Today, we’re going to show you how to master marketing for small business, step-by-step.
In fact, we use the same 6 strategies from this post to drive millions of results like…
visitors,
…leads,
…and sales.
So if you want to figure out marketing for small business even if you don’t have a clue about how it works, make sure to read this entire post.
When we first started our agency in 2011, we were completely lost.
We knew digital was the future of marketing, but we had no experience with it.
So, we did what everybody does…
We researched blogs, followed influencers, and heck, we even took classes.
We took everything we learned and put it into practice with a handful of clients.
Unfortunately, the generic advice and well thought “concepts” from class didn’t translate to results.
So we decided to figure out digital marketing for ourselves.
Our agency personally tested hundreds of digital marketing ideas to see what really works.
And, we finally cracked the code.
And today, we’re so excited to share what we learned to drive hundreds of results for ourselves, clients and employees. Here are 6 effective marketing strategies for your small business:
Let’s get into it!
Effective Marketing Strategies for Small Business
Marketing Strategy 1: Develop Your Digital Assets
Now you might be asking yourself, “What exactly are digital assets?”.
We all know, an asset is anything that drives cash flow.
So if you had a rental property, then your asset could be your house.
And if you have a business, then your asset could be your website.
There are our three digital assets we recommend you have before you even think about marketing.
You need:
- A website
- A drip sequence (email or text sequence of reminders)
- High-quality photography or video
Now with all three of these things, there is something you need to know.
And that is in order for them to work effectively, you have to have a high-quality design.
Because let’s face it. No one wants to buy an ugly design no matter how great your marketing is.
There’s a lot of reasons why you may need these assets, so we’ll sum it up in a few simple points.
A. You need a place where people can find you… which is your website.
B. You need a place where you can follow up with potential customers, automatically… which is your drip sequence.
C. You need to make a great first impression… with high-quality photos and videos.
Also, the rest of the strategies work best when these assets are in place, which brings us to our second tip,
Marketing Strategy 2: Use SEO or Search Engine Optimization
What if we told you people are looking for you right now?
They literally are begging for your products and services. They have a big problem and only you (and a handful of others) can actually solve it.
Think of SEO like a mall.
Some people go to the mall to shop. Businesses go to the mall to sell things people shop for.
SEO is the biggest mall on the internet. Some people go to search engines to shop so your business needs to be there too.
So how can you get started with SEO? Here are 3 SEO tips you need to do.
SEO Tip #1: You need to do some keyword research.
Our friends at Google have an amazing tool called “Google Keyword Planner” which allows you to see things people are searching for.
This can give you hundreds of keywords suggestions along with their monthly search volume. This makes it super easy to figure out what terms and keywords you need to focus on.
Even if your industry is small, there are likely some keywords your audience is searching for.
Here’s an example of search volume for call center analytics, which is obviously a very super niche B2B service that people are looking for.
So definitely, don’t doubt the power of SEO.
SEO Tip #2: You need to do some on-page optimization.
Once you have your keywords in place, you must make it easy for search engines to find them.
Popular search engines like Google have bots that crawl pages to help them understand what the page is about. It uses stuff like meta tags, alt tags, H1s, and etc.
Basically, a bunch of techy stuff.
Now hold on. We know that sounds technical and it kinda is, but it can be easily done with tools like YOAST.
YOAST SEO is a plugin for WordPress. With YOAST, you can follow prompts to do on-page optimization.
Here you can easily see what you need to do to optimize your page.
You can see your problems, what needs improvement, and what looks good.
Here are some examples of links we need to fix and image alt tags.
With YOAST, you can see what we’ve done right like Title width and Headline tags.
All you have to do is follow this prompt and on-page optimization suddenly becomes A LOT easier to digest.
SEO Tip #3: You need to repeat this process of SEO again and again while tracking results.
The harsh truth is that SEO takes time- at least 6-12 months.
The key to great SEO is to keep going with your theory and projects without waiting on traffic.
When you go from not ranking for a keyword to ranking #77 then that is great momentum!
That means you’re doing something right.
Search engines recognize you.
But ranking #77 will probably get no zero traffic. We mean that’s like page 7, and who goes to page 7?
So remember to keep going, be consistent even when you’re not getting some initial traffic.
Just know that in time, the traffic will come.
Marketing Strategy 3: Use PPC – Pay Per Click on Search Engines
So if search engines are like the biggest mall on the internet where people go and buy things, PPC is like prime real estate in the mall.
It’s like having a retail space that everyone gets to see first.
But there’s usually an extra cost for the prime space.
So pay per click is very similar to SEO. People are looking for what you have to offer.
The difference?
Instead of having to wait 12 months before you start seeing traffic, you can spend money and get in front of the people looking for you.
Right now.
Here’s an example.
You searched for “XYZ”.
And when you ran that search, you saw these ads. Every time you click on that ad, that respective company pays for it.
Hence the phrase, pay per click.
Here’s an example of one of our clients using our PPC services.
The costs for PPC vary based on the keyword and audience. But again, Google has us covered with the keyword planner which will give you an estimate of the costs you can expect.
Here are three things you need to know for PPC:
PPC Tip #1: Keyword research
Since we’re talking about doing PPC on search engines, keyword research is still necessary.
You can rewind back to point 1 if you need a refresher on how keyword research works.
PPC Tip #2: Your CTR matters… a lot
CTR stands for click through rate, which is simply the amount of times people click on your ad vs the impressions the ad receives.
Now CTR can get pretty deep, so we’ll link a post up for anyone who really wants to learn more.
But essentially, you want to create search engine ads that have a high click through rate, so you can drive as much traffic as possible.
PPC Tip #3: On-page optimization
We also talked about this in tip #2.
However, since we’re paying for the traffic now, we have one additional tip.
Whenever possible, make sure you try to capture your leads.
This means having landing pages that are very clear, concise and have ONE CTA – which is to contact you!
Here’s an example of a landing page we’ve built for ads.
On this page, there is no menu for our visitors. And we made it very simple.
All you have the ability to do is take our CTA (which is to download the cheat sheet) or leave. This helps our conversion rate skyrocket and better track the money we’re spending on PPC advertising.
And, one more thing.
Pay-per-click allows you to skip the line but it will bring your overall profit down.
So before you get started, you should consider how much you can spend on marketing and still be profitable.
It’s no secret. Social media is a massive platform for people to connect.
So if you’re thinking that your customer or audience isn’t on social media?
Then think again.
Platforms like Facebook have more users than the size of the 3 United States.
Precisely, over 2 billion users.
That’s massive. So trust us, your customers are on Facebook.
So that means there is an opportunity for businesses.
However, the difference between social media and SEO is the intent behind them.
When people go on social media, they are looking for people – they’re looking for their friends, family, celebrities.
They’re NOT looking at your products unlike on search engines.
So that means in order to capture attention, you have to create great content which is valuable.
And sneak peak… That doesn’t mean listing 100 ways your product can help.
No one cares.
Here are two simple tips to creating content:
Social Media Tip #1: Listen
Before you begin posting, you should listen very carefully to your audience.
And by listening, we mean joining their groups, reading their comments, and seeing who they are following.
This will allow you to learn about what your audience’s challenges and goals are.
Once you do this then it’s time for the most important step.
Social Media Tip #2: Create Valuable Content
Most people will tell you content is king.
Quality over quantity.
But what they really mean is that you need to know your brand, colors, headlines and stuff people respond to.
So you can sell your stuff.
We tried, it didn’t work.
Not in the 2023 social media era, 2024 social, or beyond.
That time has long passed.
What you have to do is create value.
Create stuff that makes your audience life better.
Then and only then, do you have the opportunity to sell them.
Remember, SEO is like the mall. If someone walks into your store then it’s appropriate to talk to them about your products and services.
In fact, it’s expected.
On the other hand, social media is like a park.
You wouldn’t want the first thing you do when you approach a stranger to say, “Hey, my call center analytics have up to 25 users”.
That’s a no-no.
So create value. Here’s some stuff LYFE Marketing does for ourselves and clients. And hopefully, this gives you some ideas.
Quotes, infographics and share results.
Here’s a quote example:
Here’s an infographic:
Here’s some results:
Every step of the way, we are giving people value. And people connect with it which allows us to grow.
Now here are two bonus tips for social media organic growth- volume and consistency.
Most people won’t tell you or lack the experience to know that volume is the key to organic social media growth.
The game is actually quantity over quality game NOT quality over quantity.
Let’s look at one of the biggest fashion brands online, Fashion Nova.
They posted over 54K times.
Here you can see as we’re writing this post, they posted 10 times in the last 24 hours.
And the posts aren’t crazy special either.
Now obviously, quality matters and you have to give value. For Fashion Nova, value translates into special offers and looks.
On a scale from 1-10, we rank quantity a 10 and quality is a 6 ½.
Remember, social media is like a being at a park.
Social media ads are like having a stand at the park.
You may get some eyeballs but not everyone at the park is there for you. They’re there to have fun, enjoy a picnic, take a walk, or something similar.
So it’s even more important to create ads that compel people to click or visit you.
And when you do, you can get some pretty massive results.
Just take a look at some of the work we did for Revice.
They generated over $50K in revenue in a single month.
The best part? It’s that they only spent $14K.
That’s $24 per purchase, which for them, is a profitable sale.
But remember, just like with PPC on search engines, you have to know your costs.
Otherwise, you can dig a deep hole that is very difficult to climb out of.
In other words, unprofitable sales.
So how can you start using social media advertising to drive results?
Well unlike, social media management, volume isn’t necessary.
We’ve seen 1 ad drive thousands of results.
But that one ad has to be good.
It’s impossible for us to give an exact formula on creating an ad because it really depends on your audience.
Think about it, dog lovers will respond better to images of dogs in the ads. And ads targeting women may respond better to the color pink.
However, keep these things in mind:
Social Media Advertising Tip #1: Create an ad that provides value first.
Social Media Advertising Tip #2: People read headlines before copy and descriptions.
Social Media Advertising Tip #3: Use Emojis to capture emotions
Social Media Advertising Tip #4: Use high quality images or videos
Now most of these things are self explanatory, so we’ll just share a quick example of how we create them.
This is a wrestling training course.
We started with providing value.
We promoted a free eBook on nutrition for wrestlers in exchange for email addresses.
Put together a headline based on their goals, used emojis, and a high quality image.
Your ad will determine about 40% of your success.
The other 40%?
Your audience.
Since you made it this far, here’s a special BONUS advance level tip.
Warm audiences convert nearly 10x better than cold audiences.
A warm audience means these people have heard of you before. They have visited your website, saw you at an event or something of that nature.
A cold audience are people who don’t know you but may be interested in what you have to offer.
If you have the luxury of using warm or custom audiences then you’re going to have a higher success rate.
Additionally, with custom audiences you are able to create a high performing cold audience called a Lookalike Audience.
Further, social media advertising is an environment where testing is necessary.
It can take many variations of ads and audiences before you crack the code. That means you can waste some money while trying to figure out how to best connect with your audience.
Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to this and it’s the cost of advertising online.
Marketing Strategy 6: Hire Consultant or Agency
Lastly, our last recommendation is to hire a digital marketing consultant or agency.
We help guide you through uncharted territory.
A marketing consultant is usually an individual who can help you with marketing.
On the other hand, an agency is usually a group of consultants.
Bias aside, an agency can provide you with more stability than dealing with one individual. This is because an individual can get sick or find a better opportunity leaving your marketing out to dry.
Regardless, you want to work with someone who has experience.
There are a lot of people who will read this post and decide they can do this for clients too.
Which is great!!
But there are a lot of nuisances, and you want to make sure you hire someone who can smoothly guide you while predicting outcomes.
Oh and by the way, never ever hire an intern.
An intern is basically someone who will drain your time by asking question after question.
The best interns have some bright ideas, but really lack the experience to take the lead.
So the majority of the time, they wind up following your instructions which defeats the whole purpose behind hiring someone to help guide you.
So remember, focus on experience over price because a lack of experience will wind up costing you more in wasted time.
Takeaways
Let’s look at the six digital marketing tips we recommend.
- Develop Assets
- Use SEO
- Use PPC on Search Engines
- Use Social Media Management
- Use PPC on Social Media
- Hire an Experienced Agency or Consultant
All these channels and strategies will help with marketing your small business.
However, don’t try this all at once.
Our recommendation is to take your time and focus on 1-2 channels, ESPECIALLY, when you’re first starting out.
More than that, it can be overwhelming and expensive.
So if you have decided to invest your money in something that will give you guaranteed results, don’t hesitate to contact us today. We’d love to hear from you!
Other Small Business Marketing Resources
- 30 Small Business Marketing Tools
- Top 20 Small Business Marketing Strategies to Drive More Traffic & Customers
- 25 Small Business Marketing Ideas to Help Grow Your Business
- 10 Proven SMB Marketing Strategies That Will Work For You
- Small Business Website Design: A Guide on How to Get Started
- Marketing 101: The Basics of Marketing for Small Businesses
- Proven 3-Step Website Design Formula For Small Businesses
- How To Optimize Your Small Business Marketing Budget