How To Market Your Small Businesses?
How To Market Your Small Businesses?
Small Business Marketing
The objective of marketing is to increase brand awareness and build a portfolio of qualified leads that will be converted into sales. For a small business, it can be difficult to reach the message due to limited visibility and lack of resources (such as budget or time). However, there are key strategies that can help you scale up your small business marketing efforts.
Whether you're struggling with a limited budget, time constraints from a small team, or even a lack of leadership, a marketing plan that's right for your business can help you grow.
Small Business Marketing Strategies
1. Know your audience.
A big mistake is to misunderstand "someone" as your buyer. Big companies can attract a large market, but they say "the money is in the bottom" with good reason. In a niche, you, as a small business, have the most impact. And to develop a niche and attract buyers to the niche, you need to understand their problems, issues, triggers and preferences.
What motivates you to make the purchase decision? How do you see if they are successful or not? Knowing these elements can help you create messages that will resonate and make a compelling case for your solution.
First, think about your existing customers and who you would like to work with. Then create a buyer persona to begin the process of getting into the mind of your ideal customer.
2. Focus on your value proposition.
If there is no difference between you and your competition, there is no reason why a buyer should partner with you. Your value proposition sets you apart from others in your field and lets your prospects decide that you are the supplier they should turn to. What are you doing better than anyone else in the industry? Crossing it out is a compelling argument.
3. Focus on unique goals and objectives.
As you explore the world of marketing, you may have noticed that there are thousands of possible directions. It's tempting to put it all together and build a complex machine that's hoping to cover all your fundamentals, and it's easy to take on too much.
Instead, identify where the biggest impact will be. What is the biggest blind spot in marketing that is holding back your growth? Set a performance goal around this key area and focus your resources on activities and strategies that meet that performance goal. You can expand your efforts or turn to other initiatives as you move toward this unique goal.
4. Enjoy short term games.
Start with Scrappy. When scalping, it is important to look at ROI first. This gives you the momentum and cash flow to invest in larger projects, longer-term projects and more sustainable growth models.
Strategies that take time to implement (like SEO) don't fit well with your core initiatives because you won't get the returns you want quickly enough. If you have enough resources to get started, great, but don't put all your eggs in this basket.
If you have proof that people are reaching out to Google with the intention of buying your particular solution, you may see a short-term return on investment from paid ads.
5. Double what works.
Once you've started your initiative and experimented with a few things, pay attention to the data. It can tell you what is working. As you get older, it's a good idea to double down on best practices for earning income.
6. Understand the strengths of existing customers.
A 1990 study by Bain & Company and HBR found that, on average, it was five times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to close an existing one. This means that there is no need to stop trading after buying.
Identify your repeat buy, up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. Since your existing customers have already made a purchase, they already know, love and trust you. If your experience has been good, you have given them a reason to do business with you again if needed.
Even if not needed (in cases where it is a one-time purchase without any lucrative opportunities), you still need to excite your customers. Word of mouth is a powerful (and free) advertising tool.
7. Use free advertising tools.
Speaking of free promotional tools, it is important to note that you do not have to increase your overhead with gadgets just because you have subscribed for a limited range and purpose. Use free promotional tools whenever possible and only use paid tools if you know they will greatly improve existing operations or performance. Here's a useful list of marketing tools (some free and some paid).
8. Build a website to own your online presence.
A professional looking website is one of the most important assets you will build for your small business. Here you show who you are, what you offer, where you are and how a potential customer might contact you.
It's a channel you'll always have (unlike other platforms that can change policies or go into circulation) and have the potential to drive organic traffic and drive traffic to advertising and other marketing initiatives.
