Small Business Marketing Strategies

Marketing is an important element for any business. It is through marketing that businesses are able to attract customers to their brand, and thereby make sales. Small businesses, in particular, need marketing to enable them get a foothold within their respective industries. However, they have limited resources to spend which impedes their marketing activities.

Startups and smal businesses can utilize the following techniques, which are both affordable and easy to implement.

Top Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

Traditional Marketing Techniques

Businesses can make use of the various traditional marketing techniques, which involve the use of different channels to spread the word about the businesses’ activities. These methods are usually referred to as ‘outbound’ because they require the small business owners to broadcast the word to consumers at large, and wait for those who are interested to come to them. Some of the common traditional marketing techniques include:

• Word of mouth: For many years, small businesses used this mode to market their brands. Essentially, a business has to first get a few clients, even if it means offering free products or services. The aim is to ensure that these initial clients are satisfied with whatever the business is offering and have them go out and spread the word to their friends, families, and peers about it.
• Print Advertising: Small businesses have the option of putting ads on print media, which consists of newspaper, magazines, and telephone directories.
• Direct Mail: This technique involves the use of advertising material such as flyers, brochures,  or newsletter, which are delivered directly to a consumer’s mailbox.

Online Marketing Techniques

Advancement in technology has seen the development of cheaper and more advanced forms of marketing. A good example is online marketing, which has been driven by the rapid growth of Internet technology in the past few decades. The Internet has become the leading source of information and interaction for many people, regardless of their gender and age.

The millions of people who go online each day have attracted the attention of marketers.

• Search Engine Optimization: This refers to the concept of optimizing keywords and phrases on web pages and content in order to improve the ranking on search engines. As such, these optimized pages or content are easily found by users who are searching for the particular keywords and phrases.
• Social Media: Social networks have become the tools of choice when it comes to communications, interactions, and sharing of content. As such, small businesses have been able to tap into the millions of users that visit the various social networking sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Each of these sites offers various tools and platforms that can be used to enhance the web presence of an individual or business and thus, enable them to promote their products and services.
• Google AdWords: AdWords is an amazing tool that enables small businesses to reach out to their target audiences. Using this tools, businesses can ensure that their ads target only the right people, out of the more than 3 billion daily searches conducted on the Google search engine. In effect, they are able to filter out all users, except those that are searching for terms and phrases that are related to their brand or industry in general. Adwords allows businesses to come up with keywords, which are able to attract more clicks and increase traffic volume to their site.

Small businesses, especially those with limited resources, should experiment with these different forms of advertising – both traditional and online. Depending on your audience you may have more success with certain tactics but once you uncover a formula that works for your business, gaining new customers will become much easier.