marketing

Small business success can prove challenging, especially as small businesses rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. But gaining steam is made easier with powerful small business marketing strategies. Making digital marketing more prevalent can net even better results.

But what if you’re a local small business serving a limited community? Digital marketing is still a must-do. Whether you are a marketer for a large company in New York, or a small business in Houston, you can partner with a digital marketing agency and also employ the following marketing strategies on your own.

1. Content Marketing Is Priority #1

Content marketing is all about creating and delivering actionable and informative content that is valuable to your target audience. A strong content marketing strategy can help your small business drive more traffic online and in-store.

The best part about content marketing is that it has long-term results, something paid advertising does not have. This allows you to build sustainable small business growth while maximizing profits.

Key elements of content marketing include:

  • Relevant keywords to your industry and/or niche
  • Quality content that is useful to your audience
  • Topics that attract great click through rates (CTR)
  • Optimized web pages and blogs that rank in Google SERPs
  • Consistent content distribution via multiple channels

Content marketing encompasses a number of online channels. Create and post your content on your website’s blog, in YouTube videos, social media, and more. In a way, content marketing is at the core of your overall marketing mixup.

2. Social Media Marketing Is Critical to Small Business Growth

“There is a saying that if it is not happening on social media, it simply is not happening. This is pretty true for the most part, since many consumers turn to their favorite social media channels for product recommendations, news, and business updates. So while SEO is huge, I would never recommend putting all your eggs in one basket. Even if the vast majority of your customers come from Google, they might check you out on FB or Yelp before making a buying decision.” says Matt Bertram, co-host of BestSEOPodcast.com

In fact, some small businesses don’t even have websites. These businesses operate solely on social media networks like Facebook or LinkedIn. Yes, LinkedIn is a social media channel, and if you are B2B, it is a very important social media channel to master.

Post content within your content marketing strategy (see #1 for details) consistently on social media. The social media posts should be enticing and serve up value for your audience. If not, you will lack engagement, like shares, comments, and likes.

3. Influencer Marketing Can Jumpstart Growth

If you want max growth for your small business, influencer marketing is a must. There are a few ways to measure business growth, such as more website traffic, increased qualified leads, and greater sales. Influencer marketing ticks all these boxes.

“Social media is occupying an ever-larger segment of the marketing sector, and is becoming increasingly influential for most business markets,” explained Neal Schaffer of business.com. “That’s why everyone should be using influencers as organic social media becomes more difficult for most businesses.”

How do you get your influencer marketing strategy moving in a powerful direction? Here are a few steps to consider:

  • Find social media influencers that are in your industry
  • Ensure the influencers you are considering have a good engagement rate (views, comments, shares, etc.)
  • Connect with the influencers for paid promotions on their social media channel
  • Collaborate with the influencer, do not dictate (let them be creative)
  • Measure results of the influencer marketing campaigns
  • Rinse and repeat

The above steps are a bit more in-depth than that, but you certainly get the idea. Just be sure you are partnering with the right social media influencers to achieve your small business growth goals.

4. Get All You Can From Email Marketing

This is one of the most important marketing strategies small businesses simply miss the mark on. Email marketing is not dead, despite what the naysayers put out online. Email marketing is very much alive, and remains a viable marketing strategy for max growth.

In fact, a 2019 study found that email marketing has an ROI of $42 for every dollar spent. That is insane growth potential for any small business. However, your email campaigns need to be effective.

Email marketing best practices include:

  • Have an easy opt-in lead capture a few places on your small business website
  • Do not sell to your email subscribers (spam emails equals high unsubscribe rate)
  • Give subscribers actionable, informative content they will find valuable
  • Have a subtle call to action that adds benefit for subscribers to click through
  • Email consistently, but do not overdo it

Wrapping Up . . .

The above small business marketing strategies for max growth will certainly get your business moving the needle in the right direction. Be sure to stay consistent and combine all four of these strategies for best results. Did we miss a top marketing strategy for small businesses? We want to hear from you.

Michael Zhou is a Senior VP of Business Intelligence Development and has assisted the Fortune 1000 company with expertise in the web as a whole, including ground-zero marketing efforts that benefit both consumer and vendor. He is also contributor on Esprittoday.

Small business marketing stock photo by 88studio/Shutterstock