How you market your small business can make or break its success. Creating and implementing the right marketing campaign gets the word out about your business. The more people who know your business exists, the easier it’ll be for you to haul in customers.
There are many strategies to market a small business and most of these don’t require thousands of dollars or a team of experienced professionals. Don’t believe us? We’ve listed seven marketing strategies below that work wonders for small businesses today.
Use SMS
Because it’s convenient and accessible to almost anyone in the globe, using SMS to market your small business is a must. SMS marketing is an effective way of communicating with your potential customers, as it works well with other marketing channels and boosts engagement.
Invest in SMS marketing platforms to reach out to more people in less time with minimal effort. You can integrate these platforms into your CRM so you can deliver clear and customized messages to your prospects. Using these platforms also enables you to get feedback from prospects and increase brand awareness.
Create a Website
Websites are needed in today’s ever-competitive world of business; they function as modern-day business cards. Your website is the first thing potential customers see once they search for your business online — and how it looks and functions leaves an impression.
If you’re business still doesn’t have a website, create one with these tips in mind:
Make sure it’s responsive: Your website should be responsive regardless if someone accesses it thru a desktop computer or mobile device. The content of your website should adjust automatically to the size of the screen used.
Place contact information above the fold: Your business’s contact information — physical address, email address, and phone number — should be placed on top of the homepage. This alleviates visitors from having to search for your contact details on the website.
Keep pages clean: Avoid adding too many elements to your web pages, as this will make your site look cluttered and feel unprofessional. Determine the goal you want to achieve in each web page and only include elements aligned with those goals. For example, if you want web visitors to submit their email addresses, including a CTA button and a simple form is enough.
Work With Influencers
When marketing your small business, don’t overlook the power of influencers. As more and more people become reliant on social media, influencers have become essential.
Influencers are individuals with a large following on social media. Influencers spend years gaining the trust of their followers and creating authority in a specific niche. Their followers trust (and buy) their recommendations.
Reach out to an influencer who has already built a name in a niche similar to your business. Ask them to promote your product or service in exchange for a fee, freebies, or discounts.
Publish a Blog
Blogging is one of the most effective marketing strategies for branding and exposure. Utilize blogs to demonstrate to potential customers that you’re an expert in your field and that your products and services can improve the quality of their lives.
When writing a blog, make sure you understand your audience first (who they are, what are their common pain points, etc.), so you can easily write for them. Use simple words to make it easier for your readers to understand your blog, and avoid using jargon.
Champion One Social Media Platform
Simultaneously using different social media platforms for marketing your small business doesn’t guarantee results. Keep in mind that creating a strong presence on social media requires time and effort as you need to maintain your profile. Therefore, by using too many at a time, your profile might end up stale, hurting your branding.
It’s better if you aim to champion one social media platform only. For example, if your prospects are consistently tagging your location in their Instagram posts but never engage with you on Facebook, it’s obvious to invest more time in Instagram.
Focusing on one platform at a time, you’ll have the resources to engage with your prospects, answer their queries, and post updates regularly. Over time, this will improve your branding and engage prospects to patronize your offerings. You can also manage your reputation and online brand mentions with the help of a media monitoring tool.
Share Your Knowledge
How can you position yourself as a leader in the industry? Simple — by sharing your knowledge with the general public. Taking this route will help you position your business as an expert in a specific niche while being able to engage with your prospects.
You can share your knowledge through different channels. You can host webinars, make YouTube tutorials, or speak at local conferences. You can also answer questions on online communities.
Try SEO
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a cost-effective marketing strategy because it guarantees long-term results. It’s the process of getting more web traffic from free, editorial, organic, and natural search results to improve your site’s position in the search results pages. Remember that a higher SEO rank means better online visibility.
To optimize your website for SEO, consider the following tips:
Publish high-quality content: Content is king in SEO, so prioritize posting high-quality, well-researched content on your website. Be sure to conduct keyword research to know what keywords your prospects use in searching for your website and include them in your content.
Improve your website speed: Google has launched the mobile-first index, which means that your website will rank better if it loads fast. The ideal website load time is only 1-2 seconds. If your website takes longer to load, visitors will leave.
Optimize images: You can optimize images by naming them in plain language, choosing the right file type, and using image sitemaps. Reducing the file size of your images also helps as it allows your site to load faster.
Remain Consistent
The key to successfully marketing your small business is consistency. As long as you implement the right marketing strategies consistently, you’re sure to see results.
Credit: Source link
