10 Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

Running a small business is no small undertaking. It requires enormous efforts on the part of the entrepreneur to manage a venture on a small budget with limited brand awareness. Raising brand awareness and value without increasing expenses is the ultimate goal. However, as an entrepreneur, you know it is easier said than done, with every day being a juggling act between the various demands on your often limited budget.

With competition becoming increasingly tough, breaking through the clutter to have your brand voice heard requires you to exploit every resource and marketing channel available. Fortunately, the digital world offers numerous means to market your fledgling business at a minimal cost.

Here are some marketing tips and some common mistakes to avoid for small businesses. Read on to learn how to get the budget-bound high conversions your small business needs to stand apart and grow to new heights.

The Small Business Marketing Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make

Marketing any business takes a lot of work in multiple aspects. It can get challenging for beginners as well as seasoned entrepreneurs. And, if you aren’t careful, you could fall into certain marketing traps and find yourself not only missing out on opportunities but also incurring unwanted losses.

Here are some of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make, regardless of industry vertical, that you need to be aware of and avoid diligently:

Not Knowing your Target Audience

If you want to quickly scale your small business, you need a higher conversion rate. And that isn’t possible unless you understand your target audience. Otherwise, you risk trying to reach out to those consumers who are not interested in what you have to offer. When that happens, you’d only be draining your marketing budget while getting little to nothing in return.

So you must start your entrepreneurial venture by deciding who your target audience is. Your marketing strategy can then be created around that audience, as you will have clarity regarding their particular demands. If you’re into eCommerce, then this means a high ROI, especially with returning customers.

Not Having a Website

Your website is like your business’s ID in today’s world. Yet, you may be surprised to know that nearly 51% of small businesses don’t have one. You simply cannot afford to be in that league of businesses, as it will immensely hurt your brand image and bottom line. You also can’t get by with a basic website that looks like it’s from the 1990s.

Your website needs to make the most of modern web design technology and the latest trends to appeal to your target audience. Simultaneously, it must find the right balance between valuable content and optimization without overwhelming its visitors with complicated design or poor navigation. You must ensure that it reflects the ethos and vision of your brand creatively and succinctly.

Being Blind to your Competition

It takes confidence to face the unknown and open up shop as an entrepreneur. But it’s easy to let that confidence sway you and make you ignore your surroundings in terms of who you’re up against. Your push to beat the odds, combined with a tight schedule, may render you ignorant of your competitors and their actions. And while it’s a good philosophy to be your own best competitor, the fact is that you aren’t alone.

In the digital landscape, it is critical to take stock of what the top market contenders are doing and how they are maintaining their positions. Gather every bit of information you can about them to help formulate a marketing strategy that can turn the odds in your favor.

Mixing Up Your Marketing Strategies

If you’re an entrepreneur with more than one business across different verticals, then it’s possible that you’d consider using the same marketing formula for all of them. But this approach is bound to fail because of the simple fact that no two businesses are alike, even if they fall under a single brand or banner. This can even apply to two or more products in the same category.

For instance, if you’re a small business that’s into tissues, paper towels, etc., then you cannot afford to mix up the marketing strategies for your kitchen towel line and your toilet paper line. And neither can you include your luxury products in the marketing campaign for a regular product lineup.

Likewise, you’ll need to work on reconciling the marketing necessities for disparate products and services.

Investing Your Entire Marketing Budget In A Single Project

Allocating a share of your overall budget for marketing is considered an investment for a reason. You are expecting to gain profits from that expenditure. However, it isn’t wise to invest your entire budget into a single marketing effort. If it doesn’t work out, you’ll be left with a large hole in your Remodel Living Room on a Budget and insufficient cash inflow to fill it.

While diversification of your marketing efforts across various channels is necessary, your strategy must fit your business objectives, brand image, and budget and be aligned with customers’ preferences. For example, you’re not likely to grab the senior citizen market for your adult diapers if you choose social media as your main marketing channel. You’re not likely to find a sizable chunk of them there, regardless of your social media platform of choice.

Marketing Strategies that are AmbiguousDG

In addition to setting business goals based on the SMART methodology (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound), you must define every stage with utmost clarity. The entire pipeline and every step of the consumer journey across multiple channels must be charted out in advance, with due consideration given to every influential factor, like budget, the delegation of tasks to various personnel, the timeline of implementation, consumer contact data used, the review period, etc.

There must be a good balance between the rigidity of the plan to achieve a well-defined path to achieving objectives and its flexibility to accommodate changing market dynamics. It must have room for a sudden change of circumstances, like personnel quitting or downtime for maintenance. Every point of the plan should be well written and distributed to relevant stakeholders according to their roles.

You Don’t Market Anything

If you can find a niche, untapped market where your innovative product or service stands out as the only (or the most unique) solution, then you’re not likely to need much marketing. However, another (more likely) scenario is that your chosen domain has tough competition, already established players, or a divided audience. This requires marketing on your part to break through that wall, reach out to potential customers, and create your own space as a seller or service provider.

Even names as huge as Tesla and Google can be seen releasing ads to market their services. Plus, having a thorough marketing strategy is the norm for a reason: it is necessary and effective.

Although in certain cases, word-of-mouth and referrals seem enough. However, it is important to note that every business and every target market has different constraints. A local shop might do well with word-of-mouth marketing, whereas its online counterpart might fail to gather a decent number of users or convert enough of them into paying customers. This is where marketing becomes a necessity because it determines how long and how well a business can survive.

The 10 Marketing Tips to Turn Your Small Business Profitable

Once you’ve become aware of the potential pitfalls likely to occur with your attempts at marketing your small business, you can circumvent them with appropriate preparation. But, while being cautious might help your business stay afloat, it is often not enough to succeed. Being aware of common mistakes and traps might make your marketing efforts more effective, but you need to do more if you want optimal results.

As a small business owner, you must constantly improve your marketing strategy due to the volatile environment in which you must operate. Technological innovations in the field and changing consumer aspirations are particularly difficult to anticipate and adapt to. Hiring a professional small business marketing agency can help alleviate much of this issue, retaining your competitiveness. But, despite that, you need to educate yourself on how the system works so you can make the most of it. The best way to do that is by keeping tabs on industrial innovations and updating your strategy accordingly.

So, alongside external assistance, you need to follow these marketing tips to boost your ROI.

Highlight your Unique Selling point

What sets you apart from the competition? Do you have a product lineup that is not available elsewhere? Do you offer unbeatable prices for similar products that your competition sells? Are your shipping times and costs lower than others?

Any feature of your business that’s available to the benefit of your customers or clients should be highlighted at every opportunity.

People are always on the lookout for something extra they can get from a business they transact with. Showcasing a unique feature that’ll benefit them over and above their expectations will increase the chances of conversion significantly. So make your unique selling proposition or point as clear and prominent as possible. You can make it the center of your marketing campaign too if you believe it offers such high value to your business and customers.

Go with Traditional Marketing Too

Traditional marketing avenues like flyers, hoardings, banners, billboards, newspaper ads, television and radio ads, gift items with your brand name and logo, posters, brochures, cold calls, text messages, letters, and business cards may seem old-fashioned today’s times, but their impact persists. Even in the digital age, they provide multiple advantages to businesses, especially small ones, that can at times best their digital contemporaries.

While these options may hit your budget a bit more than digital marketing at times, they are also known to leave a lasting impression. Marketers still swear by corporate gifts like pens, caps, portable device chargers, etc. because they are so effective at branding. 67% of those receiving gifts report that they feel valued by the business, thus improving their relationship with it.

This has created strong demand and led to a thriving business gifting market that’s growing at a CAGR of 8.1%, with a market cap of $242 billion in 2021. You can use brochures to make a good first impression on your customers. Even simple “Thank You” cards with messages provided with purchases leave a positive impression that can last a long time. Brands have always used carry bags and packaging material as marketing avenues, and you should do the same. This method is very helpful for online sellers since they’re constantly sending packages everywhere.

A creative hoarding or billboard can pique the curiosity of passers-by and generate enough pull to have them explore your offerings. Catchy radio jingles and TV commercials are just what you need to expand brand visibility quickly. Make them creative enough while embedding your brand messaging, and those ads will be on repeat in people’s minds, increasing brand memory immensely.

Want to add a more personal touch to your outreach? Use telemarketing. Cold calling still holds sway as a viable way to attract leads in both B2B and B2C scenarios. It gets you directly in touch with your target audience in real-time without costing much. You can also go for text message marketing if you want your marketing to be to-the-point and in simple text. Though advances like RCS Messaging for Businesses by Google have blurred the line between messenger and regular texting, allowing for the inclusion of images, short animations, etc.

When it comes to local marketing, leaflets and flyers are the gold standards. Tossing or handing out a few hundred in and around the target locality can spread brand awareness quickly. The brief amount of information contained in the flyers gives prospects what they want to know about you without consuming their attention span. You can distribute brochures at select locations by setting up dedicated stalls, like at an expo or a local fair. Giving out carry bags with your brand logo at such locations is also very beneficial.

Ride the Influencer Tidal Wave

Social media influencers have become an unexpected gift to marketers across industries. They provide the mass audience that marketers seek without having to put in the effort to amass them. The influencers bring with them their brand value and reputation, which you can leverage to grow yours. It is such a successful strategy that the influencer market is slated to hit $16.4 billion in 2022. All you would need to invest at a small commission for the influencers, and you’re all set to reap the rewards.

Make sure that your choice of influencer matches your brand’s ethos and goals. Check to see that influencer’s track record to know if they can deliver on your expectations. Also, keep the number of influencers limited. Plastering yourself across multiple influencer channels only adds to your expenses. Consider the influencers’ preferred platform to see if it works for your ad strategy.

Make Buyer Personas

Are you targeting the right audience? Find that out by learning as much as you can about your end user.

Use market surveys and other customer data-gathering mechanisms to create a buyer persona. Collect data, study it, and use the insights to unravel the requirements of your intended customer. The quasi-fictional character you end up with will serve as the blueprint for understanding the market thoroughly and the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. You can evaluate individual prospects for their conversion potential by comparing their data with that of the persona. This method helps avoid unnecessary expenses incurred due to widespread marketing without a good understanding of the target.

Strictly Enforce SEO across all collateral

Online organic marketing helps businesses rank higher in search results. This method provides excellent visibility and brand value at a low cost. But for that to work, your SEO strategy and its implementation must be on point.

You can start with a full-fledged website that’s SEO-friendly throughout. It must provide the visitor with an informative and engaging user experience. The layout, theme, variety of content, and information being disseminated must reflect your brand value and vision in every instance.

It must have the right keywords placed appropriately across pages to get the algorithm’s attention. The images used must be selected similarly and edited to bring out their best qualities in a pleasing manner. Also, maintain the site’s technical SEO aspects, like meta tags and a sitemap, in line with the algorithm’s preferences.

Localize your Marketing

Whether it’s just the neighborhood around your store or the region of operation, the benefits of localizing your branding can’t be ignored. Having a solid local presence adds value to your brand and gives your small business the stability it needs to expand further. It also gives your organic online marketing the push it needs in the initial stages of doing business. 46% of all Google searches for products or services seek local information.

Using facilities like Google My Business for online local marketing, combined with some traditional marketing methods, is the way to go here. Your content and product offerings must be altered to cater to local demands and tastes. Mixing up the marketing strategies of different regions can backfire, causing severe damage to your brand’s image. Conducting market research to gain knowledge about these local influences is vital to getting a grip on a particular market.

Talk to your Customers or Clients

Communication is key to establishing strong relationships in the business world. This can take the form of answering questions about their products or responding to complaints about sold products for eCommerce entrepreneurs. You can also use feedback mechanisms like surveys, calls, and emails for the same, or social media for establishing good connections.

The wider the respondent’s respondent ed, the more knowledge you gain about your performance, your customers’ and clients’ opinions of your business, and other critical operations. Most importantly, you instill trust in your brand in them, establishing a reputation that precedes it in each new market you enter.

Use Referrals to Expand Your Network

Word-of-mouth has always been a very potent marketing tool for businesses, with customers and clients spreading positive words about your brand for free. You can take this a step further by offering them incentives to actively refer more people to your business. These incentives may be given in the form of discounts, special add-ons, lucky draw coupons, etc.

When combined with a good service reputation, referrals carry your brand name and image far and wide, expanding exponentially. Other businesses can be used too, wherein you can refer a customer to them for something you’re not offering and vice versa.

Keep your Contact Information Intact

While this measure may not be an upfront aspect of your marketing efforts, it determines their fate. You can’t reach the right person at the right time with the right pitch if you don’t know who they are. You must ensure that your collected customer or client information is free of errors like missing data. The necessary data management processes should be performed on them to get rid of data issues. It must also be updated regularly so that you won’t accidentally use outdated information.

Maintain Your Follow-Ups

Finally, don’t forget about your target audience once you’ve completed the initial marketing requirements. You must constantly follow up your marketing efforts with more content and keep it fresh. Repeat your current strategy if you find that it’s working well. Otherwise, change it to suit your new requirements. Maintain the same level of engagement across all marketing channels. Remember that every repeat customer is a step towards higher ROI.

In Conclusion

As a small business looking to make the most out of your marketing efforts, you will need everything you can get to that end at affordable rates. Fortunately, there are many marketing options at your disposal in today’s world that match that criteria. With professional services like Amazon virtual assistants ready to provide you with the best marketing strategy and other types of assistance, you can increase conversions while minimizing mistakes.