Marketing is important for businesses of all sizes but it can be more challenging to find an effective solution for smaller companies with more limited budgets. These are some of the best strategies small and medium-sized businesses can make use of without breaking the bank.
Best Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
Growth is the most vital component of every business but that is impossible if no one has ever heard of your company or product. For this reason, effective marketing strategies can be the difference between success and failure.
However, it isn’t always easy to come up with a plan that will be both effective and fit into the budget. It is also important to note there is no magic bullet solution that will work for every business in every industry. That’s why it is crucial to consider and explore as many options as possible.
Facebook Ads
According to reports, there are already 2-million small businesses that advertise and market themselves through Facebook ads, which might lead you to believe it is a saturated market not worth exploring. However, this could not be further from the truth.
While it is true that a lot of companies use Facebook adverts, there is a very good reason for that. The social media site has over 2.74-billion active users every month, or around 59% of all the world’s social media users.
On top of this, it has an incredibly advanced system that allows advanced targeting based on age, location, gender, interests, online behaviour and many more. The website is a treasure trove of data and you can use that, and its ads, to find exactly the demographic that would be interested in your product and communicate directly with them.
They also are not very expensive because you are only talking to the people that matter, there is no wasted messaging. There is a very good reason why so many companies online use Facebook ads and you should too.
Sponsorship
This one might seem a bit out of place at first because when most people think about businesses marketing themselves through sponsorship, the thought will immediately go to something like the £40-million Standard Charter paid to be the official shirt sponsor of Liverpool Football Club.
Or major international companies have begun to support eSports teams and players. For example, Red Bull reportedly invested over $578-million in eSports in 2020.
Another example is many popular brands, especially bookmakers and cricket betting sites that sponsor teams in popular tournaments like the Indian Premier League to advertise their services and join the hype surrounding the event.
However, small businesses can get the benefits of sponsorships without having to drop the kind of cash mentioned above and that is important because sponsorships offer amazing value for money when compared to many other forms of marketing.
The reason for this is because sponsoring something is a strong show of support for the event, team, or person you choose to support, so anyone and everyone associated with it will immediately have a connection to your company.
Options for small businesses included things like offering your services pro-bono to people who can’t usually afford it, cash donations to local charities or aid organisations, donating prizes to a local event or fair, or even sponsoring a small local sports team or school.
There are so many options out there that do not cost an arm and a leg, you just need to find one that suits you and your business.
Google My Business
According to some reports, there is nothing more important for small, local businesses than ranking on Google My Business. Setting up a business profile on the platform is completely free and it can revolutionise a company in the right setting.
Say for example if you search for “London electrician” on Google, the first couple of options will be paid-for ads after that comes to all the Google My Business listings and only after all of that will the organic search options be displayed. There is almost no reason not to have a Google My Business and not having one is costing your business an untold amount of free advertising.
Once you have created the listing, it becomes something quite similar to making your website search engine optimisation friendly, because Google ranks each listing to make sure the best companies are at the top.
And there should be no need to tell you how much of a positive impact being at the top of a Google search can have on a company.
Content Marketing
Many marketers believe content marketing is the most effective form of advertising available. The reason for this is that content marketing allows a company to create and distribute useful information to potential customers to drive them to your platform while establishing your brand as an authority in whatever industry you operate in.
The reason why many companies do not go the content marketing route is that it is a bit of a slow burn so it might not seem worth the money in the beginning. However, if you are producing good content people will start organically returning to your platform for more, leading to steadily increasing traffic and potential customers.
It also isn’t easy to create fun and engaging content and we aren’t only talking about blog posts here, it should involve videos, podcasts, online courses and information graphics. The content needs to be good quality, optimised for SEO, relevant for readers and tell a consistent message across the platform.
However, if you go down this route, stay the course, and commit to creating great content, you will not regret it. There are companies out there whose entire success comes off the back of quality content marketing, yours could too.
