Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

Consider this your go-to guide for small business marketing in 2021, full of insight, actionable tips and ideas that can bring your online presence and digital marketing strategy to life.

But first, it’s important to ascertain where your business stands. Are you a local business targeting your local community, or are you an online small business reaching a wider audience? Do you have a physical presence, or do you operate purely online? These questions will help to determine the way that you use outlets like social media and advertising – though beyond that, the tips and insights we have to share are largely the same.

What Is The Goal Behind Small Business Marketing?

So many small businesses out there say that their ultimate goal is to grow – but not too much. In other words, they want to scale their business to become successful and well respected, but not so much so that they lose their small business status and cease becoming a go-to for their original target customer.

The main goal behind small business marketing is to get to know your customer and plug a gap or answer a specific need that that customer has. The best businesses provide solutions to everyday problems – whether it’s with a product or a service – and so the best marketing strategy begins and ends with that customer and their problem.

TIP ONE: Get to know your target customer and how your product or service can help them. Then use your marketing to frame your business as the solution to their problem.

How Do You Reach Your Target Audience?

This is where your value proposition comes in. Once you have identified your target customer and tapped into the problem that you can solve, your value proposition is what sets you apart as the ideal solution – putting you above your competitors. This value proposition is what will frame and inform most of your marketing content, as you strive to communicate your brand and its advantages to your customers.

As you dive into and explore more marketing channels, you may find that the way you frame your business, and the way customers are interacting with you, changes. This is where it becomes important to conduct thorough research into understanding where your target audience hang out online, and how they interact with each other and with other brands. The more you know about your customer and what they are searching for, the better equipped you are to meet them in the middle.

TIP TWO: Focus on small goals and objectives, employing one marketing channel at a time. Before you start on social media, make sure that your website is up and running – so that you have somewhere to drive potential customers to.

The Most Important Part Of A Marketing Strategy For A Small Business

Without a doubt the most important thing to focus on is your website. This is the hub of all your online activity – it’s where all your advertising and marketing efforts will drive customers, and it’s where customers will go to find answers to their questions. It’s also where you will house most of your content, your imagery, and your value proposition – so getting the website right is crucial.

From there, you can start to build out and devise a content strategy, a social media plan, advertising plans and more – all linking back to and driving prospects towards your website.

TIP THREE: When it comes to building your website, focus on user experience with every decision you make – from design to navigation, language, and formatting. Not only will this ensure that customers enjoy a seamless experience, but it will also put you in a better position when it comes to Google ranking.

Once you’ve got your website in place, it’s time to start looking into other marketing outlets and platforms. Some of the most effective include:

• Social media
• Paid ads
• Email marketing
• Sales funnels, driving customers down very specific journeys
• Blogging and other long form content

All of these touchpoints and more are designed to multiply the ways in which you can reach out to and engage with your target audience. More than that, they are all geared towards driving your customers towards taking action – using a very simply marketing tool that we call the Call to Action. If you’re not already investing time into creating great Call to Action buttons, now is the time.

The Call To Action

No matter what you are marketing or looking to sell, the Call to Action is the final step that will get your customer over the line – provided you get it right. This needs to invite them to take an action or risk missing out, with the most compelling Call to Action statements being concise and straight to the point.

When creating a Call to Action, it is important to put yourself in the shoes of your target customer and ask yourself what they would be looking to do at this stage. Are they filling a craving they have? Are they treating themselves? Are they about to solve a problem they’ve had for ages? Act on that need or desire in your Call to Action and activate that ‘Fear of Missing Out’ feeling that works so well in the marketing world.

The Takeaway – Marketing For Small Businesses

Marketing for small businesses starts and ends with your target audience and your ideal customer. Once you know them and know what they are looking for, then you are in the best possible position to reach out to them and find a way to frame your business as the solution to a problem they have – whether you use social media, content marketing, paid ads or word of mouth to get there.