25 Small Business Marketing Tips and Strategies to Help You Succeed

Why do these tips and strategies work for small businesses?

If you’re a small business, then you know that it can be tough to compete against the big guys. That’s why it’s essential to use effective marketing strategies and tactics to push your business forward. This blog post will discuss 25 small business marketing tips and techniques to help you succeed! We’ll cover everything from online advertising to PR to SEO. So whether you’re just starting or you’ve been in business for a while, these tips will help you reach new heights!

Ensure your Brand Identity is Clear

1. Logo, colours, and web design that is consistent with your target market

Your business name, logo, and tagline are the first things customers will see when encountering your brand. That’s why it’s essential to make sure that these elements are clear and consistent across your marketing materials. Your business name should be easy to read and pronounce, and your logo should be simple and recognisable. Your tagline should be memorable and reflective of your brand’s identity.

Nurture Your Customers

2. Develop a customer persona
Before you can start marketing to your target audience, you need to develop a customer persona. A customer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and data about your existing customers. Once you have set your customer persona, you can create marketing campaigns tailored to their needs and interests.

3. Develop a relationship with your customers
It’s essential to nurture the relationships you have with your customers. One way to do this is by providing them with valuable content that they can use, which could be emails, blog posts, e-books, or even infographics. By providing your customers with valuable content, you can build trust and credibility.

4. Get feedback from your customers
It’s essential to get feedback from your customers regularly. Feedback will help you understand what they like and don’t like about your products or services. You can use this feedback to improve your business and make changes that benefit your customers.

5. Use feedback as testimonials and reviews
Once you have collected customer feedback, you can use it to create testimonials and reviews. These can be used on your website, marketing materials, or even social media. Testimonials and reviews are a great way to build trust with potential customers.

Competition

6. Keep an eye on your competition
It’s essential to keep an eye on your competition to help you understand what they’re doing well and where they’re falling short. You can use this information to improve your own business.

There are a few ways to do this:

• Set up Google Alerts for your competitor’s business name, product names, and key executives to help you stay up-to-date on any news or announcements about their business.
• Follow them on social media and take note of their marketing strategies.
• Sign up for their mailing list to see what content they’re sending out.

7. Run giveaways for your product or service
One of the many small business challenges is building a customer base. Sometimes competitions can help increase interest in your business and bring in new customers.

One way to stand out from your competition is to run giveaways for your product or service to generate buzz. Giveaways are also a great way to build relationships with potential customers. Ensure the prize is something your target audience would be interested in and can access through the social media channels they use.

8. Discounts for new customers
Another way to attract new customers is to offer discounts or coupons for your product or service to stand out from your competition and give potential customers an incentive to sample what your business has to offer. Alternatively, a referral strategy, such as offering existing customers a discount or incentive for referring new customers to your business, creates a win-win situation and keeps everyone happy.

9. Scarcity strategy
Creating a sense of urgency can be a great marketing strategy. A scarcity strategy could involve running a sale for a limited time or offering a free product with purchase. By creating a sense of urgency, you can encourage potential customers to buy your product or service before it’s too late. The scarcity of your product can also drive up the value. An excellent example of this successful strategy was when McDonalds brought back their Szechuan sauce for one day in 2017. The resale of the Szechuan sauce is now $850 USD.

10. Utilise social media for your competition
Making your competition entry as easy as possible by enabling users to tag their friends, follow your business page and share the post will increase the reach of people who see it and get new leads from friends of those who enter.

Public Relations

11. Sponsor a contest or event related to your business
Sponsoring a match or event related to your business is a great way to drive exposure to your brand. Donating a prize or providing funding for the event is a great way to localise your business and showcase your involvement with the community.

12. Get behind a good cause
Getting involved with a worthy cause allows you to demonstrate your business’ support and is a great way to generate some positive publicity for your business. Donate time or money, or host an event to raise awareness and funds.

13. Get featured in the press
Getting featured in the press is a great way to build credibility for your business and can be done by writing a guest blog post, being interviewed on a podcast, or having your business mentioned in an article. Be realistic about the potential press that will publish information about your small business and collect journalists’ contacts on future potential press opportunities.

14. Be active on websites related to your company
Yelp and Trip Advisor are great websites for those in the hospitality industry to get involved with, as an example. If a customer leaves a bad review, reach out to them and see how you can improve their experience. For good reviews, send a thank you note! If your product is New Zealand-made, there are Facebook groups like chooice.co.nz where you can post and advertise your business for free! You can also post on other social media channels, such as Reddit or LinkedIn, depending on the product or service you provide to the public.

Social Media

15. Why small businesses need social media

Social media is a great way to connect with customers and build relationships. Use social media to answer customer questions, provide customer service, and give customers an inside look at your business. The best thing about social media for small businesses is that you can post and engage with your customers as much as you want, and it’s free to use.

Social media marketing tips for small business:

• Use the appropriate social media for your consumers: Different social media platforms have distinct subscriber bases, so only use those that are relevant to your clients.
• Hashtags: Use hashtags to make it easy for customers to find your business and connect with other customers.
• Create a schedule: Decide how often you want to post, and then stick to that schedule.
• Monitoring activity: Check social media regularly to see what people are saying about your business.
• Have consistent branding and tone: Use the same branding and tone across all social media platforms.

16. Use social media to create valuable content

In addition to connecting with customers, social media is also a great way to create valuable content. Use social media to share blog posts, infographics, images, and other types of content that will help educate your customers and build your brand.

17. Experiment with the right photo and video content
You need to experiment with image and video media to create valuable content. Try different types of content and see what gets the most engagement from your customers. Take note of what content performs well for your target audience and what doesn’t based on how much interaction and many impressions you receive from each post. You may want to consider hiring a professional photographer or videographer to help you create high-quality content.

Blog

18. Blogging on your website
One way to create valuable content is by blogging on your website. This will help you attract new visitors to your site and build your brand. Be sure to blog about topics relevant to your business and that will be of interest to your customers. It’s also a great opportunity to include keywords and expand on the topics you’re already ranking for.

19. Guest blogging
Guest blogging is a great way to get your business in front of a new audience. Find blogs related to your business and suggest your guest blogging services to any potential website pertaining to your business. Be sure to include a link back to your website in the blog post so that you can drive traffic back to your site. A benefit of guest blogging is that these backlinks to your website will help you improve your SEO by increasing authority, generating organic traffic, and brand exposure.

20. Create an email newsletter
Another great way to create valuable content is by creating an email newsletter. This will allow you to stay in touch with your customers and keep them up-to-date on what’s happening with your business. Be sure to include a link to your website in the newsletter to drive traffic back to your site.

Track and Review

21. SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a great way to make sure your website ranks high in the search engines. Optimising your SEO is critical so that when users search for your product or service online, your company will come up near the top in the search results.

Use keywords throughout your site, and include them in your titles and tags. You should also use alt text for images so that people can find your site when they’re searching for keywords.

22. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you to track the traffic to your website. This is a great way to see how people find your site and what they’re doing once they get there. You can also use Google Analytics to track your website’s conversion rate so that you can see how effective your marketing efforts are.

23. A/B testing
A/B testing is a great way to test different website versions to see what works best for your business. This can be anything from the colour of your call-to-action button to the copy on your landing page. A/B testing is a great way to experiment with different interfaces and see what appeals best to your target audience. Once you know that, you will then be positioned to optimise your website to get the most conversions.

24. Google Business Account
Creating a Google Business Account is a great way to get your business in front of potential customers in your area. When people search for businesses like yours, your business will show up in the search results.

25. Advertising online
Whether you’re using Facebook or Google Ads, advertising online means that you can easily measure and review how well your ads are working. Start tracking your ads by checking how many users view your ads (impressions) and how many people are interested enough to click your ad (Click Through Rate). You can use this data to understand what sort of demographic is interested in your offering and figure out your target market. To read more about metrics you should be measuring, take a look at Every KPI you should be Tracking on your Ecommerce Store.

Conclusion

These are just a few marketing tips and strategies designed to help your business succeed. Be sure to track your progress and review your results so that you can continue to improve your marketing efforts. With a little hard work and dedication, you can take your business to the next level.