Marketing is an important part of running a small business. You will need to invest some money into marketing your business in order to get customers through the door.
How much you should spend on marketing is a question every small business owner asks at some point. There are many ways to promote your business and at many different price points.
Some methods are more effective than others, however, and that is what you need to find out.
Marketing can be broken down into three main categories: passive, active, and direct marketing. Each of these has different cost levels associated with them, as well as different returns on investment (ROI) depending on the level of effort required by the small business owner.
Now that you know the basics of marketing, it’s time to put them into practice. Create a marketing plan that includes all of the above strategies, and add in some personal touches too.
For example, if you do not have funds for advertising, try creating some quality content and sharing it on your social media accounts, or contacting local business groups to do the same.
Contacting businesses to sponsor your events is also a free way to spread the word about your business. People like supporting local businesses, so this may be an easy way to get some traffic.
Putting it all together: Now that you have learned about marketing your small business, it’s time to put it into action! Make sure to refresh this information as you progress in your small business and at any stage of growth.
Remember: Marketing is a constant process that requires maintenance.
Now that you know who your customer is, it’s time to figure out what they want. What concerns do they have? What are their biggest pain points?
For example, if your target customer is middle-aged parents, one concern may be saving for their children’s college education. Another concern may be staying fit and healthy.
By knowing this, you can create marketing campaigns that address these concerns. For example, you can create a campaign around saving for college education by offering a free consultation on how to do so through your services. You can also create a fitness plan that helps people stay fit and healthy.
The key is to understand what your target customer wants and needs, and deliver that to them through your marketing campaigns.
Before you can spend money on marketing, you have to know who you’re marketing to. This is called identifying your target market.
Most businesses have a general sense of who their customers are and what type of people buy their products or use their services. You need to dig deeper and find out more about your potential customers.
What are the characteristics of your typical customer? What are their demographics? Are they young or old, men or women? Where do they live? What is their educational level?
You should be able to answer these questions with confidence after doing some in-depth research.
If you’re a fitness trainer, for example, you should be able to describe your typical client: a middle-aged woman who lives in the surrounding area, is married with two kids, has a college degree, and can afford your services.
Whether you market to other fitness trainers or local women looking to stay fit and healthy, this is who you target.
Choosing a niche for your business is an important step in determining how to market your business. By focusing your marketing efforts on a small subset of all businesses, you can be more effective with your campaigns.
There are many ways to identify a niche for your business. One of the easiest ways is to look at what products or services you offer and who your target customer base is. What kinds of people or groups buy from you?
What are their demographics, such as age, gender, ethnicity, income level, and location? What problems do they want solved?
By answering these questions, you can find several key elements of a niche that fit your business. Add more elements to narrow the focus even more.
For example, if you sell fitness equipment for home use, you could narrow down the niche by gender (women’s fitness gear), type of equipment (yoga mats), or location (regional beach volleyball players).
Marketing doesn’t have to be an in-depth, expensive process. In fact, creating engaging social media accounts and actively using them is a great start.
You do not need to have a large following to get your business out there. Giving people an easy way to find you is a great start!
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are the main social media platforms used. You can create free ads on all of these and manage them yourself which saves money.
If you are not familiar with how to use them then ask someone who is to invest some time into learning how to make it effective for your business. Your followers will appreciate the updates too!
Social media is constantly changing so keeping up with the new features and learning how to use them for your business is important.
Advertising is a good place to start when thinking about how to market your business. There are many places to invest in advertising, such as newspaper and magazine ads, radio ads, TV commercials, billboards, and direct mail campaigns.
Newspaper and magazine ads are a more traditional route to take. Many people still rely on print materials to find businesses and services, so this is a solid investment.
Radio ads are relatively cheap and can easily be done on an app or via email for payment. This is a great option for smaller budgets!
Billboards are very visible but also very expensive. Depending on the location of the billboard, this could be a great investment for visibility, but it is definitely not one that anyone can take on easily.
As with any large investment, it is important to do research on the legitimacy of the company or person selling the advertising space.
A website is the corner stone of marketing in the digital age. In this day and age, people expect your business to have an online presence.
Having a simple website that showcases who you are, what you do, and how people can find you is a must. Even if you do not have a lot of content at this point, it is important to have one.
Having a website shows potential clients and customers that you are committed to your business and serious about your content. It provides an easy way for them to learn about you and connect with you.
There are many websites that are free to make, but have paid upgrades that provide more features and better looks.
A powerful way to market your business is to write a blog. You can write about topics related to your business or your industry, or you can write about personal experiences related to your business or your field.
Do not worry if you are not a super blogger. You are a business person, not a blogger! You have expertise in your field and that is what matters.
By writing a blog, you put yourself out there and will attract new followers and customers. Customers who subscribe to your blog may even become regulars customers depending on what you post.
It is important to invest time into creating quality content for your posts so that people will stay engaged and come back for more.
