why you should put a lot of effort into developing effective marketing strategy.

Let’s begin by looking at the importance of marketing for your small business, and then we’ll get into the specifics of how you might implement it.

Marketing is critical to the success of a small business.

Small company owners need to identify and implement marketing strategies that are relevant to their business type in order to survive or develop their firm in the market.

Here are a few reasons why marketing is so critical to your company:

Make your customers and clients aware of your company’s existence..

To avoid being lost in the mammoth marketplace of large corporations, it is important for small businesses to have an effective marketing approach.

If your potential clients don’t know you exist, you won’t be able to sell your goods and services. As a result, efficient marketing tactics aid in spreading awareness about your company.

Informing Your Customers About Your Products and Services Is Essential.

Small companies benefit from effective marketing tactics because they can better inform their intended audience about the goods and services they offer.

Nearly 54% of social media users conduct product and service research while on the platform.

With social media and email marketing, you can spread the word about new product launches.

Boost Your Company’s Revenues With Good Marketing Tactics

The sole purpose of your company is to generate profit at the end of the day.

Sales and brand awareness are the two most important marketing concerns for small businesses. In addition, small business owners should carefully consider customer experience automation.

As a result, you can easily and rapidly increase your company’s revenues by properly marketing your products and services.

Competition from Larger Companies

Effective digital marketing tactics may help small firms compete with larger companies for market share in their respective industries.

Using the correct marketing strategies, small companies may better serve their current and prospective clients.

Set Your Small Business on the Road to Success with these Marketing Tips

50% of small firms do not have a marketing plan, according to the Outbound Engine Marketing-Survey 2019.

As a result of a lack of funds, small firms are frequently forced to implement a restricted marketing plan, which has a negative influence on their visibility in the market.

Here are a few simple strategies that can help you build your business and get a good return on investment:

To get found on Google, you need SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving the visibility of your company’s website in search results.

Customers are more likely to visit your website if you have a high Google ranking. Despite the fact that SEO is one of the most effective strategies to acquire new leads and build a business’s audience, just 49 percent of small businesses spend in it.

SEO best practices:

• Sign up for a Google My Business account.
• Ask your consumers for feedback.
• Your website should be optimized for local keywords
• Create content that is relevant to the local area, such as blog articles or videos.
• Use the location pages
• Prioritize the acquisition of high-quality backlinks.

A Second Approach Is To Use Email Marketing To Achieve This Purpose

Email marketing is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to promote your business. An automated system provides instantaneous communication while reaching a wide audience.

Over the previous year, 78% of marketers have noticed an increase in email response. Email marketers are seeing their email ROI soar from $42 to $1, according to the most recent figures.

Businesses need to provide relevant, valuable, and interesting content to the email addresses that have been added to a list in order for the emails to be opened rather than filtered as spam.

Engage And Nurture Customers Through Social Media Marketing

A small firm should also employ social media marketing in order to reach a broader audience.

Every day, Americans spend about 2.5 hours on social media. Social media makes it easier to reach a broader audience. Besides that, it’s one of the cheapest ways to do it.

A variety of social media platforms are available based on your intended audience, from Facebook and Twitter to Pinterest and YouTube. When it comes to sports fan engagement, Lines, for example, posts regular updates on their Facebook page. It aids in the cultivation of their target audiences, resulting in increased engagement.

The following are some of the most effective techniques to build your small business with social media marketing:

Create material that elicits an emotional response from your audience.

Get your fans to tag their friends in your social media competitions.

Build trust in your business by collaborating with influencers.

Use brand hashtags to inspire user-generated content.

Quickly answer clients’ concerns and enquiries.

In order to get immediate leads, you can use pay-per-click advertising (PPC).

Paid per click advertising allows small businesses to display their adverts when a certain term is searched on the internet. Local markets tend to be less competitive, and the PPC model helps you to keep your expenditure under control.

Make a bid for a term like “pharmacy near me” depending on criteria like keyword relevance and landing page quality. In order to show your adverts in search engine results, advertising companies use an algorithm (SERP). Facebook and Instagram allow you to use Google AdWords and PPC campaigns.

Pay-per-click advertising is a great method for small businesses to get their name out there.

Create separate advertising campaigns for the search and display networks. You might receive the most return on your ad investment if you focus on the search network if your budget is restricted.

Your ad’s reach should be limited to a certain location.

Focus on your most popular goods.

Focus on ad relevancy, CTR, and landing page experience to improve your quality score.

Improve your brand’s image by using content marketing

A whopping 91% of companies now make use of some form of content marketing. More than half of consumers learn about a company via an article.

Information marketing is concerned with attracting and retaining a certain audience by the creation and distribution of valuable, relevant, and consistent content. Finally, it leads to lucrative customer behavior.

It takes a long time to build a relationship with your customers and search engines using this method. If done effectively, it may establish your company as an industry leader and leave a lasting impression on your audience.

6- Customer Loyalty Enhancement To Maintain Clients

It is easier to keep consumers coming back when you provide a positive customer experience. Using Customer Experience Optimization, your firm takes the necessary measures to improve the complete customer journey in order to recruit, nurture, and keep them for a longer time.

Keeping customers satisfied means making a significant investment in customer care. As a result of a satisfied consumer, you are more likely to get a return on your investment.

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6. Exploring Influencer Partnerships 

Influencer marketing has emerged as a powerful strategy for expanding your reach within your target audience. Identify influencers who align with your brand values and have a substantial online following. Team up with them to sponsor your products or services, leveraging their reliability to attract new customers. Influencers can create authentic content that resonates with their audience, introducing your business to a whole new segment of potential customers.

7. Hosting Webinars and Workshops

Webinars and workshops offer a unique platform to showcase your expertise and engage directly with your audience. Choose topics that address industry challenges, trends, or solutions and offer valuable insights during these events. Webinars allow for real-time interaction with participants, fostering meaningful connections and establishing your business as a thought leader. Make sure to promote these events across your digital platforms to maximize attendance and engagement.

8. Implementing Local SEO Strategies

For small businesses with a local customer base, local SEO strategies are vital for visibility. Optimize your website and online profiles with location-specific keywords to ensure your business appears in local search results. Claim and verify your Google My Business listing, providing accurate business information, such as address, phone number, and operating hours. Encourage customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business profile, enhancing your credibility and visibility within your local community.

9. Creating Engaging Visual Content

Visual content has a powerful impact in capturing your audience’s attention and conveying information effectively. Apply videos, images, infographics, and other visual resources to tell your brand’s story, display your products, and explain composite concepts. Share this visual content across your website, social media, and email campaigns to increase engagement and improve the overall user experience.

10. Monitoring and Adapting

In the evolving world of digital marketing, data-driven decision-making is essential. Regularly monitor and analyze the performance of your marketing strategies using tools like Google Analytics. Track website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates, and conversion rates to gain insights into what’s working and needs improvement. Based on the data, adjust your strategies to optimize results consistently. This reiterative approach ensures that your marketing efforts remain streamlined with your business goals and responsive to changing market dynamics.

In conclusion, the success of a small business is centered on its ability to implement effective marketing strategies that resound with its target audience. By connecting the power of social media, optimizing your website, and embracing content marketing, among other tactics, you can establish a strong brand presence, attract loyal customers, and drive business growth. Remember, consistency, relevance, and adaptability are the pillars of successful marketing. Start implementing these strategies today, and watch your small business flourish.

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9 Small Business Marketing Strategies That Actually Work

It’s no secret that your small business marketing strategy is what makes or breaks your brand..

With  over 80%  of customers admitting that they do online research before making a purchase, it’s crucial to get your business’s info out there. But in today’s crowded marketplace, how do you find the strategies that actually work?

Though there are countless marketing fads that come and go, we’ve put together a list of tried-and-tested strategies that can help your brand stand out. Read on to learn more.

1. Hone Your Target Audience

It’s always important to know who you’re talking to, but honing your target audience is even more crucial for small businesses than for larger brands. Figuring out who you should focus your limited time and resources attracting can ensure you’re getting leads you can actually convert.

If you haven’t already done so, take the time to figure out who you’re targeting. Consider your niche, get your hands on demographic data, and work on creating buyer personas that help you understand who to attract.

2. Craft Compelling Content

In a digital landscape that’s awash in brands like yours, the best way to cut through the noise is to create compelling content. In fact, it’s easy to argue that failing to follow this step might sabotage all of your other efforts!

Relevant, helpful, high-quality content is attention-grabbing, which is exactly what you need. Whether you’re drafting thoughtful opinion pieces on your blog, creating helpful infographic tutorials, or launching fun but relevant videos on TikTok, make sure you’re showcasing what your brand offers.

This is where the step above comes in: knowing who you’re talking to makes it easier to create content they’ll love and want to share. For small Houston businesses, don’t forget that creating a local content strategy that positions your brand as a leader within the area is a great way to stand out.

3. Optimize Your Google Business Profile (GBP)

You’d be shocked at how many small businesses fail to take advantage of Google.

Instead of leaving Google to guess what your brand has to offer—even if it would be an educated guess, given Google’s ability to pull info from other networks and directories—why not tell it yourself?

Optimizing your GBP profile allows you to share info about your brand with local searchers using Google. It even makes it more likely that your company info will appear at the top of a local search! You can also use your GBP to showcase photos, events, discounts, and more. 

4. Stand Out With SEO

If you’re trying to ramp up your Houston marketing efforts without this step, you may as well not even bother! SEO is what helps small businesses get found online, and though it can be tricky to compete with larger, established brands, there are plenty of strategies that can give you an edge.

When paired with  content marketing , SEO is one of the most cost-effective ways to get more site visitors and leads, especially with the explosion of mobile search in recent years.

Even better, Google wants to provide relevant and helpful results, so its algorithm often favors local brands.

5. Advertise Online

While this strategy will cost more upfront than long-term SEO tactics, the immediate results make it well worth your time.  Advertising online can be an effective way to reach a vast amount of potential customers.

 Through online advertising, businesses are able to target specific consumers based on their interests, location, and other demographic factors. In addition, they can track what ads are generating the most engagement and use this data to refine their campaigns and maximize the effectiveness of their ad spend. With such powerful insights, businesses are able to focus their efforts on their most successful campaigns and optimize their return on investment.

There’s a caveat here, as you might expect: if you’re hoping to beat the local competition and raise your ROI, it’s crucial to know your audience. Creating tailored ads that appear on the platforms where your audience spends its time is key.

The most popular online ad tools include Google Ads and Facebook Ads, both of which allow you to target specific niches.

6. Start an Email Campaign

Sure, the humble email has been around for decades now. But did you know it’s still offering one of the highest ROIs of all types of marketing for small businesses, hovering at around 

Better still, especially for busy entrepreneurs, is the fact that email campaigns are easy to automate. Though you’ll have to invest time and money up front in creating valuable content, today’s online tools make it easy to send future emails to leads and customers at the perfect time.

7. Network With Local Brands

This is a tried-and-tested marketing strategy for good reason: it really works! Connecting with other Houston businesses is a great opportunity to share tips and insights, collaborate, and promote each other’s goods and services.

 Networking is an incredibly valuable tool for businesses and individuals alike. It can provide access to new contacts, resources and ideas, as well as helping to build strong relationships with others in the industry. Networking can also open up opportunities for collaboration and can help to increase brand visibility and recognition. By attending networking events and utilizing online tools such as social media, businesses and individuals can expand their reach and achieve greater success.

There are countless small business networking opportunities in the Houston area throughout the year. One of our favorite organizations is the Network In Action .

8. Partner With an Influencer

We’re not necessarily talking about influencers with followers in the hundreds of millions. When it comes to small brands, finding micro-influencers within your specific niche can be a great way to promote yourself in a way that feels organic to their followers.

This partnership may involve reaching out to an influencer marketing agency, or you might find it easier to reach out to an influencer directly.

Even a single promotional post can offer a massive increase in visibility and sales, as long as the influencer’s followers include your target audience.

9. Offer Freebies and Discounts

Everyone loves getting something for free—even if it means leaving you with their contact details.

Freebies and discounts can be a great way to build up your list of email subscribers and leads, and you can do it right from your website.

Note, of course, that you’ll have to offer up something valuable in return, which is where that “compelling content” often comes in. No matter your brand, there are plenty of great lead magnet marketing strategies for small businesses to try. E-books, guides, PDF templates, quizzes, demos, webinars, and even special discounts can be powerful ways to attract your audience.

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Growing your digital presence can feel like an uphill battle—but it doesn’t have to be that way. When you don’t have time to research and implement the key solutions above, our team is here to help!

We’ve helped  multiple brands  boost their online presence fast, and we’re happy to discuss what we can do for you. Get in touch with us to learn more.

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Grow » marketing, 5 viral marketing campaigns your business can learn from.

From the “Barbie” movie to the infamous Popeyes chicken sandwich, here are five viral tactics to consider for your next marketing campaign.

Memorable marketing campaigns can leave you singing a catchy jingle, knowing every word of a humorous ad, or even participating in a brand’s campaign on social media. Various strategies can catch an audience’s attention, but what really makes a marketing campaign stand out?

Below are five viral marketing campaigns that left a lasting impression. Explore their techniques to gain inspiration to boost brand awareness and help you attract new customers.

[Read more: 7 Digital Marketing Trends to Pursue in 2023 ]

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift’s transformative journey over the last 17 years as an American singer and songwriter has solidified her as an iconic figure, driven by her willingness to evolve and change. Swift has the ability to embody various styles — from country to indie — which reflects her fearless embrace of growing up. Using her unbreakable connection to her devoted fans, or “Swifties,” Swift uses “Easter eggs” to engage her fans in decoding messages about upcoming releases which foster engagement.

Swift has built trust and loyalty among her fans in many ways, including taking ownership of her music by re-recording her older albums. Her storytelling and relatable content also serve as strong marketing strategies, forging a personable connection with her audience.

When Swift’s 10th studio album, “Midnights,” was released in October 2022 , it showcased an exceptional marketing campaign through teaser TikTok videos, NFL promos, and appearances on late-night shows. The strategic approach led to a Spotify record for single-day album streams and songs from the album claimed all Top 10 spots on the Billboard 100 within a week.

The ‘Barbie’ movie

Warner Bros’ robust marketing campaign for Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” resonated globally — colored by partnerships and pink-themed branding. The campaign’s breadcrumb strategy kept audiences engaged, generating well-deserved media attention and reflecting a broader movement well before the movie’s July 2023 release. The color pink, which was the center of the film’s marketing strategy, symbolized girl power and flourished in fashion. The marketing campaign even harnessed Google , which turned the search engine pink when interested parties searched for “Barbie” or “Barbie movie.”

Additionally, the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, celebrating the simultaneous theatrical release of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” emerged organically, creating even more traction. “Barbie” earned $155 million in the United States during its opening weekend alone, showcasing the success of a robust marketing campaign. Moviegoers wore costumes and pink outfits to showings, amplifying the collective experience.

Various strategies can catch an audience’s attention, but what really makes a marketing campaign stand out?

McDonald’s Grimace shake

McDonald’s celebrated the birthday of Grimace — the large purple creature featured in McDonaldland commercials — with a limited-time purple milkshake promotion that turned into a viral campaign. Fueled by TikTok videos showing creative consumption experiences, major brands joined in on the viral campaign. Individuals on TikTok were seen drinking the Grimace shake and then the video would cut to them on the ground in the spilled purple shake or having a paranormal-type experience. The campaign’s second-quarter success was attributed to trend creation, major brand collaborations, and character-driven engagement.

[Read more: Running a Successful Digital Marketing Campaign ]

The movie ‘Smile’

Paramount’s horror movie “Smile” dominated the box office through an innovative viral marketing campaign. The campaign involved placing actors with eerie-looking smiles in the background of live events — Major League Baseball games in particular. The film’s plot involved a supernatural force compelling people to commit terrible acts with unsettling grins, which echoed the real-life actors’ appearances at live events.

The campaign understandably went viral on social media, including Twitter and TikTok, and caught the attention of both younger and older audiences. During opening weekend, “Smile” earned $22 million and garnered over 160 million organic social media views, proving the power of implementing inventive marketing in the age of social media.

Popeyes chicken sandwich

In 2019, Popeyes’ chicken sandwich ignited — and still continues to fuel — the chicken sandwich wars in the fast-food industry, driven by viral marketing and social media trends. Popeyes’ Chief Marketing Officer at the time, Bruno Cardinali, emphasized the importance of delivering a high-quality product that lives up to the hype, since even the most compelling social media buzz cannot compensate for a product or service that’s below average. It took Popeyes three years to meticulously develop its perfect recipe.

The release of the new sandwich was timely and, combined with a dynamic social media presence, Popeyes was seeing one tweet per second during its launch period. Popeyes also ran out of sandwiches during its release, which created scarcity and drove demand. Adding to the mix was a “feud” with another huge brand, Chick-fil-A, over which establishment had the best chicken sandwich, proving competition can be healthy for brand engagement.

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5 Small Business Marketing Strategies That Actually Work

Jun 16, 2020

Running a small business is hard work, and marketing your products or services can often feel like an uphill battle. But fear not, fellow entrepreneurs, because we’ve got five small business marketing strategies that will actually get you results!

So, grab a coffee, sit back, and relax for a few minutes (you deserve it!). It’s time to get into some strategies!

1) Get Creative with Content Marketing

Content marketing is all about creating and sharing valuable content that educates, entertains, or inspires your target audience. But who says it has to be boring?

Get creative and show off your brand’s personality by incorporating humor, storytelling, or behind-the-scenes glimpses of your business into your content. You can also experiment with different formats, such as video, infographics, or podcasts, to keep things fresh and engaging.

2) Leverage the Power of Social Media

Social media is a cost-effective way to reach your target audience and build relationships with your customers. But with so many platforms out there, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. 

Try to identify and focus on the platforms that are most popular among your target audience, and experiment with different types of content, such as photos, videos, or live streams. Don’t be afraid to show off your brand’s personality and engage with your followers in a fun and lighthearted way.

3) Collaborate with Other Small Businesses

Collaborating with other small businesses can be a win-win for everyone involved. Not only can you tap into each other’s audiences and reach new customers, but you can also share resources and ideas. 

So, reach out to your fellow small business owners and see what’s up. Consider partnering up for a joint marketing campaign, hosting a co-branded event, or cross-promoting each other’s products or services on social media.

4) Create a Referral Program

Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most powerful forms of marketing out there. You can take advantage of this by encouraging your satisfied customers to spread the word about your business by creating a referral program. 

Offer incentives, such as discounts or free products, to customers who refer their friends or family to your business. You can also use social media or email marketing to promote your referral program and encourage participation.

5) Host a Giveaway or Contest

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Hosting a giveaway or contest can be a fun and effective way to attract new customers and engage with your existing ones. 

Consider putting together a prize package for a giveaway, or create a contest that encourages user-generated content, such as asking followers to share photos or videos of themselves using your product or service.

The Bottom Line

Employing small business marketing strategies doesn’t have to be a chore. By getting creative with content marketing, leveraging the power of social media, collaborating with other small businesses, creating a referral program, and hosting a giveaway or contest, you can attract new customers and build a loyal following in a fun and engaging way. Good luck!

Need a hand creating content? We’d be happy to help! Click here to see what MarketingPal.io has to offer, and get started with us today.

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8 Best Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners

Marketing is the lifeline of any business because of its various benefits. It helps you to attract and keep customers, create brand awareness, and drive growth. Many companies invest a lot of money in marketing to establish a strong market presence.

As a matter of fact, a PR Newswire study projected the global digital advertising market to reach $786.2 billion by 2026. It is a steady increase from $350 billion in 2020.

However, to succeed in your advertising campaigns, you have to use effective methods. Good enough, we have compiled the best marketing strategies for small business owners.

1. Take Advantage of Email Marketing

It is a form of marketing that involves sending email messages to your leads and customers. But you need to first attract them to subscribe to your email list. One of the best ways to do so is by creating compelling content and offering to send more to your subscribers. 

You can also offer discounts to customers who join the list. Afterward, use the channel to inform them about new products, and other services.

Undoubtedly, email marketing is an effective marketing strategy for big and small businesses. 

For example, many popular online gambling sites that are listed at legitgamblingsites.com master it. When you join the platforms, subscribe to their email lists. In return, they will send regular emails about the latest bonuses, new games, and VIP offers.

2. Embrace Social Media

Social media is a great marketplace for every business. It currently has over 4 billion active users, and the number keeps on growing every year. Taking advantage of it is one of the best decisions for your marketing campaigns. Here are some of the most popular platforms to use:

However, before joining any social media channel, first, understand your target audience. It helps you to identify the right platform to find it.

3. Use Video Marketing

Brands that want to excel understand the importance of video marketing today. It all started with the launch of YouTube in 2005. The platform provides space for posting various business videos for different audiences. 

Also, technological advancements have supported the creation of quality videos. Not forgetting the rise of smartphones that have made watching them easier too.

Without a doubt, videos are the second most popular type of content. People watch billions of them every day on various social media platforms. Your task is to draft an effective video marketing strategy for your business.

4. Start a Blog

A business blog is a top marketing channel that helps you to improve your company’s online presence. It allows you to market your business using content. This is elaborated more at bloghubspot . All you have to do is to create quality content related to your products and services. Then publish it on your blog. Blogging has many benefits, including:

• Driving conversions
• Increasing website traffic
• Encouraging engagement
• Building client trust.

According to Demand Metric, businesses with blogs receive over 67% of leads per month. They also spend 62% less on marketing costs than using traditional advertising techniques.

5. Personalization

Personalized marketing is the use of analytics to personalize customer experiences. It’s about sending the right message to the right person at the right time with the right offers. A few recent trends include personalized product recommendations and emails. 

However, you have to look for the best software to help you gather relevant customer data. Then use it to personalize their experiences. Some of the information to collect includes buying history, shopping preferences, and interests. Best of all, personalization gives a touch of humanity to your content and can drive revenue. 

6. Search Engine Optimization

Every business’s dream on the internet is to stand out above its competition. Unfortunately, you can only achieve it through search engine optimization. It improves traffic to your business website and blog by bringing the right people. There are many ways to improve your SEO, some of which include:

• Publishing authoritative content
• Using the right keywords
• Updating your content
• Using Alt tags
• Link-building

If you lack SEO skills , hire the services of a digital marketing company.  The good news is that you will find many of them with one Google search.

7. Affiliate Programs

An affiliate program is a marketing arrangement between a company and its affiliate marketers. Content creators market your business by recommending its services, and products for a commission. They include unique links to your site on their channels.

But, before starting the program, consider your profit margin. It helps you to determine the money to spend on affiliate commissions. Moreover, you should have appealing products or excellent services to succeed.

8. Referral Marketing

Another top marketing strategy for small business owners is referrals. It mainly focuses on your existing customers and not influencers. You persuade your customers to recommend your business to people they know.

You do so by making the product experience shareable. Give your current customers the best experiences with your business. This inspires them to recommend it. Remember, happy customers not only buy more but also share the good news with others. So ask them to refer your products and services to their family and friends.

Use the Best Marketing Strategies 

One of the top ways to get the most out of your marketing campaigns is by using efficient strategies. You have to examine different options and choose the best strategy for your type of business.

Interesting Related Article: “ What Is Affiliate Marketing? “

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10 Small Business Marketing Strategies That Actually Work

Every small business is unique, which means there isn’t a single magical marketing strategy that you can rely on to bring customers flocking to your company’s doors. Using multiple marketing strategies may take some extra work, but it also gives you a chance to try different methods that bring in varying results.

While one strategy might bring you an instant but temporary increase in business, another may help your company grow slowly over time. Give these small business marketing strategies a try and find what works best for driving your company’s growth.

Create an SEO-Friendly Website

Building a user-friendly business website is important for helping customers find out about the products and services you sell, and you’ll want to make sure they can find it when they search online. Putting some effort into creating an SEO-friendly website helps to get it pushed to the top of the search rankings.

Establish Buyer Personas  

Figuring out what motivates your target audience to make a purchase makes all of your other marketing strategies more effective. Do some market research to develop several personas that fit the customers that provide your company with the most revenue. Then, use these personas to develop customized marketing campaigns that address each one’s specific needs.

Post Social Media Ads

Social media advertising puts your company’s name in front of people when they are most likely to click on a link to its website. Check out the various social media platforms to determine which ones are most used by your target audience. Staying active on your company’s social media account is also a great way to get free advertising to the people who are already interested in what your business sells.

Offer Incentives and Discounts

Referral programs are a great way to use word-of-mouth advertising, which never goes out of style. Make a social media post or send out flyers that offer your current customers a discount for bringing in new business. You can also offer a promo for other milestones, such as signing up for your marketing emails, which further increases the success of those campaigns.

Generate Interest With Videos

Video marketing has become a popular trend in today’s digital landscape, but it’s important to keep your videos concise and to the point to capture viewers’ attention. Consider creating product tutorials or brief videos that highlight the significance of your company’s services.

Connect With Influencers

To expand your outreach, influencer marketing is still a powerful tool, but it’s crucial to collaborate with an influencer who has a broad following that aligns with your target audience’s demographics. You can leverage influencer marketing platforms or search hashtags and Google to identify an influencer who embodies your company’s values.

Partner With Related Businesses

Networking is also beneficial for businesses, and partnering with related companies can offer valuable marketing opportunities. Find a business in your industry that you can team up with to establish a mutually beneficial referral system, which can lead to increased exposure and growth for both companies. Additionally, you can attend relevant conferences and events to establish new connections and explore potential collaboration opportunities.

Explore Automated Marketing Platforms

Consider looking into automated marketing platforms which may require investing in new technology, but have the potential to offer a high return on investment by freeing up manpower for other tasks. By automating various tasks, such as sending reminders about abandoned carts, it becomes easier to follow up on potential sales without dedicating significant amounts of time or energy to this aspect of your marketing strategy.

Make a Physical Appearance at Local Events

Establishing your business as an expert within your industry is beneficial for generating revenue and word-of-mouth marketing. Show up to conventions, speaking engagements, local farmer’s markets, state fairs, and any other place where you can get a booth that allows you to make personal connections with a large number of people.

Focus On Community Involvement

Showing that your company cares about the community is an effective way to generate trust and buzz about what your business has to offer. Find opportunities to give back to your community and share what your company is doing on your social media. Even donating to a local school’s fundraiser can help you earn advertising spots on t-shirts and other items that put your brand in front of new potential customers.

Tracking the results of each new strategy your company implements gives you more insight into what works. Making only a few changes at a time increases the accuracy of the results, and you’ll eventually figure out which strategies capture your target audience’s interest.

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