Top 5 Marketing Strategies for Small Business
Marketing strategies – Businesses owners are always looking for low-cost marketing opportunities. As an agency, we get asked all the time to pinpoint two or three things that an entrepreneur can do differently. Everyone has limited time and many still look for that quick fix. If you’ve followed our blog for a while you’ll know by now that there is no quick fix in business. There is lots of hard work though – sorry!
In this article, we’ll be quickly reviewing 5 of the top marketing strategies for small business. By adopting even some of these strategies, you will begin to see an improvement in your digital marketing. Looking to dig deeper? Don’t worry, we’ll be covering each in-depth throughout the summer and will update this post with direct links or just follow our blog to keep up!
So, the Top 5 Marketing Strategies for Small Business – here we go!
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Social Networking
Social networking (social media) is by far, one of the most popular marketing strategies for a small business. This strategy will be more effective for those wishing to introduce new products, boost sales and drive promotions. The main players in the social realm right now include Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but there are many, many platforms out there. Do you really need to be on them all? No!
If your only experience in social media is from personal accounts, we strongly recommend seeking professional help before you start. Business social media is different to personal profiles and requires a well-defined, working strategy for optimal benefits. Without a good strategy in place, you are prone to spending lots of time and money without seeing any returns.
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Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing is an age-old advertising / marketing strategy which is best for those wanting to promote their business but with little to no budget. This strategy requires high energy, creative ideas, planning and then efficient implementation. Guerrilla marketing focuses on ‘you’ marketing instead of ‘me’ marketing, that’s why it can have a surprisingly positive impact. It speaks directly to the heart and mind of the consumer.
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Email Marketing
Another great marketing strategy for promoting your brand or new products is email. With email marketing campaigns, businesses big and small, can easily send out promotional offers directly through emails. This is a simple and cost-effective strategy for getting a good response from customers.
Nobody likes spam and recently there’s been a number of changes in anti-spam legislation. As a result, always be sure to use a service provider like MailChimp or AWeber to run your email campaigns. This way, you will always stay compliant with anti-spam laws plus you’ll have full access to some truly awesome campaign analytics.
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Content Marketing
Content marketing is another option worth exploring especially if your business has an online aspect. Using crafted content and the power of words provides an excellent way to introduce prospects to your products and services. This strategy can amaze readers and drive interest in your content if it is creative and persuasive enough. Not everyone can write to this level however, making the task a good candidate for outsourcing.
By spending time to craft the perfect piece of content for your product or business can literally be the converting factor in success vs failure. We’ve all seen mad men and their spin doctoring antics but at our core, people are motivated by words and images. Stories sell. So why not let your content shine through? You might just be surprised by the return.
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Branding
Last but not least in our list of marketing strategies is branding. Big budget or micro budget, you still need effective branding, even if it’s the business owner themselves doing the creating. Of course, it helps if you know a good graphic designer…
A brand message is the promise made by the company to the consumer. Decide what makes your products or services better than your competition. Your advantage could be one of price, quality, location or even simple convenience. Think of anything that would make a consumer gravitate to your products over the competition. Then use proprietary colors, typeface, layouts, logos and taglines to identify your business in the mind of the consumer.
The main purpose of branding is to convey a clear message to consumers regarding the brand. Tell prospects why your services or products are much better than other competitors. Back up your claims through case studies and relatable examples. Consumers relate better to real life examples than just words on a page.
Consistency is the key when developing effective company branding.
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Final Thoughts
If you’ve ever flipped though a business marketing book or listened to a podcast you’ll be aware of a thousand different opinions, preached by ten thousand different guru’s. It’s no wonder so many small business owners are really screwed up when it comes to marketing! At the end of the day it starts and ends with you and what you really want to accomplish. If you find yourself sitting on the fence clouded by a number of ideas, it’s highly likely that’s all they will ever be.
My advice is very simple and two-fold. Sometimes you just need to unplug and step back from all the noise to clear your head. I swear if we had an empty trash button for our brains, we’d all be so much happier don’t you think? Take a weekend break, no devices, no “business” of any sort and just be you! You remember what that’s like right?
After this decompression break, choose one or two goals you really want to make happen and commit to pursuing them fully. Nothing more, nothing less. Hopefully one of the marketing strategies above will help get you started.
Thanks for reading!
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