When you run your own business time is often in short supply. It’s easy to push marketing to the bottom of the to-do list when deadlines are looming. But what happens when the project finishes?
Adopting a good marketing plan and setting time aside each week to work on this can help further your business and bring in a steady stream of work.
Here are our top 20 useful marketing tips for small businesses.
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Marketing Plan
Writing a marketing plan may sound like an obvious step but many people miss this out. A good marketing plan will help you to establish your goals, work out strategies and monitor and evaluate the success of your campaigns.
If you’ve never written a marketing plan before this may seem daunting but there are number of guides and templates that can help you get started.
The Business Link website offers lots of advice on this subject:
We use the SOSTAC® framework to help with our planning:
The Chartered Institute of Marketing website provides a number of guides and toolkits that are free to download:
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Purpose and Audience
With any marketing campaign think carefully about your purpose and audience. Ask yourself the following questions: What are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to sell a specific product or service, create awareness of a brand or maybe increase subscribers or readership? Try to be as specific as possible. Pinning down the purpose can help determine the best marketing tools.
Think carefully about your audience. Who are your customers? Try to segment them into different groups. Rather than sending out blanket campaigns target specific groups with tailored communications.
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Promote your Website Address
Make sure your website address is included in all literature. This includes your email signature, business cards, flyers, brochures, signage and packaging.
If you own a bricks and mortar store include a postcard with your web address to encourage your store customers to shop online and consider providing a money-off incentive.
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Press Packs
Put together an online press pack and make it as easy as possible for media companies to access it. This may include PDF versions of press releases, downloadable images in a variety of resolutions, lookbooks, newsletters, video content, along with background information about the company and useful contacts.
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QR Codes
QR codes or Quick Response codes are cropping up everywhere; in magazines, in printed ads and on billboards. The codes contain information such as web addresses, messages, email addresses etc. and are a quick way for potential customers to grab information about your company as they are scanned and read by mobile phones.
Consider adding a QR code to your literature. There are a number of free QR code generators. Just type ‘QR code generator’ into Google.
Learn More about QR codes on Mashable.
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Email Newsletters
Email newsletters are a great way to remain in contact with your customers and to forward interesting news, special offers, promotions etc. Try to target specific customer groups with tailored content, rather than sending out blanket ‘one size fits all’ mailings.
Tip – When you’re writing email newsletters think carefully about your calls to action and your landing pages. If you direct users to a page on your website then make sure that the page contains useful and pertinent information.
Most good email newsletter suppliers provide access to statistics documenting open and click through rates etc. Monitor your campaigns carefully. Experiment a little and find out what works for your subscribers.
There are a number of companies offering relatively inexpensive email newsletter software. Our favourite is MailChimp which is free for the first 2,000 subscribers provided you don’t exceed their sending limit.
Make sure you are familiar with data protection issues before you begin sending email newsletters. Further details can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website.
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Networking
Consider joining a networking group. Though this may seem a little daunting at first, networking events provide a great opportunity to speak to a number of businesses in a short space of time.
Make sure you take plenty of business cards and any relevant marketing literature. When someone hands you a card jot their details on the back so that you can recall conversations after the event.
Don’t oversell. Networking is all about getting to know people, building up relationships and recommendations.
Remember to follow up with pertinent contacts after the event.
We can personally recommend the following networks:
- Update Your Website
Make sure your website is up-to-date and provides relevant information about your company and its activities. Not only will this encourage repeat visitors but search engines rate websites with regularly updated content more highly than static sites.
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Blog Posts
Update your blog regularly. Blogs provide a great opportunity to connect with your customers. Think carefully about what would add value. For example, if your company is an online shop selling beauty products, then write about beauty regimes, how to achieve different looks and think about adding videos showing how to apply different products. If you’re an events company provide tips and checklists on running successful events. Find out what your customers need to know and provide the answers.
Write about what you know and demonstrate your expertise. Establish yourself as an expert in your field.
Enable comments and invite readers to provide feedback and enter into discussions.
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Guest Blogging
Identify well-respected bloggers in your industry and offer to write a guest blog post. Write about what you know well and find popular blogs that complement your services. In return ask for a link back to your own website.
This is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field and to make yourself known to a wider audience. It will also provide valuable links back to your own website
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SEO
Optimise your website content for the search engines. Many people assume that Search Engine Optimisation is something complex and technical. It’s not. However, it can be time consuming .
Following a few common sense steps can significantly improve your search engine ranking. Most content management systems (CMS) will allow you to optimise your content down to a meta tag level.
If you’re not confident in doing this yourself or you don’t have the time or resources then consider employing a professional company to do this for you.
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Ads
A good understanding of your audience will throw up a surprising number of opportunities. Where do your customers go? What are they like? What do they read? What do they watch? Where do they live? How do they travel?
Ads need not be expensive. Many trade publications and websites will offer reasonably priced options. Always check on readership and distribution and work out exactly what you’re paying for. For example, some websites charge per length of time, some charge based on the number of clicks your ads receive and some on the number of impressions (the number of times your ad is displayed.)
Be creative. Consider a variety of options. Consider trade publications, billboards, public transport, local press etc. as well as online options such as Pay Per Click, social media ads, affiliates, online magazines, directories, blogs and websites.
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Local Press
Journalists at local newspapers are always looking for newsworthy stories. The word ‘newsworthy’ is key here. Think carefully about what will make a good story and familiarise yourself with the publication to work out what type of stories they publish.
Always send new releases to named contacts and follow up.
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Social Media
Treat social media like any other form of marketing. i.e. work out which (if any) social media platforms your customers / potential customers are using. There’s no point in spending hours updating your Facebook page if your customers don’t use Facebook.
Define your purpose. What are you trying to achieve? Try to be specific and tailor your content accordingly.
Don’t just jump in. Do your research and plan carefully. Think about putting together a social media strategy and ensure that all members of staff adhere to this.
Useful Articles:
7 Steps For a Successful Social Media Strategy by Social Media Examiner
6 Steps in Developing a Social Media Strategy by Click Z
Creating a social media strategy for B2B organisations by eConsultancy
Why your best social media strategy might be not having one by eConsultancy
10 reasons you need a social media strategy by Smart Insights
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Online Magazines and Blogs
When preparing press releases and press packs, don’t forget online publications and blogs. One significant advantage online publications have over printed press is that reactions can be immediate. If visitors see something they like they can click through to your website straight away.
Get to know the prominent online writers and bloggers in your field.
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Utilising Existing Customers
This sounds obvious but don’t forget your existing customers. Many companies spend all their time trying to attract new business but forget about their existing clients.
For B2B companies, schedule in regular catch ups to see how you can help. Keep clients informed of updates and new services.
For B2C companies segmentation is key. Where possible send out tailored content that is relevant to them.
Blogs and social media are a great way to interact with your customers.
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Trust
People work with people they trust. There are a number of ways to establish this in your marketing activities and particularly on your website.
- For B2B companies consider adding a testimonials page to your website. Ask your clients for a short paragraph on their experience with your company. Potential clients are more likely to trust what other people say about you than what you say about yourself.
- Case studies are a great way to outline how you have helped a particular company and the benefits they have received as a result.
- An online portfolio will act as a 24/7 showcase of your work to allow potential clients to work out whether you’re a good fit.
- Displaying the logos of professional trade bodies and industry associations will also help establish you within your sector.
- If you sell online, customer reviews are a great way to encourage people to purchase from your website. Research has shown that even slightly negative reviews can have a positive impact as it establishes honesty. Also, what one customer didn’t like about a product may not be relevant to another customer and will not necessarily dissuade them from buying.
- Displaying credit card symbols and security logos can also help reassure online shoppers and it is important to ensure that your terms and conditions, delivery and returns policies are easily accessible on your website.
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Content, Content, Content
There’s a reason that people say ‘content is king’. Providing good quality, up-to-date content can demonstrate your skills and knowledge and establish you as an expert in your field. At the same time you can provide a value-add service and promote your company to a wider audience.
Consider creating content in different forms and sharing via social networks.
- Blog posts and news articles
- Micro blogging via Twitter
- Email newsletters
- Video content can be shared via YouTube and Vimeo
- Images via sites such as Flickr and Pinterest.
- Online magazines can be produced and shared via sites such as Issuu
- Presentations can be shared via Slideshare.
- Webinars are a useful way of presenting and demonstrating information to groups of people. There’s lots of software that can be used for this purpose. Go To Meeting works well and seems to be quite popular.
- eBooks are becoming increasingly popular and there are a number of formats to consider. For example, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing allows you to self-publish your books and make them available on Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Mac, and PC.
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Offsite SEO or Link Building
Google states that your website’s ranking is partially based the sites linking to your site and that the ‘quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating’.
There are a number of ways to build up your inbound links. However, these methods shouldn’t be abused or overused. Google recommends that before embarking on link exchanges etc. that website owners ask themselves the question, ‘Is this going to be beneficial for my page’s visitors?’
Popular link building methods include:
- Creating reciprocal links with other companies. i.e. you link to them and they link back to you.
- Submitting your site to relevant directories.
- Guest blogging and linking back to your website.
- Obtaining links back to your website via bloggers and other online writers linking back to your website.
- Leaving comments on blog posts. However, your comments should be meaningful and insightful and should not be blatant attempts at advertising your company. ‘Nice Article, thanks’ won’t cut it.
- Submitting press releases or articles to online PR and news sites.
- Linking back to your website through social media sites.
- Providing share icons on your website will help visitors to share your content on their own networks. Add This has a useful toolbar for this purpose.
Remember, whatever methods you use provide relevant, quality content. People are far more likely to link back to you and share your content if you provide interesting and useful information.
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Monitoring
Whatever marketing activities you engage in it is important to monitor and manage progress. This will enable you to establish what works and what doesn’t and will help you to determine new targets and goals. If you’re investing in marketing, whether through time or money, it is important to be able to track your successes and areas for improvement.
The following are useful tracking tools:
- Google Analytics provides comprehensive web stats
- Add This helps you track how your content is shared on social networks
- MailChimp – If you manage your email newsletters via MailChimp you will have access to useful statistics for each campaign.
- Hootsuite Social Analytics enables you to analyse your social campaigns.
- Google Alerts enables you to monitor words and phrases and their use across the internet.
- Google’s Keyword Research Tool provides data on the popularity of keywords and phrases, along with the level of competition.
