Marketing, marketing, marketing… Good old marketing. There’s nothing as powerful to drive sales and get your business to grow yet we often flaunt it. Let’s be frank, having strong small business marketing in 2023 is a necessity for business survival. People are buying from brands they love, the creative and authentic ones.
There’s no need to break the bank to reach the paradise of business – revenue coming by the truckload. It’s all about creativity – you have to innovate in your market in a way that resonates more with your clients. We have 9 strong marketing ideas to get your innovation spark going!
1. Search Engine Optimization
SEO involves optimizing quality content with keywords that are relevant to your particular industry. This makes it easier for search engine algorithms to identify and rank your website on Google. The strategy includes on-page optimization (e.g. editing titles and meta descriptions) and off-page optimization (e.g. building backlinks from other websites).
By working on your website and backlinks, you will start appearing in search engine’s page results. For small business marketing, this is one of the favourite marketing tactic. The investment isn’t huge and it builds a marketing fortress. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll have to put in a lot of time and effort but that’s exactly why few will outrank you.
If you are looking for help, you should find a local SEO agency. For instance, check out SEO services in Houston if you are in that area. They will better understand the SEO requirements of your local brand. If you want to rank internationally then don’t limit your searches locally.
2. Email Campaigns
Email campaigns are awesome when it comes to engaging and keeping your best customers close. We always recommend having an email strategy in place for your small business marketing stack. Make sure you gather your clients email overtime and start sending them a monthly email to keep them in the loop. You won’t gain insane visibility through your emails because it’s limited to your audience but you’ll keep your clients longer.
The other side of email marketing is to set up automations. Automated emails can be sent in response to customer inquiries or website visits, as a way of providing personalized outreach. Those can create more touch points with clients to communicate with you and help you improve your product.
3. Blogging
Blogging can help you create an engaged audience that’s interested in what you sell. All you have to do is provide valuable content drawing people in and demonstrating your expertise. Creating a blog is easy, and there are many online platforms that make it simple and inexpensive.
Once you have a blog set up, post regularly about topics related to your industry. Discuss trends, provide tips, advice, reviews, and other interesting insights you gain. As part of your small business marketing strategy, we recommend optimizing your content for SEO in order to rank on search engines. Just make sure to select the right keywords to connect with more potential customers.
4. Social Media
Social media is a really powerful small business marketing tactic to increase the awareness around your company. With well-crafted posts, brands can engage customers and attract more potential customers without insane resources.
By leveraging social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, you can gain exposure, credibility and popularity. Competition is fierce on social media which is why you’ll need a solid strategy and innovative content to stand out.
5. Paid Advertising
Paid advertising is a great way for small businesses to reach their target audience. Online campaigns are cost-effective and don’t require as much resources as other traditional forms of marketing. With paid media, you can reach thousands of people for only a few dollars.
You need to elaborate your marketing angle, select the right channels and design your ads. Launching your campaigns is probably just the tip of the iceberg. The work behind making your campaigns work could be quite tedious. You need to refine your audience, improve your tracking and constantly improve your creatives strategy. At K6 Agency, we’ve helped over 160+ brands grow through paid advertising.
6. Influencer Marketing
The goal of influencer marketing is to leverage other people’s audience to drive sales for your brand. As you can understand, you often need to either pay them or find other win win scenarios. The most important aspect of influencer marketing is finding influencers who have the right audience. Doing proper due diligence is tough and requires thorough experience to work well.
The process is quite simple – define your audience, select influencers and reach out. Even if you have the right audience and found the top 5 influencers you’d like to work with, they might not answer. Sometimes, no matter what you do, they decide to not answer. It’s why working with an influencer agency is a good idea if you can afford them as they already have contacts.
7. Offline Promotion
While the online world is all the hype, you can create promotional materials like brochures and flyers containing information about your most recent sale. If you need help making the design, an online flyer maker is a helpful tool to speed up the design process.
Your promotional flyers should focus on one sale at a time and explain clearly what you have to offer. You can place them in local businesses, community centers or any other place where people are used to seeing them. If you’re not afraid of rejection, you could also do some door-to-door sales.
In addition to brochures, you can also attend local events like craft fairs or farmer’s market. They are great places to connect with your community and integrate your brand in their lifestyle. You’ll just have to prepare a booth, brochures and bring on some energy to connect with others. You can also do radio advertising or magazine advertising. Remember, not everyone is online to see your ads.
8. Local Partnerships
Partnering with local businesses can help cement your position in your community. You can exchange clients, cross-promote services and help each other in moments of need. For example, a restaurant can partner with a nearby theater or grocery store to offer special deals when customers purchase tickets or items from either establishments.
You can also partner with local non-profit organizations or charities (e.g. through fundraisers and volunteering opportunities). Giving back to your community will always come back tenfold for your business. We also recommend sponsoring local events to invest even more in your local area.
9. Networking Events
When it comes to networking events, you have to be ready to talk to people and exchange business cards. The goal is to connect, meet people and have fun. Don’t pressure yourself to be someone you’re not and reward yourself for getting out there. You might not always end up with new contracts but interesting conversations count as well.
We also recommend doing proper research and planning before going to the event:
- What kind of venue will this be?
- How many people will be there?
- In which industry are they working in?
- Why are people attending this event?
Doing this work will allow you to know what you’re doing and better use your time. You should also have your elevator pitch ready although there’s no need to act like a robot. Have fun with it and take the time to listen to what others are doing as well.
What is your small business marketing strategy?
These 9 small business marketing ideas will help you grow brand if you invest enough time and resources into them. We recommend focusing otherwise you won’t find success. You have to imagine that everyone is trying to get traffic to their website and only the best will succeed. To be the best, you must put all your chances on your side and it often means putting all the time, resource energy you can. If you need help with your small business marketing, don’t hesitate to reach out to K6 Agency.