Marketing is one thing that many small business owners would rather not “bother” themselves with. Unfortunately, without marketing you cannot really achieve that success you so desire.
Of course, as a small business owner you would rather want to spend your time running your business since you are good at that. But it's a fact that simply building it and waiting for people to find their way to you is living in dream land.
If your target audience must know about you, you must market your business one way or the other!
So, the question is not IF but HOW! You simply must have a strategy in place to ensure that you are top of mind for your target audience. If you don’t do this, remember your competition is waiting by the side to take advantage of the situation.
Do you now see why marketing is something you must take seriously as a small business owner? Wondering how you can do this even when you do not know much about marketing or you simply do not have the time?
Let me quickly say that no matter the niche you are in, marketing you small businesses should be virtually effortless! It is not something you should struggle about.
Here are…
7 Proven Ways to Market Your Small Business Starting Now
1. Create a Regular Podcast
Podcasts are becoming more and more popular, and it doesn’t take a lot of effort to create one. If you can take an hour or two every so often to plan and make a helpful, valuable podcast, the customers will come flocking to you. Talk about interesting things in your industry, give tips, and even consider interviewing other people who you find inspiring. If you make them good enough, you’ll get a loyal following!
2. Write a Weekly Email Newsletter
Writing a weekly email newsletter to keep your followers and customers updated won’t take very long, and it’s a simple way to show them you’re still there. You can include all kinds of information in your newsletters, from what you’ve all been getting up to, to any exciting events coming up. Let your personality show through and show your readers that you’re human too.
3. Sign Up to Facebook
Facebook is one of the biggest and most popular social media sites today, so it’s a no brainer. You should build a business page and use it to market your business. You’ll be able to target your audience way more effectively, and get to know them a little more. There are so many ways that social media is beneficial. Not only will you be able to get valuable feedback, you can also provide top notch customer service. It doesn’t have to be Facebook you choose either; if you think you’ll find more of your market on Instagram or Twitter, then join them. Just make sure you don’t join more than you can handle.
4. Start an Exciting Giveaway
A giveaway is one of the most effective ways to get attention. If you give something worthwhile away, you should get lots of exposure thanks to your give away. Ask people to like it, share it with their friends, and follow your social media pages to get the most benefit from it.
5. Show Your Loyal Customers That You Care
A small business should recognize a loyal customer when they see one. Offer loyalty cards for your customers, so they can get money off or build up points. Send out emails to them with discount codes. You could simply send them a handwritten thank you note and a few chocolates to show them you appreciate their custom!
6. Update Your Site
Keep your site updated regularly so that you don’t begin to look stale or outdated. You’ll also want to make sure that you stay updated when it comes to things like onsite SEO. As SEO is always changing, you need to stay on the ball. Learn how Australian websites can recover local SEO from Google pigeon to give you an idea of what can happen.
7. Write a Weekly Blog
Write a quality blog each week to help your customers with something they may be confused about or want more information on. Give away your expertise and they’ll be more likely to work with you!
Conclusion
Can you now see that you have no excuse not to market your business properly? You can start even now by taking a couple of these ideas and working on them until you feel comfortable with what you are doing. Of course, once you have starting one tactic you can always add another on. Then another one. And then another one!
Make marketing your small business fun. Get going!
I have been on social media for a while now, but this is still a great guide. I see now that I need to do a couple things to really complete my social media strategy. Thanks!
Hello Chadrack, thank you for your tips, I find is hard to figger out how all those social media sites exactly are working, G+ and Twitter I get the hang of it now, normal Facebook too. But the business pages of Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest and Tumblr are still a mystery to me.
Btw: Congratiolation for winning the webpage lottery.
Greetings Loes
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