10 Marketing Strategies that will Help Your Small Business
There are fewer things in life harder than starting a business. And for even the most ambitious business owner, one of the most stressful aspects of starting that business can be the marketing of it. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be! Here are ten marketing strategies that are not only effective, but also pretty easy for even the business owner with next to no marketing experience whatsoever.
1.) Be yourself
This one is very important because no matter what type of marketing you embark on, you always want to make sure your voice and your own personal style comes through. There is something that makes you uniquely you and therefore, makes your business unique from any other. Be sure to include that with any type of marketing you use and you’ll be halfway to one of marketing’s biggest stumbling blocks – distinguishing yourself from the competition.
2.) Content marketing
This one is also really easy and applies to your website. Simply make sure that any content that goes on your website, blog, or social media is dynamic, interesting, and helpful to visitors, and they’ll be back to check it out again at a later point in time. It’s that easy.
3.) Use social media
Social media has done many great things for our world, and it’s done many great things for businesses too. While businesses once had to go to great time and expense to tell their customers about something new, today it’s super easy to tell them – simply hop onto Twitter or Facebook!
4.) Utilize SEO
The best way to tell people about your website is to simply utilize great SEO tactics. Simply know how to use keywords and backlinks on your website and it will be the search engines that actually do the marketing for you and bring customers to your website.
5.) Pay-per-click
Pay-per-click is perhaps one of the most common forms of advertising on the web. Simply purchase ads that will be displayed on other web pages, such as Google or Facebook, and you’ll get paid every time someone clicks on them and is taken to your site. Be warned that PPC alone won’t get you the results you’re looking for. Customers will need dynamic content greeting them on the other end if you want them to stick around.
6.) Reputation marketing
This is something that is lesser known than using SEO and PPC advertising. With reputation marketing, a business simply asks customers to review their product or service and collects these reviews over time. They can be posted on the site, or on third-party review sites.
7.) Go outside of banner ads
There are sites such as BuzzFeed that allow businesses to market their products or services. Typically these advertisements do look different than other content on the site, but users prefer them over other types of advertising such as banner ads (which users find really annoying.)
8.) Be creative
With even more businesses popping up today and surrounding customers everywhere they go from their daily lives to online, they’re getting tired of seeing and hearing the same old thing. Be creative, think outside of the box, and inject that passion and ingenuity that had you start up the business in the first place.
9.) Make sure customers are really happy
This sounds like common sense, but ensuring customers’ happiness is about more than just delivering the promised product at the guaranteed time. Go out of your way to make your customers really happy; go above and beyond. That will ensure that they come back next time they need your product or service.
10.) Be diverse
Online marketing is great, but make sure you’re involved in many kinds of it (SEO, PPC, content marketing, etc.) so that you diversify as much as possible. Also in terms of diversification, don’t forget about including traditional forms of marketing such as TV and radio if your business needs it.
1.) Be yourself
This one is very important because no matter what type of marketing you embark on, you always want to make sure your voice and your own personal style comes through. There is something that makes you uniquely you and therefore, makes your business unique from any other. Be sure to include that with any type of marketing you use and you’ll be halfway to one of marketing’s biggest stumbling blocks – distinguishing yourself from the competition.
2.) Content marketing
This one is also really easy and applies to your website. Simply make sure that any content that goes on your website, blog, or social media is dynamic, interesting, and helpful to visitors, and they’ll be back to check it out again at a later point in time. It’s that easy.
3.) Use social media
Social media has done many great things for our world, and it’s done many great things for businesses too. While businesses once had to go to great time and expense to tell their customers about something new, today it’s super easy to tell them – simply hop onto Twitter or Facebook!
4.) Utilize SEO
The best way to tell people about your website is to simply utilize great SEO tactics. Simply know how to use keywords and backlinks on your website and it will be the search engines that actually do the marketing for you and bring customers to your website.
5.) Pay-per-click
Pay-per-click is perhaps one of the most common forms of advertising on the web. Simply purchase ads that will be displayed on other web pages, such as Google or Facebook, and you’ll get paid every time someone clicks on them and is taken to your site. Be warned that PPC alone won’t get you the results you’re looking for. Customers will need dynamic content greeting them on the other end if you want them to stick around.
6.) Reputation marketing
This is something that is lesser known than using SEO and PPC advertising. With reputation marketing, a business simply asks customers to review their product or service and collects these reviews over time. They can be posted on the site, or on third-party review sites.
7.) Go outside of banner ads
There are sites such as BuzzFeed that allow businesses to market their products or services. Typically these advertisements do look different than other content on the site, but users prefer them over other types of advertising such as banner ads (which users find really annoying.)
8.) Be creative
With even more businesses popping up today and surrounding customers everywhere they go from their daily lives to online, they’re getting tired of seeing and hearing the same old thing. Be creative, think outside of the box, and inject that passion and ingenuity that had you start up the business in the first place.
9.) Make sure customers are really happy
This sounds like common sense, but ensuring customers’ happiness is about more than just delivering the promised product at the guaranteed time. Go out of your way to make your customers really happy; go above and beyond. That will ensure that they come back next time they need your product or service.
10.) Be diverse
Online marketing is great, but make sure you’re involved in many kinds of it (SEO, PPC, content marketing, etc.) so that you diversify as much as possible. Also in terms of diversification, don’t forget about including traditional forms of marketing such as TV and radio if your business needs it.