As a business owner with a small budget you know that you need a well-crafted marketing plan . However, you might not know how in the right direction to develop a strategy that works. Should you stick with the established marketing methods, or mix it up by introducing a fresh strategy? How do you decide on an effective marketing strategy for small businesses when there are dozens of options?
Here’s what you have to know to develop a profitable marketing plan for your small-scale business.
Making a strategy for marketing for a small business can seem overwhelming, especially when it comes to your online marketing options. There are many ways to go about it with hundreds of different articles all claiming to know the “most efficient” method.
The reality is that your small business” best marketing strategy depends on your particular audience and your business model.
Before we discuss how to select the most appropriate strategy for your business Let’s take a take a look at six of the top small-scale marketing tools for businesses.
Small businesses can use email marketing to communicate directly with clients and potential customers who have shown an interest in your company. It’s among the most efficient strategies for creating relationships that turn interested leads into actual customers. As a small business owner your email list, consisting of email addresses that your potential buyers (or leads) and customers have given the business, can be among your most important assets. This is the reason why building an email list is your top priority.
Social media marketing will allow your small business to connect with thousands of customers and prospective customers. But, many small-scale marketers are overwhelmed by the number of platforms available. Do you need to be on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter?
Instead of being active on all platforms Instead, select a few platforms on which your customers are most active and make sure you are there. Provide informative, useful posts that relate to your industrynot just content intended to boost sales.
Content marketing is the art of creating and sharing useful and thoughtful content that is relevant to your company’s image or the customers’ interests. This content should establish your business as an industry expert within your field and show clients that you’re trustworthy. For example the restaurant might share content on take-out food safety or cooking tips, whereas dental offices can create tips on flossing your teeth and when to visit your child’s first dental appointment.
Pay-per click marketing lets you create targeted ads that showcase your business to web users through search engines such as Google or Bing. These ads are displayed on sites across the web typically on the top of the webpage, embedded in articles, or even in the sidebar of a page. When you use PPC, you choose terms you believe your customers will likely use when they search for the product or service your company provides. While PPC is a little complicated especially for those who are new to it It can also be an extremely effective strategy for driving traffic to your website as well as pedestrian traffic.
Referral marketing rewards customers for recommending your product or service to their family and friends. For example, you might give a 10% discount to a current customer and their friends who use the link or coupon you provide. Referral marketing is a cost-effective method that promotes word-of-mouth marketing, which is one of the most reliable and efficient marketing strategies for small companies.
It is a person-centered marketing approach that allows brands to promote their products or services by hosting in-person or online events like conferences, classes or even happy hour events. Connecting with people in person or at events can help build a stronger bond that can be leveraged to drive sales, increase brand trust, and build brand awareness.
We’ve now covered a few fundamental marketing strategies that are suitable for small companies Let’s discuss how to determine which strategy is most profitable for your company.
Your marketing strategy must be a long-term plan to assist your business in reaching larger audiences and develop sustainable businesses. Building a successful small business marketing strategy begins by understanding your current position and where you would like your business to go.
Before you decide to create or revise a marketing strategy for SMEs, the initial step should be to understand your marketing strengths and weaknesses. Create a list of the recent and past marketing strategies you’ve tried, along with the results and cost. Also, note down your current marketing assets Are you running an effective email list as well as a massive following on Facebook or have you had a successful billboard campaign? These details will guide your next steps.
Who are your primary audience? Who do you plan to appeal to? Many small-scale businesses think that their current customers are their ideal customers, however this isn’t always the case.
Begin by asking the problem your product solves and then identify the people most likely to need that solution. You can then compare this audience with your existing customers. It is possible that your current audience is not the most appropriate you can reach with your products. Performing market research may provide further insights into the demographics of your ideal customerand consequently your ideal customers.
Small businesses do not have unlimited resources. They must be careful about where they focus attention and resources. The cost of $100,000 spent on PPC and a billboard campaign might attract a large number of customers, however it’s not likely to be a part of the marketing budget of a small company.
Write down your monthly marketing budget and take note of the resources you have, such as a marketing platform. Include the amount of cash you’ll need to spend on marketing campaigns and the internal resources you are able to count on, such as an email list or an employee with experience in social media marketing.
Now that you are aware of the situation, who you’d like to target and the resources you have available It is now time to find out which strategies from the first chapter are the easiest to apply.
For example, if your business has a committed fan base on social media, an audience that is that is between the ages of 20 to 35 and a modest monthly budget for marketing, referral marketing might be the right choice. It’s an investment that’s minimal upfront and will increase the value of a fan base that is dedicated. However If you’ve got an extensive email list but you haven’t been sending out regular email marketing campaigns then it might be time to invest in an email marketing program to make better use of your list.
Once you’ve decided on a strategy, outline your objectives. Are you looking to increase the sales of a certain product or increase traffic to your website, or increase brand awareness? Your goals should be clear for example “Increase sales of X product by 20% in 3 months time.”
If you’re a small-business owner you probably have plenty of work to do. It can be time-consuming to spend money and resources on a new marketing strategy and then discover it isn’t so effective as you’d expected.
Instead of being discouraged, try different approaches. In the event that your online content doesn’t result in sales, conduct some research to determine whether the contents are useful for your intended audience and the place they are in the purchasing process. If email marketing doesn’t increase qualified leads that are sales (SQL), conduct A/B testing: test different subject lines, alter the words of your call to action (CTA) or send out emails at different times of the day.
The best small-business marketing plan can make a major difference in the success of your small business. Although there are a variety of ways to go about marketing your products and services the methods listed above tend to work the best and are the most effective for small businesses. Start by selecting one or two strategies , and test them to determine which one is most effective for your company.
