Marketing for Small Businesses

When growing your small business, it is important to recognize that taking actions to publicize your company are fundamental to its success. At this stage within your business, having little capital is no excuse: even with a low budget, it is possible to invest in marketing that focuses on cheap yet efficient strategies.

The fact and reality of today is that the internet makes it possible to broadcast information across different marketing channels. If low cost strategies are implemented correctly, the financial return may surprise you.

If you’re thinking it’s time to invest in marketing for your business, here are some strategies and marketing avenues you can take advantage of that are big in the digital world.

Social Media

Social media is without a doubt the best marketing tool any small business can utilize, and has become essential for small businesses. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, ect. are all great ways to communicate with possible clients and your target audience. It is an extremely cheap way (even cheaper than conventional advertising), to make your business known among the large public audience that is active in the online world.

A very important fact to know and understand, is that internet users are active users. Meaning, they are very receptive to those companies that manage to attract their attention. They are users look for interesting useful content, or a product, that offers a solution to a problem they have.

Social media is the best way you can showcase that your business has products and services that will solve a problem someone is having. When you utilize social media, it helps improve your online reputation, it increases your notoriety, and it helps spread your brand. Getting your business out into the world is huge. Also, the greater the presence on social media, the more traffic you will get on your website, and therefore, the greater visibility you gain on search engines such as Google.

Email Marketing

Small businesses, especially those committed to keeping up with new technology and present in the online world, know and understand that maintaining an active communication with their customers, both potential or current, is a very important key to maintaining sales and even increasing them. This is the main objective and benefit of email marketing. However, it also offers many other things that a business can benefit from.

With email marketing, you can capture your customers information by offering something in return. For example, you can promise future discounts on services, participation in a raffle or secure future information of interest to the recipient. This is a fast and cheap way to win the loyalty of your customers.

However, email marketing is an ongoing process, and one that has to be viewed with a vision of persistence, strategy and commitment. With the will to offer benefits and meet market needs, your business will stand out as the most enticing solution to work with.

In addition, email marketing is a type of communication that can be personalized. With its incredible technology, you can customize your messages based on the customer’s location, age, monthly purchase volume, or the period of the year or season. This makes your marketing more relevant to your customers, and being able to customize your emails goes a long ways towards building that ideal business/customer relationship.

Networking

Another powerful way to market your small business is through, establishing a channel of collaboration, networking among professionals and identifying new business opportunities. Building a strong customer base is laborious and slow. It is a job that can take years.

Networking for most, wasn’t the main focus when you began building your small business, and that’s normal. You learn and you grow. But now that it's time to sell your product or service, you might find it hard to connect with anyone. When you connect with other professionals who have large, established audiences that are your target audience, you’re potential to make a profit through sales increases.

If this is done properly, you usually don’t have to pay anything upfront. At most, you pay these professionals some commission that is based on earlier agreements. An affiliate program is one way to do this. This is a win-win situation. You make your money and they make their commission.

To network, you can start by following those you want to work with on different social media platforms and on their blogs. Most of these professionals that you are going to approach have a strong digital presence, with their own online spaces, and are very active on social media.

A good way to get successful professionals to know and notice you and your business, is by becoming their follower, checking their blog and interacting with positive comments or likes when they post new content. Most of them have lots of offers when it comes to working with people. You want to make a positive impression and know who they are, their target audience and how your product/service can make them money.

As a small business, you have so many marketing options to explore. You don’t have to limit yourself. Try out any of the strategies mentioned above. For greater results, combine them all. Before you know it, you’ll start seeing your small business grow faster than ever.