If you’re running a small start-up or business, marketing is just as important as it is for an international large company – even more so. Marketing should be the prime concern of your business for the first few years, so you can cultivate a loyal customer base. But where do you start, and what things should you add to a small business marketing plan? Here are the best tips for marketing a small business that you need to know about today.
Utilise Social Media
One of the best ways you can reach people without spending a lot of money is to utilise social media to the best of your ability. Over half of the worldwide internet users have a social media profile, and if you want to reach potential customers in your local area, you should be reaching out to people on social media through posts that represent your brand. It is also an easy way for customers to ask you questions about your small business and makes you seem approachable and friendly as a business. Make sure that your social media profiles are all cohesive, to enhance your digital brand recognition.
Look Into Local SEO
Search engine optimisation is key if you want to increase your website’s visibility for certain search terms on search engines. Local SEO is more specific, however, and refers to your rankings for location-specific keywords. If you’re a small business and you rely on foot traffic coming into a physical location, you should invest in local SEO. Plenty of SEO experts insist that local SEO is a crucial marketing technique if you’re starting a small business, and it’s one of the best things you can do in terms of marketing.
Work With Local Influencers
Finding a local customer base can be made easier by working with local influencers in order to promote your business and products. By finding local influencers who will benefit from your products or services and display them to a market that is likely to use your business. When looking for influencers, find ones specific to your local area, and in the general demographic of your target market. This is very important if you want to find influencers that will be likely to increase your revenue and customer base.
Use Hashtags To Increase Engagement
On all of your social media posts, make sure to utilise a lot of hashtags in order to increase engagement. Many people surf hashtags in order to find posts that follow their interests or to explore trends on social media. Using well-placed hashtags on your social media posts can increase your engagement massively, as you will be able to find users who will want to engage with the posts. Before you use a hashtag, make sure that it gets a lot of views and has been used before, to make sure that you’re going to be directing traffic back to your website.
Start A Blog
On your website, you might want to start creating content that will direct more traffic back to your website. Many business websites have blogs, which are useful if you want to reach out to potential customers through great content. You can focus your content on your industry, or different ways your products or services can be beneficial. Blogs should fit in with your brand image and identity, and be as helpful as possible. They should be well-written and engaging, fitting into the Google guidelines. Starting a blog is one of the best things you can do if you want to improve your engagement regarding your website – remember to share website blog posts on social media!
Network As Much As You Can
Finding contacts through networking as much as possible in your local area is one of the best things you can do if you want to improve your local visibility. By attending trade events and small business networking conferences, you can massively improve your small business’s visibility and get some much-needed contacts. Furthermore, a lot of these events have seminars and workshops that can develop and sharpen your skills when it comes to being a business owner. They can even give you some more marketing tips for your small business!
Invest In Your Cyber Presence
Most consumers now find new businesses through the internet, which is why the aforementioned marketing tips like SEO, social media outreach, influencers and blogs are important. However, making sure that your cyber presence is protected is also key when it comes to strengthening your small business. Just like export credit insurance, cyber insurance protects you financially in case hackers take down your website and social media presence. Investing in cyber insurance means that if you get hacked, you can get your cyber presence back up and running much more quickly. This means that you will reach more people, as your website will have fewer interruptions.
Here are the best tips when it comes to marketing a small business – try them out today!