7 Wise Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses
One of the challenges of being a small business owner is coming up with the best small business marketing ideas.
Moreover, you have to deal with the stiff competition with bigger companies who already own a large chunk of the market. And, to make matters even more complex, you will have to work with a tight budget.
Coming up with marketing concepts may seem like a daunting task, but remember that this is the digital age. You have more resources than you know.
Now, while you figure out your budget, you can effectively market your brand without breaking the bank. You can use the power of online marketing to level the playing field.
Small Businesses Marketing Ideas
Here are some small business marketing ideas you can use to help grow your business.
Content Marketing
You may be wondering what people mean when they say "content is king," and why it was coined in the first place. Well, it simply means creating good-quality content for your website.
Make no mistake; there is nothing simple about the power of content. You can use it to market your business effectively.
Behind every successful marketing campaign is a wealth of relevant and valuable content that connects a brand with its target audience. In fact, content plays a huge role in any local SEO campaign in making a business more visible online.
Google My Business
If you want a free, but effective, marketing strategy, then you should create a Google My Business profile. This free tool makes your business visible in the local section of Google Search and Google Maps, as well as Google Search's Side Knowledge panel.
Create your profile and make sure to optimise each section. This will help your business achieve increased exposure in relevant searches of your nearby customers.
Social Media Marketing
You can use different social media platforms to your advantage. By increasing your social media engagement, you can build a community of loyal followers. This will help you achieve better brand awareness and recognition in your local market.
Video Marketing
Videos are a great tool for marketing, which is why TV commercials are so popular. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to make one, especially small businesses. Don't worry, though. There is a way you can utilise video marketing for only a fraction of the cost.
You can create your own videos or hire someone to do it for you and then upload them on YouTube or other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram.
SEO Blogging
SEO blogging is about writing and posting blogs with the goal of optimizing for search engines. It is another proven method for improving your online visibility, driving traffic to your website, and increasing user engagement.
It's also a great way to tell relevant stories about your business and provide valuable information to your potential customers.
If you this correctly and consistently, you this can definitely propel your business at the forefront of your industry. Now, if this is not your forte, a digital marketing agency can help create great content for your blog.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a strategy that involves partnering with famous bloggers or social media influencers. After reaching an agreement or an exchange of benefits (ex. backlinks, money, or free products) with them, they will agree to talk about or endorse your products or services on their social media channels.
Over the years, influencers have quickly evolved into a scalable and effective marketing channel for small business owners. Partnering with the right blogger or influencer can absolutely boost your brand visibility online.
Though it often comes with costs, they’re significantly less than conventional marketing strategies.
Email Marketing
Email marketing remains one of the best ways to promote a product or a service. You will be surprised at how effective email blasts and newsletters still are.
If you can stand out with your email copy and provide real value, they help you get the attention of your target audience in their busy email inboxes. More importantly, you can even convert them into actual customers.
How to execute your marketing campaigns effectively
With many conventional and non-conventional marketing tactics available, you won't have a hard time finding one that best fits your budget and needs. However, it's not enough to settle on finding the right stellar small business marketing ideas. You should also know the best ways on how to execute those schemes.
Here are five steps you can take for a more successful marketing campaign:
Come up with a Comprehensive Marketing Plan
Your marketing plan is your master plan for marketing your business. It should contain all the details of your strategies and objectives, which can help you determine the ways to entice your target market in buying your products or services.
Set quantifiable goals and objectives for your campaign.
Put a concrete number on your campaign's objectives. Make them as specific and realistic as possible. Specify what exactly you are trying to achieve. For example, if you’re aiming to generate a hundred new sales leads, this will determine what kind of tool you should use to attract those prospects.
Determine what metrics you are going to use.
Metrics will help you assess your campaign’s progress. Through the right metrics, you can conclude if your campaign is worth continuing or not.
Set a realistic budget for your campaign.
You can use a wide range of free marketing tools and strategies. However, at some point, you will also need to pay for resources, such as software premium plans, memberships, or even online courses, to reach more customers.
Choose a communication channel to use in reaching your target market.
You need to know who your target market is because some communication channels are better suited for a certain demographic.
For example, if your target audience is the visually oriented younger generation, you might want to invest in your social media marketing efforts, such as Instagram, Snapchat, or Pinterest. Failing to use the right communication channel will just waste your time, effort, and budget in running your campaign.
Knowing what to do and when to do it will ensure that your marketing campaign will be executed efficiently. So, make sure to create a timeline and action plan.
After creating your marketing plan, it's now time to execute your strategies. Write the ad copy, set deadlines, and place the ads.
Don't forget to measure the success of your campaign when it's over. This will help you improve your strategies for your future marketing campaigns.
Always work with the professionals
A DIY approach to marketing may seem like a good way to cut back on costs. However, this only works if you know what you are doing—and if you’re willing to test a couple of times and then make a lot of mistakes.
If you can’t risk going through all the hassle of trial and error, then why waste time in ineffective marketing strategies?
The best solution is partnering with digital marketing professionals.
They can ensure that all your marketing campaign ideas are correctly executed for your marketing goals. By hiring the pros, you can focus on your core responsibilities, which is running your business.
At Ardor SEO, we don’t play games when it comes to digital marketing, especially outsourcing your SEO. We’re determined to help you grow, before anything else.
Whether your goal is about simply growing your search engine visibility, growing your link profile, gaining new perspectives, or reaching more prospects, we’ll help you reach it.