Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
One of the things that I hear many small businesses struggle with is their own marketing. As a small business, you’re looking for affordable ways to promote your business. Luckily, with a bit of creativity and the use of the Internet, you can find several cost-effective marketing channels that may work very well for your business.
This article will show you some of the best, affordable ways to promote your small business, as well as, give you guidance on how to best utilise each method. Get your notepad out!
First things first
Before we even get to the marketing techniques that I’d like to share with you in this article, there are a few things you need to address first.
- You need to define whether you are a local, national or international business. This will have an effect on the marketing techniques you need to use to get the best results.
- You need to define your marketing funnel and by that, I mean figuring out what is the general problem your business is solving and then narrow it down to the specifics so you know how to communicate with the different people in your marketing funnel. So for example, at the top of my funnel, it’ll be anyone looking for business coaching. Somewhere in the middle of my funnel, you’ll find people who identify their companies as small businesses, as this is primarily my target audience. The people who will come all the way down to the bottom of my marketing funnel and are more likely to convert are those business owners who are fed up with trying to figure it out on their own, who are looking to grow their businesses with proven strategies and want to do it fast to enjoy the life they’ve dreamt about. See how the motivation and emotions of all those in my marketing funnel change as you move down? My communication has to reflect that. I go into more details on these strategies in my article titled “How to add strategy into your marketing and turn leads into customers?”
- Once you know the types of people you’ll be targeting, you need to know where to find them. Where do they hang out in real life or online? Will you find your ideal client at a networking event, or do you need to expose your business in other physical or virtual places?
6 inexpensive ways to market your small business
Now that we have the above covered, we can get into the main part of this article. These are the six inexpensive ways to market your small business. Some of those will seem like a large investment at first. However, because some produce results over and over again, and over a long period of time, I consider them more affordable and hence why they are included in my list. Here they are...
Website SEO
Your website is your online business card and it’s essential in the times that we live in. Your website will get crawled by Google and over time will gain credibility, allowing it to show up higher and higher on the search results pages. Of course, this does not happen without any efforts. Investing some time and money into search engine optimisation (SEO) will help to bring your website higher and ultimately drive traffic to it.
It’s important to keep your website content fresh and updated. You can add blog posts that answer the questions of your target market and put together a list of FAQs. Answering some of the frequently asked questions allows you to show up in the structured snippets on Google, which are the short questions and answers you see when you are looking for an answer to a specific question.
Will this get me leads?
Yes, SEO does bring leads to your business but you do need to give it time. It’s a good strategy to invest in as it builds a good foundation for any other marketing strategy you decide to go for.
Cost?
Depending on how you decide to do it, there will be costs involved however, it is a good investment as the world is becoming more and more digital.
Google My Business
Optimising your GMB account is a method particularly important for all those businesses with physical premises where customers come to purchase your product or service. However, even if you’re an online business you should consider establishing a Google My Business account. Listing your business on one of the most widely used search engines not only boosts your SEO but also allows you to take up more space on the results pages which means people searching for the solutions you provide will be exposed to your business more, increasing the chance of them using your service or buying your product. Try and optimise your GMB account so that the information you put there is correct and make sure you are using the right categories. This helps you get more leads. It’s been proven businesses that frequently add images to their GMB profiles get more leads. So it’s worth updating your profile, just like any social media, at least once a week.
Will this get me leads?
Yes, people who already search for what you provide are warmed up leads. They are ready to pay for whatever they are looking for. Therefore GMB is a great way to display your business and get leads.
Cost?
Free
Collaborate, Partner Up, Sponsor
Any collaboration or partnership with another business in your industry will get you exposed to a wider audience. It is worth searching and seeking out these strategic collaborations where it’s a win-win for you and the business you’re joining up with. It works on a principle of synergy where 2+2=5.
Sponsoring an event or a prize for an event that is relevant to your business can equally work very well as a marketing technique. It will expose you to a large group of people that most likely share some of the values you hold in your business, making them a potential customer to you. With the Internet and social media, these partnerships or sponsorships can be done virtually as well, meaning a business that doesn’t just operate in the local area can benefit from this, too.
Will this get me leads?
If planned well, you can definitely capture a few leads out of the increased exposure to your target market. Think about what you could offer these new potential customers to warm them up further. Can you offer them something for free or give them an exclusive discount code for your product or service? Don’t rely purely on the exposure, go a step further and have a sales funnel that works for this setting.
Cost?
There are some costs involved but it can definitely be a cost-effective way to get more leads.
Social Media
Showing up on social media platforms that are being used by your target audience is another free way of promoting your business. Some of the best ways to utilise the platforms is to post content that adds value, inspires or entertains your audience. For example, the way I utilise my Facebook account is by doing three Facebook Live videos per week with useful tips for business owners to help them grow their businesses. Apart from that I also share a lot of other content as I believe the more positive you give out there, the more positive comes back to you. Another great tip for Facebook is to make use of various groups and share your content in those groups where some of your potential customers might be hiding.
Will this get me leads?
Social media is primarily meant to be social. If you stick to the 80/20 rule, whereby you post 80% of valuable content and 20% of the content that is more about the products or services you offer, you’re more likely to be successful on those platforms. Social media is a way of warming up leads, creating authority and showing up as the expert in your field.
Cost?
Free
Email newsletters
Email marketing is a method used a little bit lower down your marketing funnel. The people in your email database will be those who already have shown interest in your business or already bought from you in the past. This is a great way to re-market and upsell to them any of your new offers as you already know they are interested. It also works well as it moves your current customer up the loyalty ladder, which makes them more likely to refer your business to other people.
Will this get me leads?
Email marketing does not only work with previous customers. You can simply offer your target audience a free resource in exchange for their email address - something that is valuable to them. This way you can capture new leads and warm them up with more emails over time. A great way to do this is by segmenting your email list so that you can send relevant emails to each group.
Cost?
There are many ways to approach it but usually, email marketing tools, such as Mailchimp, offer a free account. The larger your email list, or the more functionality you want to use, the higher the price.
Customer Referral Programs
Just like email marketing, having a customer referral program lets you advance your customers on the ladder of loyalty. By offering them an incentive you are asking them to become an advocate of your business and refer your services or products to the people they know. This is a great way of marketing your business, as word of mouth is still one of the strongest and most effective ways to promote your business.
Will this get me leads?
Yes, your previous customers are likely to know people who need the solution you provide and with an attractive incentive, they will bring them to your business.
Cost?
The only cost to you is whatever you may lose out by offering your previous customers any discounts or freebies. However, these costs are offset with the sale you make with the new referred client.
In a nutshell
There are several inexpensive marketing techniques that small businesses can use to their advantage. If your budget is tight, the best way is to spend some time testing a couple, seeing what works and if needed picking another method to test out. Over time you’ll find the techniques that resonate with your target audience and suit your business model. However, do remember that time is money, too. Sometimes, increasing your budget and hiring an expert can bring tangible results faster, which effectively saves you time and money.