Small Business Marketing: 7 Tips for an Effective Marketing Strategy

In the first two years, about 20% of new businesses fail; in the first five years, about 45%; in the first ten years, about 65% are doomed. Only 25% of new businesses survive for more than 15 years and make it to ‘business adulthood’. 

Whatever the reasons are for these failures, we’re sure that marketing challenges are among the reasons why. 

Perhaps your marketing efforts are not quite bringing you the results that you hoped for? Or, you may find that you don’t even know where to start with your small business marketing strategy! 

Keep reading to find out our tips for developing an effective marketing strategy. 

What Is a Small Business Marketing Strategy? 

Any organization or business’s marketing strategy is a long-term, forward-looking approach. It is the overall game plan with the fundamental goal of achieving a continuous competitive advantage. This is done by understanding customers’ needs and wants.

A marketing strategy is a broad strategy that includes everything from a company’s brand positioning to its creative brand assets. It details how they behave and talk, to strategic partners, media relations, marketing mix, channels, and right down to the tactics you’ll be using.

Digital Marketing Strategy vs Campaigns 

Digital marketing campaigns are the specific steps or actions that must be taken in order to accomplish a marketing strategy’s goals. As part of the process of developing a marketing strategy, it is necessary to outline the plan and timelines. Marketing strategies and goals can be difficult, if not impossible, to properly execute if this isn’t the case.

It’s also critical to consider the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns in this discussion. A company’s digital channels are used to implement marketing strategies in these campaigns.

Depending on the medium, target audience, and other variables, a small business marketing agency will tell you that the strategies needed to carry out these campaigns can be quite diverse. A successful digital marketing campaign, on the other hand, will have a message that is consistent across various platforms.

Tip 1: Optimize Your Website 

Optimizing your website means you’re going to increase your conversion rate from simple website visitors to customers. You optimize your website by focusing on the following things: 

• Optimize your website for viewing on mobile and other devices 
• Focus on technical SEO tactics so that your efforts are not in vain 
• Make sure that Google Analytics and other measurement tools are in place for performance purposes 
• Create your website with the user experience in mind 
• Do a content audit and get rid of redundant content 
• Focus on link building and ensure relevancy throughout 

Technical SEO aspects when working together with other optimization techniques will increase the ranking of your website as well as impress your customers. 

Tip 2: Content Marketing Should Be Used 

In 2022 and beyond, content is still king. Audiences and consumers want to find content that is relevant and useful for them. You can use this to your advantage by creating content that is tailored for your ideal customer and target audience. 

Your content marketing can also help you with tip 3! 

Tip 3: Get Onto Socials 

So, you don’t have to be on every, single social media platform otherwise that’s all you would be doing with your time! 

But based on your extensive target market research, you should be able to select one or two social media platforms that are right for you. 

Use your content marketing strategy as a way to increase brand awareness and user engagement on the relevant social media platforms for your brand. 

Tip 4: Don’t Underestimate Powerful Imagery 

The imagery and visuals that you use on your website, on your social media profiles, and even in other marketing collateral should be brand-appropriate and high-res. 

There’s no consumer in 2022 that doesn’t want to see high-quality images or video content on products or services that they’re considering buying. And there’s no reason that you cannot give it to them! 

Tip 5: Claim Business Listings 

Claiming your Google My Business listing and map location in Google Maps can be beneficial to your small business. 

A Google My Business listing is a great way to share important information about your company with current and potential customers. Claim your listing (if it already exists) or create a new one for your business to make changes to the listing.

Once you’ve completed your listing, you’ll have a long-term digital marketing tactic in place which is continuously working for your business; however, don’t forget to update your listing if any of the information about your company changes.

Tip 6: Call To Action Is Super Important 

Picture this: 

You get to the very end of this article and you think, “That was great, but what now?” 

We won’t spoil it for you but you’ll notice that at the end, we give you direction as to what we expect you to do next. You should be doing the same with your content, blogs, and other marketing channels. 

Always have a CTA that helps lead your customer to the action you’re hoping that they will take. So, audit current content to make sure your CTAs are evident and well-written and make sure that new content has them too!

Tip 7: Use Email Marketing And Keep Your Database Healthy 

This tip covers two things: 

We suggest that you use email marketing since, among other marketing support for small business, owners rank it as the second-best tool for brand awareness (behind social media). Also, almost 50% of marketers say email is their most successful marketing channel, with the biggest ROI. 

Now, you need to use this from the get-go as you gather email addresses to create your email marketing database. Ensure that part of your marketing strategy is about keeping this data up to date. 

Your email marketing campaigns should be regular but remember that you should always go for quality over quantity. 

Marketing Success For Your Small Business 

There’s no reason that with the right small business marketing you can’t be part of the 25% of businesses that make it past the 15-year mark! 

This is particularly true if you base your marketing strategy on solid research and truly attempt to understand your target market and their buyer personas. 

One of the best ways to do this is to hire an agency with a great track record, like us, check it out!

(And there’s that CTA we were talking about!)