Tips to help your small business become a big business.
Small business marketing can get complicated and overwhelming. Many businesses out there are not spending their money efficiently. Delivering effective marketing campaigns and establishing branding amongst your target audience, will most-likely bring a hefty price tag. Below is a 3 step strategy approach to consider before spending money with the first agency or vendor that reaches out. A well-thought marketing plan, will help achieve efficiencies by properly allocating investment, and help with performance improvements in ROI. Spend your money on the advertising channels that bring you the most return.
Did You Know? 35% of small businesses without a website believe they are too small to have one. 1
Traditional advertising , still being used today, include billboards, radio advertising, TV broadcasting, etc. all are effective and share one big problem, they cost a lot of money to execute. For small businesses, making an initial investment of more than $1,000 USD affects cash-flow and may destabilize the business.
Did You Know? 47% of businesses spend less than $10,000 on digital marketing. 2
Digital advertising is highly effective; however, lack of experience and investment can make you lose a lot of money and time. Digital is also something relatively new, which may be a complicated subject to the older entrepreneurs. Yes, you can run targeted advertising campaigns online; however, not executing them correctly will cost you a lot of money.
Did you know? Almost​ 71% of small businesses​ do all of their own marketing in-house.​ But, according to Forbes, the small businesses that are happiest with their marketing performance hired outside agencies to handle it for them. 3
How to run succesful marketing campaigns for small businesses?
If I answered your question in one blog I would be lying. Each business is different and it is important for you to determine some key elements before you select the right marketing agency, advertising vendor, or technology partner. Follow the guide below to create an initial marketing strategy – which will we improved in the future once you start generating insights.
Step #1. Write down who your target audience is and be as descriptive as possible. If you have more than one target audience, write them all. You want to be very specific on listing exactly who you imagine will use your product or service and what characteristics they have that makes them perfect for your business (where do they live, demographics, interests, etc.).
Step #2. You need to write all possible marketing/communication channels you think you can leverage to reach your target audience. Below are some of the most common marketing/communication channels small businesses use to promote their services/solutions. They key is selecting the ones that are right for you and adding any new ones you can think of.
- Store Front
- Email List
- Website Banner
- Phone Numbers
- Facebook Followers
- Postcards
- Search Engines
- Specific Blogs
- In-Person
- Online Business Directories
- Twitter Followers
- Newspaper
Again, this list can be endless, make sure you write down all the marketing channels that make sense for your target audience.
Step #3. The final step is to determine what tactics can be done to promote your business within each channel you wrote. There are some tactics that you may be able to complete in-house, and some that may need software or a partner agency.
They key is to be consistent with your marketing operations and try leveraging as many channels as possible to determine which ones perform best and generate a better return.
Marketing strategies need to evolve, especially for small business marketing, once you generate insights you will start shifting your strategy and focusing on whatever makes sense for yoour consumer.
Each brand is different, each consumer is different. The only way to find out what works for your business model is to try it for a period.
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