Entrepreneurs know that running a small business isn’t easy. Managing your employees, struggling with a minimal budget, and finding time to handle all the aspects of business ownership requires a lot of thought and effort. Marketing can often suffer because of a combination of these factors.
But because marketing is so essential for small businesses to stay afloat and beat their competition, it’s something that needs to be carefully considered. This is something that entrepreneurs and small business owners can struggle with but is not insurmountable as long as you have the right information and techniques. Below are a few of the best marketing techniques that small businesses can take advantage of to grow their companies.
CRM
One of the most important factors in the success of small businesses is their relationship with their customers. Good customer relationship management allows you to grow your market organically through word of mouth and other means, which can be especially beneficial for businesses with small marketing budgets.
Managing these relationships can get tricky, however, which is why we wrote a guide on why CRM is so important for small businesses. CRM tools can make your customer relations processes move more smoothly, freeing up more time for you to work on other aspects of your business.
Direct Mail
Another thing that small businesses should take advantage of is direct mail marketing. Direct mail has been found to have a higher ROI than many digital marketing techniques and is able to elicit a stronger response from customers. It also lasts longer, giving your brand more staying power.
Marketing company Triadex Services recommends making use of direct mail materials like postcards. Postcards are affordable, and using plastic postcards instead of paper postcards will make more of an impact on your market by being unique and professional looking.
Social Media
It’s a well-documented fact that social media marketing is absolutely essential to modern business, large or small. With billions of people around the world connected through social media, it’s a quick, inexpensive way to connect with customers you would otherwise not have had access to.
Night Sky Creative co-founder Tassia Agatowski lists out a few expert tips that small businesses can make use of while on social media. Adding in quality content, responding to customer inquiries, and creating posts that encourage engagement are just a few of the many free or affordable ways you can maximize this technique.
SEO
Everything is on the Internet these days, so it makes sense that your business has to be, too. One thing that many small businesses struggle with is getting traffic, and one way to do that is through search engine optimization (SEO). As Internet usage has become more widespread, SEO has grown in popularity, making it an absolutely essential tool for all businesses.
Bigger companies will invest in complex and expensive SEO marketing techniques, which are often not available to businesses with limited resources. Luckily, Search Engine Watch has put together a few tips on SEO that small business owners can maximize. Building a mobile-friendly website, keeping up with industry news, and creating insightful, relevant content are all easy methods for boosting your search engine performance.
Email Marketing
Finally, another thing that small businesses should look at is email marketing. Not only is it one of the earliest digital marketing techniques, it’s also one of the most affordable, allowing companies to reach out to customers with the click of a button. One of the downsides of email marketing, however, is that you’ll need to compete with hundreds, if not thousands of other retailers in your customer’s inbox.
In order to work around that, you need to be smart with your email marketing. Forbes recommends focusing on personalization (i.e. including customers’ names, or sending email campaigns based on customer behavior), being concise, and including visuals like photos or graphics. You also need to create catchy email subject lines, so you can stand out from the crowd and encourage customers to respond.