Here are some of the best strategies for marketing your small business.
Plan your marketing strategy by knowing your business and knowing your goals.
The many parts of marketing all add up to one thing: strategy. Each part of a marketing plan is part of an overall strategy that helps to grow awareness, increase business, help boost sales, and more. However, in 2018, there are so many ways to promote your business – digital advertising, billboards, magazine ads, social media, radio, TV – and it can be overwhelming for a small business or startup to know where to start or where to invest their time, energy, and resources.
Here are some helpful marketing strategies for small businesses to help you get started.
Know Your Budget
Before you start creating an overall marketing strategy, it is important to know how much money you have to work with. Some ways to market your business are very affordable, while others can make a huge dent in your marketing funds. It might be tempting, when you’re first starting out, to spend a lot of money on flashy marketing strategies like TV advertising or podcast sponsorships or other, more expensive and traditional-seeming marketing. And this does make sense for some businesses who are trying to front-load marketing expenses into their first push in an effort to saturate the market as much as possible with a brand’s name in an attempt to grow awareness and exposure.
For most businesses, though, this simply isn’t in the budget. In those cases, it’s important to decide what other marketing campaign ideas will be the most impactful while also being the most cost effective. In many cases, this means spending your budget among several different digital marketing strategies, where exposure can often be gained for less money.
Know What Marketing Strategies Work for What
Not every marketing technique will translate to sales or increased revenue. That’s why one of the best digital marketing strategy tips is to know what methods work for what. For instance, there are several ways to advertise your business that can translate to more sales or clients, including email marketing, social media ads, and search engine ads. There are also digital methods that lend themselves better to brand awareness and top-of-funnel marketing like influencer marketing and banner ads.
Know When to Hire Help
Marketing and advertising agencies can be expensive, but they can also be hugely beneficial. Since marketing is all they focus on, they can be a wealth of creative marketing ideas. Knowing when to hire an agency, freelancer, or contractor to come in and help your business find the best way to advertise can not only have an immediate impact on growing your business, but can also free you up to focus on other parts of the business, like account and product development, finance, and more. It can help just allow you to focus on growing your team or growing your relationships with current or perspective clients.
If you feel that you’re spending most of your time spinning your wheels trying to find good marketing solutions without reaping the benefit of increased awareness or more clientele, it might be time to think about interviewing agencies or other experts to help solve your marketing troubles.
Some of the best marketing strategy tips aren’t firm lists of do’s and don’ts, but guides that help you identify what’s important to your individual business and what can then help your business meet those goals.
