What are the most effective marketing strategies for a small business?
The most effective approach depends on your audience, what the business needs to achieve and the time and money you can commit. You don’t need to use every option below. You do need a clear reason for choosing the ones you’ll put your effort behind.
Marketing strategies – things to think about
Target audience
Who are you targeting? We’d have this mapped out in your marketing strategy – your target markets and your target audience. Where is your target audience – online, offline? What channels does your audience use to keep updated within your industry/field? What are their demographics? What do your buyer personas tell us?
Considering these factors helps determine which strategic approach will help us get our messaging out there in the most effective way. For example, if your audience isn’t on a social media platform then social media marketing isn’t the right approach to adopt. If your audience doesn’t attend trade shows or conferences, then event marketing isn’t one to consider either.
Budget
What budget do you have to play with for marketing, advertising and promotion? This is a key area I’d incorporate into your marketing strategy as it outlines your annual spending for things such as:
dedicated marketing direction and delivery
any outsourced support (copywriting for example)
ESP hosting (email service provider)
your CRM (customer relationship management system) etc.
Build the budget around the work required, including your own time, any outside help and the cost of reaching your audience. A percentage of revenue on its own won’t tell you whether that work is affordable or likely to support your objectives.
For a small budget, narrow the focus. Cost one activity properly, decide what you need to learn from it and set a review point. An event or paid campaign may be worth considering, but only if you can fund the preparation, delivery and follow-up as well as the space or advertising.
Your business and industry
Are you just starting up or have you been trading for a few years? Is your service/product for businesses or consumers? Maybe both?
While B2B marketing (business-to-business) is not the same as B2C (business-to-consumer) you can use the same strategic approach; how you phrase the marketing messaging will be different. There will be less need for some methods (email marketing for example) over others based on your industry and target audience etc.
7 marketing strategies for small businesses
Keeping the above factors in mind, here are seven marketing strategies that could be effective for your small business.
Content Marketing
Effective content marketing raises awareness of what you offer, builds interest in your business and helps generate enquiries. Through well-planned content, you showcase your expertise and knowledge and demonstrate why your organisation exists – how you help your target audience, solve their problems etc.
Content can take the form of blogposts, vlogposts, videos, imagery, white papers, and press releases (see below). The types of content will vary from one business to the next based on your budget, your offering and your audience’s demographics. Whatever content looks like for your business, it contributes to “pull marketing” – pulling your customers in with content that resonates with them, at the right time via the right communication channel.
Content that promotes customer advocacy – customers who are happy to put their name to using your product/service – highlights what you sell and how your product/service has helped them, in turn generating interest in your business and influencing sales.
Client-led content is gold dust and if you have customers who want to shout about how great your product/service is then embrace this with open arms!
Client Advocacy
Clients that want to shout about what you do are the best – they facilitate new business. Client advocacy provides a powerful marketing strategy for you to run with. Clients contribute to the decision-making process as part of the “buyer’s journey” – awareness, consideration, purchase, retention (and then advocacy…)
Any potential customer (business or consumer) on that journey who sees a testimonial, reads a case study etc or watches a video interview, connects with a like-minded person explaining how your product/service has helped them. This approach also strengthens your relationships with your current customers – the advocates – and contributes overall to customer satisfaction and retention. Win-win.
Brand Marketing
Brand marketing is paramount – it communicates what you do, why you do it and why it is important; it is an instant representation of your business. Like customer advocacy, brand marketing impacts customer decision-making and is effective in generating repeat business. It strengthens your customers’ experience of buying from you, and if you combine your content marketing and customer advocacy with brand marketing, you build on your brand identity and amplify your voice.
For an example of the thinking behind a visual identity, read the story of my own rebrand.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing takes on different forms. The channels you use offer routes to a variety of networks. By sharing relevant content and generating engagement with your followers you broaden your reach to help raise brand awareness and generate sales. Conversations in the public space create relationships which in turn generate trust.
A useful question is whether your own potential customers use the channel to find advice, assess suppliers or join relevant conversations. Social media profiles provide a second website for potential customers to review the content you’ve posted, the messaging you’re sharing and whether you’re demonstrating you’re able to solve their problems with your product/service.
I’ve seen small businesses utilise social media (and unnecessary channels) when it’s not the best approach for them – their audience isn’t there and/or the content they’re creating doesn’t align with the channels they’re using. Social media management can be time hungry and you can do yourself a disservice by not using the platforms in the right way. There’s a fine line between posting effectively as part of a structured campaign and attracting potential customers and doing it haphazardly and turning them away.
Paid Media Marketing
Paid media means paying for access to an audience, such as search ads, social media ads or a sponsored placement in someone else’s newsletter. Sending an email to your own subscriber list is not itself paid media, even if you pay for the email software.
Before spending, be clear about the audience, the offer and where the advert will take someone. Give the campaign a defined budget and decide what you’ll measure, such as relevant enquiries or bookings. Check what happens after the click too. Paid reach is only useful if the experience that follows helps the right person take the next step.
Partner Marketing
Partnership marketing is a great strategic approach when you want to build your networks – you can reach a different audience than your own using others’ social media channels, third-party solus emails/newsletters and as part of others’ offerings. By building strong relationships with other businesses, you amplify your voice and broaden your reach.
Working with a creator or influencer is another way to reach an audience through someone else. The arrangement might involve a fee, commission or another agreement. What matters is the fit with your audience, the credibility of the relationship and a clear agreement about the work and how it will be evaluated.
Product Marketing
Product marketing communicates what the product is, but more importantly what it does and why – what problem does it solve? Integrating this message with your content marketing, and utilising your customers’ voices, builds on your brand marketing.
Implementing the right marketing strategies for your business
Start with the problem you need marketing to help solve. If people struggle to understand your service, useful content and clearer messaging may come first. If they understand it but need reassurance, relevant client stories can help. If you need to reach a particular audience beyond your existing network, a well-matched partnership may be worth exploring.
Choose a main approach and the supporting activity it needs. Write down who it is for, why you’ve chosen it, what you can commit and when you’ll review it. Those choices belong in your marketing strategy. If you’d like help thinking them through, get in touch.