What strategies are you using to market your small business?
If you’re like me, you’re so busy that it’s one of those TO DO items on your list that gets bumped more often than you’d like.
I came across a post recently that offered what they felt were the 13 Best Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses. Here are my Top 5 from their list. These are marketing activities I have found I can do regularly. If you’re already doing all 5, maybe you’re ready to tackle some of the rest.
#1: Set a Goal and Budget
This really is important and understanding what you are trying to achieve with your Blog, Website, and Social Media campaigns is, I believe, at least as important as understanding your budget. Are you:
- Trying to build awareness of your brand?
- Trying to increase engagement / online conversations?
- Trying to increase online purchases?
Understanding what you are trying to achieve will influence your budget. For example, if you are using your website as an online brochure to build credibility and demonstrate expertise, your content will be different AND your budget for driving traffic will be very different. Think about this one carefully.
#2: Pay to Play
I don’t use Google AdWords. I know businesses that find them very beneficial and others that spend a lot of money without the results to show for it. I do, however, use Facebook Ads and Facebook Post Boosts. I have found this is a much more cost-effective way for me to build followers which is my initial goal. Ultimately I want to increase the number of individuals I can do business with but I am not looking for an immediate transaction. Facebook Ads and Post Boosts let you target your audience tightly and decide upfront how much you want to spend.
#3: Champion One Social Channel
I love their infographic on this one and totally agree. Everyone has their favorite social media channel and will suggest ‘that’ is the one you should be on. Do your research. Understand who you are trying to attract to your business and which social media channel they are on. The post suggests that you look at the engagement you are getting if you test more than one channel. That can be a good form of research. Remember, regardless of which social channel you use, use a strong filter and be sure your content is providing helpful information to your target audience. If your content is too focused on what YOU can do rather than answers to questions THEY have, you may not get engagement even on the channels best suited to your target demographic.
#4: Publish a Blog
I tell my clients that consistency is more important than frequency and I know small businesses that blog weekly and others that blog monthly (and everything in between). I try (and I encourage them to as well) to write something weekly. If the content is good, as I hope it is, this benefits my target audience. One of the benefits to your business as well is that you can repurpose each blog post in many ways. After you publish your Blog, share it on the social media channels you find works well for your business. You’re probably already doing this. But are you already multiplying the effect? Take each blog post and break it into 2 or 3 points you think your audience would find interesting and link it back to the full post. Why can this work for you? Even within your target audience, people will be interested in different aspects of your business. What resonates with one person and makes them immediately open your email or read your post, might interest another but not be interesting enough to have them take the time to read. When you break your post into the 3 subtopics and share each individually, you give yourself 3 times the chance to catch their attention. Try it – it works.
#5: Be Different
This is probably my passion and when I say different, I mean be authentic. If you’re a small business, you probably already know that your clients are buying YOU! Share your story. Let your values come through in your marketing messages. Statistics have shown, and I absolutely agree, that in this digital age people are hungry for genuineness. When you are different, you won’t resonate with everyone. I believe that’s okay. I would argue that when your message is vanilla, you risk not resonating with anyone. One of the calls I enjoy most is when clients call and tell me that their stories, their value messaging is the reason prospects have given them for why they chose THEM.
If you have time, I encourage you to look at all 13 strategies. Which ones resonate with you? I’d be interested to know.