Marketing Strategies to Leverage for Your Small Business

Regardless of what kind of business you run, chances are you have a lot of competition in your area. A strong marketing strategy is key to show customers why they should choose you over all of their other options, setting you up for success.

Here are our favorite strategies to include in your marketing plan:

1. Optimize Your Google My Business

   Google My Business is no longer an optional component of any company's online presence; it is frequently the first place customers look for up-to-date information about your company. You need to claim your Google My Business profile, which could take up to 3 weeks to authenticate. Then, you’ll be able to optimize your profile. Be sure to include high-quality photos and that ALL of your information is correct, including your address and contact information.

2. Organic Social Media

   With competition increasing all the time, brand loyalty and customer perceptions of your company play an important role during the purchasing process, making an organic social media presence essential. Use your social media platforms to build authentic relationships and foster communication with your followers.

3. Content Marketing

   Though Content Marketing may yield slower results than other strategies, it shouldn’t be overlooked. Creating valuable content, whether it be a blog, a podcast, or even a YouTube video, is a surefire way to establish yourself as an authority in your area of expertise. creating high-quality, consistent content allows you answer your audience’s questions and can help build trust, develop relationships, improve conversions, and even generate leads.

4. Facebook Ads

   While creating and posting on social media on a consistent basis is a good way to reach out to new people and current customers, you may want to consider advertising to broaden your reach and grow your online presence more quickly. More and more content is being generated on Facebook every day, which means it could be a struggle to get your content in front of the people who matter the most to your business. Advertising on Facebook can help you reach new people and share your newest products or services. Make sure you know enough about your audience and your goals to set the correct campaign metrics so you don’t waste your budget showing your ads to the wrong people.

5. Google Ads

   Google Ads is one of the most powerful advertising tools a business can use, thanks to its reach and authority among other search engines. There are numerous ways to create the best campaign for your company and its target audiences, ranging from search campaigns to shopping ads. These ads drive good-fit traffic to your business by displaying your products and services in Google at the same time ideal customers are making similar searches. With the right campaign, a company's website traffic, call volume, and in-store visits can all increase.

6. Work with Micro-Influencers

   Influencer marketing is a great method for increasing your social media engagement. Influencer marketing entails promoting your company through social media accounts with large audiences that share your target market. Most small businesses cannot afford social media accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers, but micro-influencers may be a great option to consider.

   Find a micro-influencer who aligns with your brand. Follow them on social media and comment on their posts to try to build an authentic relationship with them. After you've established a relationship, politely ask if they'd be willing to make a social media post in exchange for free products/services and of course, compensation for their services.

7. Email Marketing

   Small businesses are in a remarkable position to benefit from email marketing. As a small, local business, you can build trust with local customers much faster than larger corporations, which may struggle to connect with smaller knit communities.

   One of the most important email marketing practices to remember today is to be as transparent, honest, and open with your customers as possible. Unsolicited or generic emails are unfavorable as modern consumers prefer more organic approaches.

   Focus on building your email list to nurture your potential customers into a purchase.

8. Online Reviews

   Somethings the most overlooked, free marketing you can do is gathering online reviews. Online reviews are critical to your business and will only become more so as time passes. There are only so many customers and sales dollars in the world. You know that no matter what business you're in, you have to bring in your audience before your competitors.

   Online reviews are critical for establishing authority and attracting new customers. They enable you to demonstrate customer approval and prove that your product or service works and works well. To gather these, simply ask your customers- remind them in an email, at the bottom of their receipt, on social media, or in any other way you believe will be most effective.

   Pro Tip: Should you receive a bad review, take the time to resolve the issue at hand and respond to the review to tell your customer that the issue was fixed.

These options are all excellent for getting your company and message in front of as many people as possible, at a reasonable cost. Beyond these options, our best advice is to think outside the box. What marketing methods can you use that your competitors aren't? The best low-cost marketing techniques are sometimes the ones that no one else is using.

If you are struggling with how to get more eyes on your business, Slantics always offers complimentary discovery sessions to get you moving in the right direction. Book yours today!