It can’t be business with marketing and you won’t make it without real and effective marketing strategies. Due to their nature, small businesses often are running on zero or minimal marketing budgets hence the need for killer marketing strategies with higher ROI.
Marketing strategies are critical for meeting the company’s sales goals and branding initiatives as per the marketing plan. We going to be looking at the strategies that your small business may adopt for success.
1. Know Your Customer
There is no such thing as everyone is your customer. It is important for the business to research and establish who their customers or clientele is such that their marketing plan will be tailor made and suited to the targeted customers.
The marketing plan and initiatives need to be specific to address the niche or specific customers. The business needs to know this information in order to come up with an effective marketing strategy:
- Who are the customers?
- What are their demographics?
- How old are they?
- Where or how do they shop?
- What other competing products or services are they currently buying from?
- What are their preferences?
Getting all this information will help the business craft effective marketing strategies that will help the business convert or sell to these customers.
2. Build A Formidable Brand
Your brand is one of the most important asset of your business and contributes a lot to the success of your organization and helps in supporting your marketing and advertising activities.
Your brand is your identity, makes your business memorable and helps in boosting or supporting your employee’s pride. Your brand encompasses your logo, brand colours, company name, taglines, mission, vision, values etc. and a significant amount of time should be spend in building and maintaining the brand.
A good brand makes the marketing easier and more effective as the saying says, ‘a good name sells’. A good brand will also create customer loyalty and help in bringing more clients mainly through referrals and recommendations.
As a small business, you should neglect brand building at your own peril and your marketing strategy should be in sync with your brand.
3. Build Strong Online Presence
We are leaving in the digital age with most of the business now being done online, so why should your business not have an online presence?
First and foremost, your business need to have a website which is basically your online company profile. Even as a small business, get a professional web designer to design a mobile responsive, fast, SEO – optimized and informative website about your business. It will help people discover about your business when they search it. The website can also help show case some of your products and services and even help in lead generation process.
Social media is a must for all business, as this is where your customers and potential clients are spending most of their time hence a low hanging fruit for your marketing activities. Build your social media following by creating content and engaging with your customers on social media.
4. List On Google My Business
If your business is not listed on Google My Business, then you obviously missing out on a great deal. Creating a business profile and listing on Google My Business is totally free and comes with many benefits such as a free sub-domain, and can improve local SEO; making it people to see your business when they search for products or services near them or on certain locations. It also allows people to review your business, which in turn the reviews can help boost your sales.
Every small business must be listed on Google My Business and it comes with a clean listing template that shows information such as operation times, your website, reviews, service offering, location, address and contact details. What more do you need?
5. Content Marketing
As a small business, you can embrace content marketing as part of your marketing strategies. Content marketing basically entails creation & distribution of relevant and useful content inform of blogs, infographics, newsletters, videos, case studies etc.
Content marketing helps in attracting, engaging and retaining your audience with the hope of turning them into customers. It helps establish yourself or your brand as an expert and helps set your business apart from your competitors.
6. Paid Advertising (Online & Offline)
Advertising comes with many advantages and is a critical component of marketing strategies. The advertising can be offline using fliers, pamphlets, banners, promotional t-shirts, branded cars, signage, billboards, newspaper & magazine adverts, etc. The can also be online that encompasses social media advertising, search engine marketing, online directories. Online advertising comes with many advantages as it is cost effective, having a targeted and global reach, measurable results and data, flexible etc.
Businesses do not advertise because they are big, they are big because they advertise. Make every effort to be always advertising your business as it is one surest way in making sure you meet your marketing and sales goals.
7. Promotions & Discounts
Though different they are related and effective marketing strategies. Promotions entail a wide range of marketing and sales tactics to convert potential customers into buyers whilst discounts refer to the reduction of prices and actual sale of the products.
These are effective marketing strategies that can significantly lead to increased sales but they don’t have to be overdone or random as they often result in losses for small business. Promotions can be in many ways such as loyalty cards, giving out some free offers, flash sales and many more.
8. Connect With Other Local Businesses
Being a small business is not an easy game and you can’t do it on your own. It is important that you also connect with other small businesses in your industry, niche and other niches. This help you in broadening your market and likely will result in increased sales through collaborations, sales exchanges, etc.
You can connect with other businesses through social media, online and offline business communities, networking, events and creating your own groups and communities.
