Effective Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

If you’re a small business owner, you might not have a formal marketing department, which means you handle all the marketing yourself.

And with so many other responsibilities on your plate, you might not have the time to develop a thoughtful marketing strategy or pull the trigger on any marketing efforts at all.

When your marketing isn’t strategic, consistent or executed well, you could be missing countless opportunities to connect with your audience, project a strong brand and drive long-term business growth.

Marketing Basics

Before you can put together a successful strategy, you’ll need to answer these questions.

• Who’s your target audience? Women ages 21 to 30? Dads with kid-friendly vehicles? Busy professionals who practically live at the office?
• What are your goals? It’s important to create both long and short-term objectives that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
• How are your current efforts performing? What’s working and what isn’t? Consider why each tactic is or isn’t successful and evaluate the costs vs. the outcomes to determine ROI. That will help you decide which tactics are worth continuing and which may require a change.

6 Effective Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

#1 Social Media Marketing

A business social media page is free to create and gives you a way to interact with your customers online.

Four social media best practices:

1. Create compelling content that resonates with your audience and aligns with your brand.
2. Post often: at least once a week, but much more frequently for certain channels.
3. Promote ads that target specific demographics and reach new prospective customers around the globe.
4. Check social media analytics monthly to track your performance.

#2 Email Marketing

You can use emails to promote current deals, advertise to prospects and connect with customers after they buy from you or visit your business.

A few email best practices:

1. Build an email list of customers, former customers and prospects.
2. Segment your list into specific groups and determine the messages that would appeal to each group.
3. Create a schedule of how often you’ll send each email and define the next steps in the campaign. For example, you may determine that:
   1. If a former customer opens the new products email but doesn’t click anything, the next email they receive should be current promos.
   2. If a prospect clicks on a few items and navigates to the website, but doesn’t buy, a salesperson will reach out.
4. Track results to optimize future email marketing campaigns.

#3 Search Engine Optimization

Optimizing your website for search engines helps your site rank higher on the Search Engine Results Pages so prospects can easily find your company.

Start by conducting keyword research to catalog the words and phrases your target audience is searching for. Then, incorporate those words throughout your website.

Set a monthly or bi-monthly reminder to check how your site is performing with search engines, if new keywords are circulating and if any other website updates are needed to improve performance.

#4 Display Ads

Improve your reach with targeted display ads: image, video, text or rich media ads that display at key touchpoints online.

Prospects could see your ads when they:

• Browse a favorite website
• Use a mobile app
• Watch a YouTube video
• Check their email

You can also use re-targeting to re-engage previous website visitors with the intent of securing a sale. Research shows that people who’ve already visited your website are 70% more likely to convert than first-time visitors.

#5 Referral Programs

Encourage satisfied customers to refer your business to their friends and family.

Consider offering incentives for successful referrals, such as discounts or rewards.

#6 Community Engagement

Collaborate with other businesses in your area to promote each other’s companies.

And participate in local events to increase brand visibility and strengthen relationships within the community.

Experiencing Marketing Success

Developing successful marketing strategies requires correctly defining your audience, message, channels and goals. So, experiment with different tactics and marketing efforts based on performance so you can achieve optimal results.

If you need any help managing and/or executing your marketing campaigns, reach out to the experts at MadAve Marketing Management.

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