So, you’ve got your million-dollar idea sorted out.
You’ve got your primary branding in place.
It’s time to attract customers to your business.
You could be offering all of the products and services in the entire world, but failing to attract the right target audience will send your efforts down the drain.
This is precisely why you need to ace your marketing strategy.
So, here are eleven small business marketing strategies that’ll help you draw your desired target audience:
1. Establish A Clear Identity Through Branding
Building your identity is a vital part of conducting business.
You need to communicate the right message to your audience when marketing a small business.
Essentially, you need to ensure you know what your company does and what it stands for.
Once this is sorted out, you need the right business name (or domain name).
Then, there’s also the logo, imagery, and colors to convey your brand identity to your customers.
If you’re worrying too much about this step, don’t be.
You can always get someone on board who will help you create your brand identity.
While this is a small business marketing idea that’s definitely an investment, it’s also one that’s worth it.
Simply think about how brands – such as Apple and KFC – have managed to create identities that have lasted decades. Remember to check out MoneyBrighter for your LLC tips.
Once your logo is finalized, it needs to go up on all of your branding material.
This includes advertising, email signatures, business cards, and envelopes.
Doing so reiterates that identity, builds brand visibility, and boosts awareness.
Build upon this marketing tip for a small business even further by establishing your branding enough to ensure it’s recognizable even without the logo.
2. Understand Your Small Business And Target Audience Before Launching Marketing Campaigns
Businesses are always trying to target customers with the right small business marketing ideas.
However, many brands make the mistake of believing that one strategy will be sufficient to target its customers.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions you can make since every business – and every customer – is different.
Small business marketing strategies need to be created according to that.
Before you determine which elements should go into your marketing strategy, you need to devote time to your target audience.
Keep the following essential demographics in mind to help identify and target your audience:
- Where they live
- Age
- Gender
- Purchase habits (where and how they spend)
Having these details sorted out will help you develop a more refined SMB marketing strategy that will start yielding results for you in no time.
3. Marketing a Small Business? Take Advantage of Facebook Ads!
Facebook ads are perhaps the most effective ways to target a certain demographic.
Using Facebook as a marketing tool for a small business helps you focus on factors and online habits that help you refine your target audience.
These can include items such as gender, location, age, and interests.
The tool is quite user-friendly and reasonable in terms of money.
Therefore, Facebook ad targeting is ideal for reaching a large number of customers in a short period.
4. Create A Top-Notch Website
Nothing turns potential customers away more than a site that’s poorly designed.
Think about it: You spend a considerable amount of money trying to bring your target audience to your website.
They get there, but only for them to come across a website that isn’t user-friendly, like it’s slow and difficult to navigate.
As a result, all your efforts go down the drain.
An error such as this is an easy one to make, but just as easily avoided.
Having a fast and user-friendly site is one of the most essential marketing tips for a small business.
Additionally, you need to ensure your target audience can reach your website easily.
This comes down to locking down your domain name.
Additionally, make sure to acquire other, related domain names so people don’t get confused.
You can always use an online domain name generator to help you out with this part.
5. Publishing Videos is an Increasingly Popular Small Business Marketing Idea
Nothing draws traffic more than visual content.
Video is considered the future of content marketing simply because it offers engagement like no other.
Unlike text-based content, video content is easier for customers to recall and remember.
This results in more sales and leads for your business.
Seems like a pretty great marketing idea for a small business, eh?
To make the most of your video ads or other video content, ensure it’s reiterating your brand message by using the same fonts and color themes you use for other content.
6. Take Advantage Of Email Marketing for Your SMB
Emails have also proven to be quite advantageous as an SMB marketing tactic.
With an excellent email marketing service, you can reach a large number of customers instantly.
There are many ways to find prospects’ email addresses.
Once you do that, you can provide them with engaging and valuable content that’ll encourage them to open your emails instead of sending them to the junk or deleted folders.
Consider that email leads tend to have one of the best conversion rates as compared to other channels.
So, with a small business email marketing strategy, your aim should be to drive people from your emails to your website.
7. Don’t Forget Google My Business
Google My Business is one of the best marketing tools for small businesses that have local customers.
When people in your area conduct searches on Google for a product or service you provide, your business appears in the search results.
Potential customers will see your business profile.
Along with that, they’ll see any positive reviews left by satisfied buyers.
Then, this will build the credibility of your business as more people would be willing to buy from you.
It’s such a simple small business marketing idea, yet can give a huge boost to your visibility and legitimacy.
8. Use Articles Or Blog Posts as a Marketing Tool for a Small Business
Content marketing is at the heart of small business marketing strategies.
By publishing high-quality blog posts focusing on relevant topics, you’ll be able to attract new visitors to your website.
For starters, you should look up blog post ideas that are popular in the industry you operate in.
The content you publish will only work as a marketing tool for your small business if customers can gain something from it.
So, it’s important to create content that’ll provide new information to your visitors that can both help and entertain them.
To take your blog up a notch, you can always have another blogger with a huge following to publish a guest post on your blog.
Then, you can return the favor.
This will allow you to expand your audience and even turn their followers into yours.
9. Provide Free Samples Or Trials
If you want to increase your brand awareness, you need to give customers a taste of what’s in store for them.
Try providing product samples or demos.
This is a great marketing idea for a small business because it helps customers try out your product before they invest money in it.
It also shows that you’re confident enough about your product to let people try some of it for free.
This strategy works well for many businesses.
Whether it’s a skincare brand providing free samples at Sephora or a software house giving customers a free trial, offering something for free is an enticing deal for anyone.
10. Use Referrals to Enhance Your Small Business Marketing Strategy
There’s almost nothing more powerful in convincing a potential customer than a glowing review from someone who’s already tried your product.
To increase the number of reviews customers leave, you should provide incentives to them.
While many people do leave reviews without expecting something in return, incentives such as free products, discounts, or gifts increase the likelihood.
Referrals are even more effective when people get these recommendations directly from their friends or family members.
That’s because these are people your potential customers already trust.
Like we previously mentioned with email, referral leads also tend to have higher conversion rates than other small business marketing strategies.
So, make sure you capitalize on this aspect.
11. Create Infographics
Sometimes, as engaging as your content is, people just don’t have time to read it.
To complement a content marketing strategy for a small business, try including compelling visuals.
Infographics are one of the best ways to do this.
It’s always important to create infographics that summarize your article into an aesthetically-pleasing and engaging picture.
Infographics work even better as a marketing tool for a small business when your content includes stats.
That’s because numbers are easier to read and digest when presented in a concise form.
The biggest advantage that infographics offer when marketing a small business is their ability to be shared.
By posting your infographics on platforms such as Pinterest, you will be able to expose it to a whole new audience.
They can simply save the image and share it with their own followers.
Just remember to include your website and business details in the infographic.
What’s the Best Way to Market a Small Business?
There are many small business marketing options available for you to explore.
As such, you should always be open to trying a variety of strategies to determine what works best for your business.
The marketing ideas that work best for one small business may not work well for another.
Similarly, sometimes, it takes a combination of SMB marketing strategies instead of an isolated tactic to start generating the results you want.
As long as you’re open to trial and error, you’ll figure out what works. For instance, you might want to try guest posting about your brand on high DA blogs.
Have you tried any of these marketing tips for your small business before?
Or do you have suggestions of your own?
Sound off in the comments below!
Author bio:
Marcus Svensson is a Head of Growth at Albacross, a B2B lead generation platform, that shows you which companies visit your website. Passionate about creating value, human connection, and positive impact. You can follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
