Marketing for Small Business - Essentials & The Extra Mile

Word of mouth is still the lifeblood of the small business - that hasn't changed in hundreds of years. What has changed is that a referral from a friend, neighbour or colleague is no longer enough to keep new sales leads coming in. You should expect that potential customers will first check you out online, and if your presence doesn't stack-up, you won't even know you lost out on a sale.

What are the must-haves for any small business?

It doesn't matter if you are a local business with a small team, a one-person consultancy, or a freelancer doing a side-hustle, you can be pretty sure your inbound sales leads will increase with these foundations. So grab a coffee and settle in, as this is a fairly detailed article :)

Website

Creating a website not only builds trust and credibility that you are an established business, but can also be the primary tool your potential customers will use to get in touch with you.

Building a website does not need to be an expensive affair. You can either build something basic to get you started using WordPress, Wix, etc., or source a web designer at a reasonable price from freelancer websites like UpWork.com.

Social proof should be one of the most important elements on your site - real testimonials, case studies, photos or videos that back up the quality of what you provide. Build this information gathering into your business process; every time you are at the high point of your relationship with your client, ask them for a testimonial (text is great, video is worth it's weight in gold). For an architect, the high point might be after you deliver the first draft of the plans, or for an accountant it might be when you complete an audit.

Unless you are selling products online, the contact page will likely be one of the most important pages on your site. Many websites only offer one method of getting in touch: a contact form. Don't make this mistake. Include your email address, office location, phone number, and links to your social media & review profiles.

Phone Number

Speaking of phone numbers, if you want to present an image of being a trusted, established business, then using your mobile number can send the wrong message.

What type of number should I use?

Local number

There is inherent trust in hiring a local business. The customer's perception is that they are more likely to be treated with more respect and deliver on what was promised. Having a local number for a specific county/city often increases the number of calls you get.

The reality is that your business does not need to have an office in a locality to have a local number (and the benefits it brings). In fact, you can have several local numbers, giving the perception of multiple office locations, and have all the calls routed to a single app. More on that later...

International number

If you have clients in different countries than where you live, or you want to break into a new market, having a phone number in those countries can give the impression that you have an established presence there. Think Global, stay local.

You live in one country, but your customer base is somewhere else. Or you want to break into a new market without the expense of setting up overseas. Having an overseas phone number can give the impression that you have an established presence anywhere in the world. Think Global, stay local.

Freephone (Toll-Free) number

Allow your customers to contact you for free at any time and expand your reach with a toll-free number. Project the image of a larger business with offices across the country, while working from your home office.

Vanity number

Vanity numbers are a great choice if you operate in the US market and want to create a memorable phone number for your business. Vanity numbers can be used to make your brand stand out in the crowd by creating numbers like 1-888-COOKIES.

Excellent for business cards, advertisements and your website. Make your company look more established and recognizable.

OK, so how do I go about getting these magical numbers?

You can mix, match and combine any of these types of phone numbers, and all within a single app! It's not just calls either, you can send SMS or MMS messages also. The app can be used on any platform, or even on your laptop.

Here's two small business friendly solutions:

• If you are looking for phone numbers in Ireland, the UK, or anywhere in Europe: https://www.ereceptionist.co.uk/
• If you are looking for phone numbers in USA or Canada: https://www.line2.com/

How else can I appear professional with my phone?

The above apps have some pretty advanced features built in. Things you'd normally only get from enterprise-level phone systems. Here's just a sample of the features:

• Call Forwarding - really useful when you have multiple employees. All the phones can ring simultaneously, or in sequence if the call is not answered.
• Voicemail - ok, not exactly mind blowing, but how about getting a transcription of your voicemails emailed to you, so you never miss a sales lead?
• Auto-attendant - like a virtual receptionist that works 24 hours a day :)

Welcome to Acme Accountants. Dial 1 for support, Dial 2 for sales, Dial 3 for new customers, or Dial 4 to leave a voicemail.

• Call scheduling - do you draw a line between your work and personal life? Send all your calls to voicemail or forward them during non-business hours.
• Call recording - now we're getting serious. Not only great for training new staff, but also for going back over calls to make sure you don't miss a detail.
• Live Receptionist - if you want to go a step above having an auto-attendant, how about having a real person answer and direct your calls? It's like having your own personal assistant without hiring an employee (note: this is only available with https://www.ereceptionist.co.uk/).

Location

Many startups, consultants or small businesses work from home. But how do you portray being an established business when your address is quite obviously in an apartment or housing estate? The answer is with a virtual address.

Much like being able to choose a local phone number in any county or city, you can sign up to a virtual address in almost any city in the world. It works like this:

• You are supplied with an address in a central business location of the city.
• You can list this address on your website, in directories, or even with Google My Business (more on that below).
• You can have mail sent to that address, but you don't ever need to pick it up. Your mail is opened, scanned, and emailed directly to you.

Google My Business

You know those listings that appear in the Google search results for businesses?

As a business owner, you can create and manage these listings at https://www.google.com/business/

You can add your website, phone number, address, and opening hours. You can also add photos of your office (if you have one), staff members, or products/services you offer.

It is possible to create a Google My Business listing and have it not display an address (select the I deliver goods and services to my customers option), however this is where your virtual business address can help if you want to build credibility and display a city address.

There are three big benefits of having a Google My Business listing:

1. When someone searches for your company name, your listing will appear at the top of the search results page.
2. When someone searches for a product/service that you provide, in the area your business address is located, you have a chance of appearing also.
3. You can gather customer reviews, which will build trust and increase your sales leads. More on that later.

Social Media

Although your brand will likely be talked about on social media, no matter if you have a business profile there or not, only get involved in social media if you can commit to the following:

• Respond to customer private/direct messages, and reviews of your business within 24 hours.
• Create posts on a regular basis (how often will depend on the industry you are in).
• Put advertising budget behind every post you make. The days of organic reach are dead. If you want anyone to see your posts (yes, even your existing fans/followers), you need to pay to play. Most of the platforms have ad managers that are very easy to use now, so you should be able to handle it yourself.
• Get snappy with the camera. Social media is... well... social. That means people. Which means photos of yourself, your staff, what you are working on, product launches, etc. Video drives the most engagement, followed by images, and text posts often fall flat on their face. We are visual creatures, so keep it visual!

If you do decide to delve into the world of social media for business, it's best to start with one platform (the one that most of your customers use, which may be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat or TikTok), and only consider taking on more platforms when you are getting definite results from the first one.

Online Reviews

I mentioned Google My Business above, which is probably the best starting place to start gathering reviews. There are other review platforms that may be relevant for your business also - for example; Trip Advisor, TrustPilot, Capterra, Yelp, G2 Crowd, etc.

Don't set up profiles on every review site you find - concentrate on one to start. What I have learned over the years is that when unhappy customers want to complain, they will go the extra mile and search for places to leave a negative review. However, happy customers will rarely leave a review unless you prompt them to do so. You can prompt them on a phone call, or via an email campaign, and send them to that one review site you have selected.

Respond to all reviews as quickly as possible.

When potential customers are researching your company, if they see you responding quickly to positive and negative reviews, and treating your customers with respect, it will communicate that you have excellent customer support and help remove any trust barriers.

Directory listings

Google My Business isn't the only place your can list your business and contact information for free.

There are lots of directories out there - some are regional (like the Golden Pages here in Ireland), and some are industry specific (like a listing of driving instructors / accountants / real estate agents / etc.).

Being included in these directories builds credibility, drive enquiries and generates traffic to your website.

How do I go the extra mile and build on these foundations?

After you've nailed the basics above (which may take months to get up and running), you can start building on your foundations. None of these items are rocket science, however, the effort you put in here will pay dividends for growing your business.

I've listed the items below in order of priority for most small businesses.

Email marketing

As your database of customers and sales leads keeps growing, manually emailing each one using Gmail/Outlook just won't cut it. You need email marketing software for your newsletters, campaigns and automated communications.

These days, all of the pain has been taken out of email marketing software. No more messing about with html and clunky reporting. It's all simple to use - create your emails using a drag and drop builder, personalise your emails in seconds, add contact forms to your website, and even setup automated emails super-easy.

What is email automation?

Automation allows you to build unique paths your customers will take with your business. Here's some examples:

1. Welcome new subscribers with automated welcome emails, then build multistep welcome and nurturing emails that guide them through those crucial early days.
2. Nurture your subscribers and prospects into buyers. Get the conversation started and keep it going easily. Easily define rules that put customers on their own unique paths.
3. Send automated reminders and anniversary emails. Make those special days even more special by automating personalized messages that trigger on specific dates.

There are so many email marketing softwares - which one is right for me?

If you are new to email marketing and don't want a steep learning curve, I can highly recommend https://www.icontact.com/

If you're familiar with email marketing, and looking for something a little more advanced, how about a full featured email software that also allows you to send SMS campaigns? Check out https://www.campaigner.com/

Online Advertising

I mentioned in the social media section of this article that you should be spending budget to promote every posts you make on your social media pages. The ad managers for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are very straightforward and easy to understand.

Google search ads

An advertising platform that isn't as easy to get to grips with, but can often yield the best results, is Google search ads. The reason search ads normally perform better is due to the state of mind.

• If you present an advert to someone while they are browsing on Facebook, you are largely guessing that they might be interested in your offering, based on interests or behaviour. Even if they in the market for something you sell, they are primarily using Facebook to catch up with friends and influencers, and not in a buying state of mind.
• In contrast, when someone is actively searching for a product or service on Google, they are very much in the buying state of mind. They might be only in the early stages of research, or they might be ready to proceed with a sale, but no matter where they are in the marketing funnel, they are far more likely to convert from a search ad than a Facebook ad.

If you want to dip your toe into search engine advertising, it's a good idea to hire an agency to set up a campaign to assess if it is a good fit for your business. It's important to note that it will likely be an expensive venture at first, but becomes more profitable over time, as the campaigns are optimised. You can attempt to set it up yourself, but be prepared for a steep learning curve and lots of hours of investment to get up to speed.

Retargeting

An important type of advertising to set up is retargeting. Your website will track visitors that do not convert (make a purchase or contact you) and send this information to Google Ads or Social Media platforms. You can then show ads only to these people. They are far more likely to convert as they obviously already know about your brand, and have visited your website to check you out.

You can also do more advanced things with targeting, like increasing your search ad bids for people that have visited your website, but I'll jump over that rabbit hole for now, instead of diving in!

Landing pages

A landing page is a web page that is totally separate to your website, but can look similar. They exist for just one purpose: to convert visitors to leads/customers. Landing pages should take cues from the design and branding of your website, but as they are targeted at only conversion, you don't need to include links to pages on your website or menus.

The most effective landing pages take the visitor on a journey to sell them on your offering both emotionally and rationally, and guide them to a single action (to convert). Don't smother them with options, or confuse them with details they don't need.

Landing pages go hand in hand with online advertising, as most of your ads will convert better if you direct them to landing pages instead of your website. The problem with linking your ads to your website is that visitors can get distracted, lost or overwhelmed by all the information - you want to keep their mind focused and the journey obvious.

Landing pages also work really well with email marketing, which is why both https://www.icontact.com/ and https://www.campaigner.com/ include landing page builders with the same drag & drop ease of use, so no need to buy separate software for that or learn a whole new interface.

Video

Mark Zuckerberg announced 5 years ago that Facebook was to become a video-first platform. Since then, video has grown massively on the platform, and it's now on par with YouTube in terms of video views (although people tend to watch for longer on YouTube).

Video has already taken over, but many small businesses either haven't noticed, are too afraid to get in front of the camera, or think it's too complicated to get involved in. The fact that so few small businesses are investing in video is a huge opportunity, as you have a better chance of getting viewers without having to spend a lot on advertising.

Getting in front of a camera can be daunting at first, but it helps your potential & existing customers peek behind the curtain of your business. It shows there are real people working, and that you are passionate about your customers. This not only helps build trust to onboard new customers, but also helps to retain your customers for longer.

You don't need to be a video editing wizard to get started with video either - you can get to the fancy stuff later. Some tips to get your started:

• Start off with taking a video in a single shot - it can be as simple as a few minutes talking to the camera, talking about your latest project, or something going on in your industry.
• Make a few bullet points you want to cover, and don't read off a script.
• Where do you want to upload this video? This will dictate if you should record it in landscape (for YouTube) or portrait orientation (social media).
• You will have to record it a few times before you get it right. Even if you think you nailed it on the first take, record it again and I guarantee it will be better.

Here's a great example of an Irish marketer that creates great, informative, short videos on a regular basis (Amanda Webb from SpiderWorking.com):

Gold Dust - Video Reviews

One way to really get the most from video is to ask your customers to give you a video review. It's generally hard to convince your customers to take part, but well worth the effort. You might think that hiring a videographer to visit the customer's office would result in the most professional result, and while that is true (and sometimes the best option for longer case study videos), asking your customers to record a video on their own smartphone can result in a more authentic and convincing video.

If you do look at asking your customers to film the video on their smartphone, give them some guidelines, so you don't end up with a shakey, unusable video:

• Film in a quiet location
• Place your camera on a desk or holder (don't hold it in your hand)
• Face a window so that your face is not in shadow
• Touch on these topics (give them some items you'd like them to mention)

Blogging

Now that you have your website in place (during the foundations), you can add on a blog to it, to help with appearing in search engines, and providing a place to drive traffic to from your social media posts and email marketing campaigns. It will also allow you to retarget visitors with ads later on.

My advice when writing blog posts is not to focus on optimising for search engines (SEO), but to instead focus on the user. They go hand-in-hand anyway, as you won't rank on search engines if visitors are not engaging with your blog content. So forget about SEO and think about How do I create an article that genuinely helps the reader?

Does it offer some sort of value or learning that the reader can take away and improve their life with?

While you need to stay focused on creating value for the reader, blog content should not be a dead-end. The objective should be to put the reader on a path to eventually becoming a customer. Within the article, include a link to your product/services to catch the reader's curiosity. Give a strong single action you want them to take after reading the article - that might be to signup for a newsletter, download a case study, etc.

Podcasting

Podcasting is not an area to dip your toe into. If you want to get involved in podcasts, you need to commit to a season. For example, one episode per week for 10 weeks. You'll likely need to invest a little in recording equipment also - even if you are recording it on your smartphone, you'll need a good microphone. Excellent audio quality is demanded by users, and no matter how interesting the topic may be, if the clarity and volume is not up to par, your chances of success are low.

Podcasts have exploded in the last few years, which means there are more listeners than ever, but far more competition. The content of your podcast will need to have something unique to pull listeners in. You'll also need to have a plan in place for how to promote your podcast, and a budget assigned.

Identifying Companies that visit your Website

This one is for the B2B (business to business) companies. You might have enquiry forms, contact information, newsletter signups and all sorts of ways to gather customer information on your website, but one thing is for certain; most visitors will not complete these. There are lots of reasons why this might have happened - they were not convinced you were the right provider, they are just researching options and not ready to commit, they were too busy to take the next steps, etc.

All is not lost however. You can identify what businesses visit your website, even if they don't contact you. It's called IP Address Tracking software. Every visitor on your website has an IP Address associated with their internet connection, and the software matches those IP's against their database of companies.

Some things you need to know about IP Address Tracking:

• It can be show you which competitors are checking out your website.
• You can't identify connections from residential addresses.
• You won't know what exact person in the company was on your site, so it will require legwork.

For example, if your business sells corporate gifts, and you see that someone from Coca-Cola was on your website, you'll need to dig through Linkedin and find the most likely person who was on your website (eg. Procurement Manager), then it's up to you how you get in touch - phone, email, LinkedIn InMail, etc.

You can set up alerts to send daily emails to your salesperson/team with a list of companies that have visited your website in the last 24 hours, or even mark a specific company as VIP, so you get an instant alert when they visit your site.

One thing to bear in mind is that Covid has played havok with this type of tracking over the last 15 months, as lots of employees are remote working, and using their home broadband connections, which can not be tracked. This may be a short term issue, as things start to return to normality and more employees return to their offices.

No pain, no gain.

IP Address Tracking is not like flicking a switch and watching the leads come in, it requires an investment of time. For those in the B2B industry, especially businesses with high value sales, this can be an excellent way to pick up customers that you never knew were even checking you out.

Personally, I've used https://a1webstats.com/ in the past and found them reasonably priced and with great customer support.

Round up

If you are running a small business, consultancy, or working on the side to supplement your wage, my advice would be to start with the foundations before dabbling in the items mentioned in the second half of this article.

Stay focused. Stay optimistic. Stay genuine. And you will grow your business.

Cavaet: I work with many of the brands listed above, however, they are fantastic options!