Posted by Digital marketing tips for small businesses
Today, I’ll demonstrate a variety of marketing methods that have a track record of success for small businesses. Half of these possibilities are likely to be feasible growth plans for your specific company.
Four of these are likely to be worth trying out in the coming month. And one of them has the ability to propel your business to new heights in the next year. If you’re looking for low-cost ways to promote your mobile app, these are great options.
Once you’ve established product/market fit, scaling your business is a simple question of front-end marketing and back-end customer retention. You will know exactly what to do next with your marketing by the end of this article.
There is no such thing as a magical marketing strategy. Also Zintego.com is a helpful platform for online businesses.
Marketing’s purpose is to link your company’s value to a suitable client base. It’s a simple concept with a million possible variations.
- What are the demographics of your clientele?
- What city do they call home?
- What websites do they frequent?
- What do people look for when they’re looking for products in your niche?
- When it comes to making decisions about your goods, who do they listen to
- Which marketing methods are viable and which are a waste of time are determined by the answers to these questions.
There is no one-size-fits-all plan that will transform your company. Because I don’t know you, I have no idea what will work for you. I’m not familiar with your line of work. I’m not familiar with your clients.
But, thankfully, you’re an expert in your field! You DO have a good understanding of your clientele!
And after reading this article, you’ll have a better understanding of the various marketing channels available to you, any of which could be the key to your future success.
We’ll talk about eight different channels, all of which will be handled entirely online. The other eight are a little more generic, with tactics that can be implemented even if you’re not online (although many have online applications as well).
1. Facebook Advertising
Facebook is used by two million small and medium-sized enterprises to promote; it’s a cheap and effective way to reach almost any demographic.
Advanced targeting is a strength of Facebook ads. They let you to target a specific audience based on criteria such as geography, interests, age, sex, internet behavior, and many others.
It’s simple to make Facebook advertising. Only a strong headline, some descriptive prose, one image, and a link are required.
The Facebook Ads Manager also makes running and testing many ad sets relatively simple, allowing you to zero down on a winning formula and reach profitability without requiring sophisticated technical knowledge.
However, many novice users have a hard time succeeding with their first campaigns. It takes some perseverance, but the popularity of Facebook has resulted in a plethora of third-party programs that can assist you.
If you decide that Facebook is the correct channel for you, I recommend using AdEspresso to manage your campaigns and accelerate your path to a good ROI.
If you run a business with a significant visual component, Instagram Ads might be a better option. Instagram Ads, being a Facebook subsidiary, has access to the same data and targeting capabilities as Facebook Ads, while also allowing you to interact with an audience that is more receptive to visual sales.
2. Google My Business
One of the most significant things you can do for your business is to rank your Google My Business (GMB) listing.
In fact, if you run a local firm with local clients, I’d go so far as to say it’s THE most effective method you have.
If you can get your GMB listing to rank in the top three, you can get a steady stream of highly qualified leads without spending a dollar on marketing.
Google My Business brings together all of your Google accounts into one spot, including your Google+ page, Google Maps profile, Google reviews, Google Analytics and Google Insights data, and more.
If you have a distinctive brand name, you may even have a massive display like this to appear when people search for it:
GMB gives your business instant reputation and visibility, and as I previously stated, if you run a local business, it should be at the top of your priority list.
And, best of all, ranking your Google My Business listing isn’t all that difficult. All you have to do is enhance your profile and then start collecting reviews and citations.
3. Google Adwords
Every second, Google receives around 40,000 search queries. No other advertising approach has the potential to expose your company to such a large number of people.
Google Adwords is known as the “godfather” of online advertising. It’s been around for quite some time. It’s a competitive environment. It’s not cheap. And if you know what you’re doing, it can pay you handsomely.
Despite being a paid channel, Adwords’ purpose remains to provide users with appropriate search results, thus it will be less expensive for you if you employ proper on-page SEO.
Google gives your ad a quality score based on CTR (Click Through Rate), relevancy, and the landing page to which your ad directs traffic. The bid rate you’ll need to get an ad displayed is determined by this quality score, with better scores lowering the bid cost.
Unlike many of the other channels we’ll cover today, Adwords is a remarkably symbiotic channel that can be used in conjunction with a variety of different tactics to maximize results. It also allows you to receive fast results and scale as far as your budget permits as a paid marketing channel.
4. Content Marketing
Content marketing, according to 18 percent of marketers, has the most commercial influence on their business in 2016.
The process of developing and delivering valuable, relevant, and consistent material in order to attract and maintain a clearly defined audience and generate profitable consumer action is referred to as content marketing.
Content marketing, unlike paid advertising, is more concerned with long-term results. The first payout is usually low, but long-term, consistent growth in visits, leads, and customers can run a business on its own.
Content marketing, on the other hand, is not simple and necessitates perfection in all aspects:
Quality content
Relevant topics
Optimized for SEO
Optimized for readers
Consistent content creation & promotion
Blog posts aren’t the only source of content. It includes videos, podcasts, online courses, and a variety of other information-gathering modalities.
If you’re thinking about implementing this method for your own company, make sure you have the time and capital to get started with no immediate return, and then DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Too many firms are squandering resources these days by developing substandard content that will never pay off, now or in the future.
Read Also: What Is Digital Strategy? Examples and Importance in Business
5. Organic Social Media
Using social networking for business is an absolute must.
Consumers utilize social media for customer service in 67 percent of cases, with 33 percent preferring it to calling. People will look for your competitors who ARE active on preferred social channels if they can’t locate your business on social media.
The actual question is how much time and resources you should devote to expanding your social audiences, not whether business should have active social media accounts.
It makes sense for certain businesses to spend extensively in organic social media growth.
Instagram users who follow fashion influencers, for example, are constantly looking to buy new outfits. A clothes store can create a regular direct sales channel by cultivating an active, fashion-savvy audience.
social networking that is natural
Investing in Instagram may not make sense for other firms.
The idea is to figure out where your customers are and how to reach them. If you can answer yes to both of these questions, social media is the right platform for you.
6. Coupon Deal Sites
You may utilize coupon deal sites like Groupon to swiftly market your business, whether you sell a product or provide a service.
Coupon deal sites accumulate large audiences, which are then segmented by geography, and allow local, regional, and even national businesses to provide limited-time discounts to their members.
Mass exposure, targeted local advertising, enhanced brand knowledge, and an influx of new customers are just a few of the advantages. The price is paid in the form of a low profit each sale. In the case of Groupon, you must discount your product by at least 50%, with Groupon receiving at least half of the income.
In other words, unless you mark up your Groupon sale by 300 percent, you will lose money. It’s simply a form of paid promotion.
The primary motivation for using coupon deal websites is not to save money. The greater the discount, the more popular your offer will be. The idea is to get customers in the door or to give your product a try, and then your customer retention methods take over.
As an added incentive, even if they don’t decide to buy the deal, many new potential buyers will visit your website.
But be cautious!
If your deal takes off, you can find yourself with more consumers than you can handle, and if you don’t perform the arithmetic correctly, you might lose a lot of money. It’s critical to be prepared and have a strategy in place for dealing with various levels of new business.
It’s also critical to provide excellent customer service after your bargain has ended, with the expectation that coupon-driven clients would be much more difficult to please than regular customers.
COMPLETE YOUR HOMEWORK. Keep an eye on the offers that are going on in your neighborhood to see how they turn out.
And, for the love of everything good and reasonable, make sure you do the arithmetic.
7. Email Marketing
The cornerstone of digital marketing is email marketing.
The majority of visitors that visit your website will not buy from you right away. In 2016, the greatest strategy to sell is to collect contact information for subsequent marketing and “lead nurturing,” and email remains the most effective medium for communicating with leads.
A “lead magnet” is the first step in an email marketing funnel. In exchange for their email address, you give something attractive to your website visitors. A free digital download, a free service trial, a “seat” at a webinar, site membership, a discount, and so on are all possibilities.
Here’s an example from HubSpot:
Email Marketing
HubSpot provides a free email marketing solution that is both trustworthy and feature-rich, making it ideal for developing organizations. You may use the tool to make professional marketing emails that will engage and develop your audience. You can start from scratch using the simple drag-and-drop email builder, or you can use one of the goal-based templates.
Other benefits of email marketing include:
Low cost
Global reach
Easy to automate
Easy to segment
Immediate communication
Easy to setup and run
Easy to track and optimize
Many marketing channels are difficult to use. As you can see from the list above, email marketing is one of the few activities that can be classified as “simple.”
8. Webinars
A webinar is a virtual seminar that takes place over the internet. It could take the shape of a presentation, a demonstration, or a debate.
Webinars are frequently utilized as email marketing lead magnets, and the correct topic can bring in a huge number of new subscribers. It can also be utilized to increase the trustworthiness of your present subscribers.
Webinars can also be recorded and sold as a single product or as part of a series. They’re an excellent choice for live and recorded instruction.
Even if they are used in the same way, webinars tend to be more interesting than plain films. People tend to feel like they are getting considerably more value from a live Q&A than if they were viewing a film with the exact same material because of the actual start time and live Q&A.
To run a webinar that has the following features, you’ll require webinar software:
2-Way Audio — the presenter speaks while the audience is silent, but the presenter can “turn on” particular viewers so that everyone hears their question.
For whiteboard training or live demonstrations, the presenter can share their screen or switch to video.
Polls — the host can ask viewers to participate in a poll or provide input in various ways.
In some niches, webinars are extremely effective. You’ll have to put one to the test to see if it appeals to your intended audience.
9. Promote A Free Consultation
People demand access to expertise when it comes to professional services.
Promoting a free consultation is a terrific approach to attract new leads if you have done a good job of portraying yourself as an expert or authority in your niche. It also sets you up to close a big percentage of leads if you have a good interpersonal sales procedure in place.
strategy of no-cost consultation
Many service providers are concerned about divulging too much information during a free consultation. They believe that potential clients will simply take the information and leave.
The precise reverse is true in reality. Freeloader types might grab and leave, but they were never going to buy in the first place. The value you deliver in the consultation will impress the type of folks who are willing to pay for quality.
After all, if you can deliver so much value in 30 minutes to an hour, they’ll believe you’re telling the truth and that employing you is the best decision they’ve ever made.
This can be used both on and off the internet. Pamphlets, newspapers, signs, and even word-of-mouth can be used to promote it. It can also be shown prominently on your website and social media outlets.
This method isn’t right for every firm, but if you provide a high-priced service or an expert one, it’s well worth trying.
10. Offer Staff Incentives
One of the best methods to acquire new clients is through referrals, and who better to ask for references than your current employees?
Your personnel are knowledgeable about your product or service. They are familiar with your clientele. Some will take initiative without financial incentive, but the majority will not, and those you bring in new business should be encouraged to repeat the process with monetary or other relevant incentives.
Provide incentives to your employees who bring in new clients. According to research, incentives do not have to be monetary; they can also take the form of:
A sleep-in day allows employees to sleep in late for a set amount of time.
Publication subscriptions (of their choice).
Massages, movie evenings, and restaurant vouchers are all available.
Incentives, like any sort of compensation, are about aligning your company’s goals with your employees’ ambitions. You can motivate people to help you expand your business if you can figure out what they desire most.
It’s also critical to provide them with the resources they require, whether that’s a personalized landing page, printed coupons, a special discount for employees who recommend clients, or anything else.
Hold training sessions to teach your employees how to effectively promote your company, but keep in mind that this type of marketing will only work if they actually care about it and are well trained.
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