As a small business owner, you wear many hats. You’re the CEO, CFO, and head of HR all rolled into one. There’s no denying that running a small business is a lot of work.
But if you want your business to be successful, you can’t just focus on the operations side of things. You also need to make sure you’re doing everything you can to market your business effectively.
You don’t need to have a big marketing budget to get results
Some of the most effective marketing activities are the ones that require very little money at all. Here are 3 key marketing activities that the smartest small business owners do.
#1 – know your audience
When trying to appeal to customers, it’s important to understand who they are, what they want and what they value. Failing to do this could lead to services that fall flat, or that miss the mark entirely.
Taking the time to understand your prospective customers will help you better cater to their needs and wants, making your business more successful in the process.
Understanding your customers doesn’t need to be an expensive process like full-blown market research.
Talk to your customers to find out why they chose your services over your competitors. If there was one thing they could improve about your service, what would it be?
The information that you get from this exercise is worth its value in gold!
Improve your services based on that feedback. Then test it (ask your customers again) to gauge its effectiveness.
There are many tools that you can use for this such as Survey Monkey, or even a simple Google Form. But if time allows, there is a greater value in simply talking to your customers in person.
#2 – look after your existing customers
It’s important to attract new customers, but it is much cheaper to retain customers than to gain new ones.
That means you should never stop marketing once they’ve made a purchase! Existing customers are always the best source of revenue and referrals, so it’s important to keep them happy.
A happy customer is more likely to become a brand advocate and promote your company to their contacts. By investing in your existing customers, you can create a loyal customer base that provides long-term growth for your business.
One of the most effective ways to maintain customer loyalty is through an e-newsletter. It has so many benefits:
- It allows you to stay in touch with your customers on a regular basis. This helps to remind them of your products and services and keeps your brand top-of-mind.
- It gives you the opportunity to offer special discounts or promotions that will encourage customers to continue doing business with you.
- It provides a way for you to collect customer feedback and use it to improve your business.
This demonstrates your commitment to them, showing that you care about helping them, which will result in increased customer loyalty.
#3 – leverage the power of social media to grow your business
Social media channels are affordable marketing tools for businesses of all sizes, as in most cases they are free to use.
You may not have the budget for outdoor, print or radio advertising, but you can utilise Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram and many other platforms to reach out to a wider audience. You can share stories, products, and services with a wider group of people to raise brand awareness.
It is a great way to connect with potential customers. It helps you to interact with current customers by providing information about your products and services and answer their questions. This will help to foster relationships that can lead to more sales.
But not everything on social media is free. Successful businesses also utilise the ability of social media platforms to target messages to a specific demographic, through paid advertising. By doing this, you can ensure that your advertising budget is spent in the most effective way possible, and that your message is reaching the people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services.
If done right, the cost of social media advertising is only a fraction compared to traditional advertising mediums. Overall, the returns from this investment will be higher.
There are many affordable email marketing platforms, which are super easy to use such as Mailchimp and MailerLite. Check them out!
Set up your business for success
As a small business owner, it’s important that you invest your time and energy into effective marketing efforts.
Focusing on understanding your target customers, looking after your current customers and leveraging the power of social media is a great way to start.
Sometimes it’s not possible to do all the things yourselves. In addition to developing social media or lead generation strategies for our clients, we also write blogs like this for them.
Our copywriting services include:
- Web pages
- Social media posts
- Email newsletters
- Case studies
- Brochures
We write with our clients’ keyword strategy and audience in mind, so the copy resonates with their perfect audience.
If you are looking for some help with copywriting, book a no-obligation FREE discovery call with us today – we’d love to help!
