Small Business Marketing 2022
Content Table:
Getting Started Small Business Marketing
Make marketing a priority
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Starting Small Business Marketing
Learn how to create a sustainable business marketing plan that will acquire new customers and grow your income for years to come.
Finding new customers is critical to the growth of any small business, and utilizing marketing strategies is the most effective way to achieve that goal.
However, small business owners often wear many hats to keep their businesses running.
This can cause their marketing strategy to fall by the wayside as they focus on the day-to-day operations of their business.
Thankfully, developing a small business marketing strategy doesn’t require a marketing background or skill.
Plus, it can be both straightforward and affordable.
This small business marketing guide will break down how to create a sustainable, scalable marketing strategy that will help your small business gain new customers and increase revenue for years to come.
What is Small Business Marketing?
Small business marketing is the process of getting your products or services in front of many potential customers.
It consists of various online and offline strategies, but the ultimate goal is to grow your small business income and expand your market share.
Small Business Marketing Challenges
Small businesses face unique challenges in their marketing that large companies or franchises just can’t handle.
This is especially true if there is no dedicated marketing specialist on your small business team.
Lack of Resources
Small businesses cannot always hire an in-house marketer or devote the necessary time to strategic marketing.
Marketing effectively and on budget requires time, technology, reorganization, and attention to campaign performance.
Small Budgets
Most of the time, your small business has a tight budget to allocate to its marketing.
Because digital marketing can be expensive, it’s not uncommon for small business owners to blow their budget.
Or, they may not be allocating their digital marketing budget to the most profitable channels.
Competition From Big Brands
Not only is your small business competing with other local or small businesses, but you are also likely competing with larger brands that have strong name recognition and a powerful digital presence.
Big brands can easily steal ad clicks because of brand recognition.
And with organic SEO, Google often prefers to rank websites with more authority and a trusted reputation.
Adapting to Changes and Technology
The digital marketing landscape is competitive!
It can be a challenge for a small business to adapt to the changing landscape of search algorithms, rising cost-per-click, and more.
Despite these challenges, it is possible for small businesses to successfully market their products or services while recovering the investment.
Getting Started With Small Business Marketing
Before you start spending money on marketing your small business, you need to set yourself up for success.
The following steps should be taken before you start your first marketing campaign.
Know Your Audience
It is important to understand your target audience before you start paying to reach them.
Creating audience personas can help you figure out who your small business is trying to reach.
Also, where best to find them and how your product or service meets their needs or solves their problems.
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Audiences may include:
- Population statistics.
- Geographical location
- Interests
- The budget.
- Pain points.
- Motivation
- And more!
Taking the time to build a large audience lays the foundation for your marketing strategy.
It will help you choose the right messages and channels to reach your ideal customers or clients.
Refine your messages
Once you know who your audience is, what they need, and how your products or services solve their problems, you can do the work of crafting refined and impactful messages.
Your message can involve educating customers, demonstrating value, demonstrating competence or expertise, differentiating from competitors, and more.
Depending on the number or scope of your products and services you offer, you may need to create several messages to effectively reach your different audiences.
Determine your budget
The truth is that marketing can be expensive if you don’t take the time to prioritize and strategize.
The truth is that marketing can be expensive if you don’t take the time to prioritize and strategize.
Some marketing channels are more expensive than others.
So it is important to determine what you are willing and unwilling to spend before starting any campaign.
Setting Up Your Analysis
Before starting a digital marketing channel, you need to be able to measure its impact and effectiveness.
You can use all kinds of analytics tools, but if you’re just starting out, start with these two analytics platforms.
Google Search Console.
Google Analytics.
As your small business marketing strategy grows, you may want to invest in email marketing or a customer relationship management platform.
But for now, the two free sites above can get you started.
The Best Marketing Channels for Small Businesses
A major part of your marketing strategy will be determining which channels make the most sense for your small business and the customers you are trying to reach.
Some channels will be more expensive than others.
Some will produce immediate results.
Overall, there are pros and cons to any marketing channel, and no channel is guaranteed to generate revenue for your small business.
However, downstream channels are often best for small businesses because of their effectiveness, longevity, and affordability.
Content Marketing
It is best to consider content marketing as the foundation of your marketing efforts.
Without something great, the additional channels listed here cease to be effective.
Content includes home pages, landing pages, product pages, blogs, social media posts, ads, or anything else your potential customers might interact with before making a purchase.
It is important that your content is high quality, relevant, and meets the needs of your target audience.
Investing in good content will provide you with a consistent asset that you can leverage across all marketing channels and help build your identity, expertise, and authority.
SEO
Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your small business website to appear in organic search results.
Most internet users turn to search engines first to find new products and services.
If your small business website shows keywords that users are looking for, it could mean more potential customers to click on your website.
That means more people are browsing your product, scheduling a consultation, or making an appointment.
SEO, however, is different.
Here are the most important SEO aspects for small businesses to prioritize.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is the process of optimizing individual web pages to rank higher for relevant keywords.
Every page on your small business website has a chance to rank in search engine results.
Basic steps include:
Keyword research: Finding relevant keywords that you want your website to rank for.
- Keyword research: Finding relevant keywords that you want your website to rank for.
- SEO Writing: In-depth, high-quality writing that explores the topic in depth. You can use content optimization software to help you improve your pages’ quality signals and improve their ranking potential.
- Meta tag optimization: In addition to the keyword in your page title, meta description, alt image text, and checking other important keywords are optimized for search engine crawling.
- Internal and external links: Including internal links to other relevant pages on your website and linking to relevant, authoritative sources.
On-page SEO can be easily implemented in your CMS.
Or you can outsource the work to an SEO provider or digital marketing agency.
Although time-consuming, on-page SEO is one of the easiest ways to start gaining views and clicks from organic searches.
Local SEO
Whether your small business has a brick-and-mortar location or serves a specific region, local SEO strategies can help you show up in Google Maps and location-based searches.
To start local SEO, do the following:
- Set up your Google business page: This will give Google and users important information about your small business, including location, phone number, store hours, and more.
- Name, Address, Telephone Number (NAP): These important details about your small business should be clear, accurate, and consistent throughout your website content. If your small business has multiple sites, it’s important to create separate landing pages for each site that display their unique NAP information.
- Submit to an online directory: Google wants to see consistent information about your small business wherever it is listed on the Internet. Using a local quoting service can help you start building off-site signage. It’s an affordable way (less than $100) to help Google’s crawlers better understand your site and the markets you serve.
- Add a local business plan: Organized local business information tells Google your hours of operation, departments, reviews, and more. Adding schema markup will require the help of a web developer, but it can be very effective.
Site Speed Improvement
The performance of your small business website is critical to your ability to rank in search engine results.
Google doesn’t want to show users slow or inferior pages.
So your website needs to meet the following standards:
Key Web Metrics: These metrics are Google’s primary way of measuring web performance. They include Best Paint, Delay First Entry, and Change Layout.
Mobile usability: The mobile version of your small business website needs to be responsive, fast loading, and high performance.
Security: Your website needs to be safe and secure for users. Security is primarily measured with the HTTPS protocol.
Advantages and disadvantages of SEO
The benefit of SEO is that it is arguably the cheapest way to increase your small business’s online presence.
Also, earning a high ranking in search engine results can send traffic to your website for years.
That is, while you are doing the work of updating the content and maintaining the quality and technical performance.
However, SEO takes time.
It may be several months before you see results and start earning traffic to your site.
But that traffic is basically free and has a wonderful way of improving your Marketing KPIs, such as customer acquisition costs, in the long run.
Online Reputation Management
Like SEO, online reputation management
Like SEO, online reputation management (ORM) should be an important part of the digital marketing tools of every small business for its power and influence.
ORM is the way to build and monitor your reputation on popular review sites, and it’s free.
Online reviews are really a key marketing tool for your small business.
Although you can’t completely control what other people choose to say about your small business, you should do what you can to influence the reviews and benefit from them.
It is estimated that 94% of consumers have read online reviews in the past year.
If your small business doesn’t have profiles on popular sites in your industry, or you don’t have reviews for your products, users may choose another service provider or retailer.
Thankfully, putting together an online reputation management strategy is pretty easy.
Customize your Profile
Look for review sites that your potential customers are actively using and that are popular in your industry.
Examples include Yelp, Angie’s List, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, and BBB (Better Business Bureau).
Then make sure your profiles are ready and adequately describe what you have to offer.
Brand pages are also more likely to rank in branded search results, so do your best to include high-value keywords in your page sections.
Add a Product Review App or Plugin
If your small business is an ecommerce business, add a product review plugin or app to your CMS to start earning and displaying reviews on your website.
Here is a list of Plups Pluins Pluins for WordPress, and popular product review programs.
Ask your customers to leave a review
To start getting an overview online, simply ask!
If you know that a customer had a positive experience or really liked your product, sometimes all it takes is asking them to leave a review.
Encouraging review
If you’re struggling to find customer reviews, incentivizing reviews with discounts or promotions for repeat visits or sales can help you get reviewed faster.
It also encourages your customers to come back to your products or services again and again.
Always respond to negative comments
A major part of ORM is handling the negative reviews you are bound to receive.
By responding to your negative comments, you have the opportunity to correct any negative effects.
Also, you show other potential customers looking for reviews that your small business is doing what it can to make things right.
Advantages and disadvantages of ORM
ORM is a free marketing strategy
ORM is a free marketing strategy and can have a huge impact on getting customers further down the conversion funnel.
However, online reputation management can work against you if your products or services are of low quality.
It is important to make sure that your small business offers the best for potential customers before you pursue any online reputation management strategy.
Pay-per-click
Pay-per-click advertising is the process of advertising on another publisher’s website and paying each time a user clicks on your ad.
Unlike other ads, you only pay if the user actually clicks on your website, guaranteeing traffic to your site at the cost of your ad.
PPC – Search Engines and Display Network
PPC is often associated with top search engines like Google and Bing.
When a user enters a search term, Google and Bing serve ads at the top of the search results page.
Small businesses can bid on important keywords to get their ads to appear at the top of the SERPs.
Google and Microsoft also have their own display websites.
In terms of expanding your small business’s reach, Google Display Networks reach over 90% of internet users worldwide.
Successful PPC campaigns, though, are all about execution.
If you don’t have experience managing or optimizing PPC campaigns, it’s best to work with a paid media manager or agency with experience in your industry.
PPC – Social Media Advertising
Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram enable your small business to do what Google Ads can’t – they allow you to target your audience demographically and by interests – because these sites have a lot of information about their users.
These ads will appear in organic posts on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.
As a professional digital marketer, I often receive advertisements related to digital marketing.
Because social media ads also require creativity (rather than simply text-based search engine ads), it allows your small business to showcase your creativity and brand image even more.
Other features of social media advertising include:
Tracking pixels: Adding the Facebook pixel to your small business website allows you to track past visitors to your Facebook and Instagram pages.
Interest targeting: Because social media users often self-select their interests through liking and engagement, interest-based targeting can be effective in reaching new visitors.
Lookalike Audiences: Once you’ve earned some business and have a better idea of who your audience is, you can create lookalike audiences based on those data points. This can help you expand to other users who are similar to your previous customers.
Advantages and disadvantages of PPC
The best advantage of PPC is that it can start driving traffic to your small business website right away.
But CPCs are going up every year and platforms like Google Ads and Facebook are very crowded.
If you are not careful or take the time to optimize your PPC campaign, you can quickly increase your budget.
Email Marketing
Once you’ve built a list of your leads, contacts, customers, or former customers, email marketing is a great way to connect with your audience and keep your small business at the top of their minds.
Email marketing has the potential for a huge return on investment.
It allows you to drive sales of new products and services, create customer loyalty programs, and continuously improve your rich content assets.
Some of the most popular areas of email marketing include:
Answer it.
Replacement equipment
The Book of Honey
Constant Contact.
Here are some marketing tips for small businesses:
Balanced
Make sure your emails are balanced between advertising and resource-driven.
Email marketing provides a great place to promote thought leads, ebooks, or other free materials related to your industry or product.
Your Audience Section
Throwing the same email at your entire customer database will be less effective than segmenting your audience into one-time customers, regular customers, or leads and crafting unique, targeted messages.
Optimizing for Mobile
Many of your customers probably read their emails on their mobile devices.
Email marketing that doesn’t respond or has formatting issues is likely to be ignored or worse, lead to opt-outs.
Online Channel
There are various offline channels available to small businesses as well.
Although they are much smaller than digital marketing channels, they can effectively gain new customers and improve the brand recognition of your small business.
Some useful online channels include:
Direct Mail.
Events and Conferences.
Advertising Print
Community Engagement.
Press releases.
The connection
And more!
4 Strategic Tips for Effective Small Business Marketing
Each of the marketing strategies listed in this guide has its own discipline.
The more informed and strategic your approach, the more effective it will be.
However, your small business probably won’t become an overnight expert.
So, overall, here are some of the most important strategic options to keep in mind.
Balance your paid channels with organic SEO
The truth is that paid media only drives traffic to your website during your campaign.
When your credit card or budget runs dry, so does all of your site traffic.
Balancing paid channels with organic SEO is one of the most strategic decisions your small business can make.
SEO leads to free clicks and, when done well, to sustainability.
Leverage Retargeting PPC Platforms
Platforms like Google Ads and Facebook give small business advertisers the option to retarget audiences who have already visited their website but left without making a purchase.
If your small business does the job of driving organic SEO traffic, you can leverage even more reviews to improve your total ROI.
Target Long Tail Keywords Through Blog Content
Adding a blog to your small business website can be a game changer in improving the overall number of keywords your website ranks for.
It is one of the cheapest ways to expand the reach of your small business. If you don’t have a writer at home, many knowledgeable marketers can help you start your blog.
Long tail keywords usually have less competition.
So make sure your craft blogs target the long-tail questions users ask about your product or small business offering.
Practice, practice, practice
The truth is that the initial marketing campaign may not be profitable.
But as long as your analytics are set up, you can iterate on your campaign and improve results.
Don’t take the “set back and let it go” approach.
Look at it. Make data-driven changes
And invest in the channels with the best conversion rates that deliver sustainable revenue per acquisition for your small business.
In conclusion
Developing a small business marketing strategy can have a huge return on investment for your business.
These include increasing your income, gaining loyal customers, being able to recruit new employees, opening second sites, and more.
Make marketing a priority for your small business, and you won’t be disappointed.
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