In this blog post I would like to give essential marketing tips for small business owners. I for sure have seen many small business owners, who don’t have any prior marketing or entrepreneurial experience, start their own business journey. And some offer amazing products or services.
As I love to see small businesses succeed, here are my top 4 marketing tips for small business owners to use.
You don’t need any marketing experiences to implement them and you can mostly do it yourself with a little bit of effort. But if you feel like it is too much work, but would like to set all the tips in place, you can also contact me and we could find the best solution for your business.
Keep in mind though that these tips are not everything you would need for successful marketing, although is is beneficial and successful if you are already on the market but have not invested in marketing whatsoever.
Starting - Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners
Depending on where in your business journey you are, you can implement marketing tips for small business owners differently.
I will presume in this blog post that you already have a working small business but would need some tips on marketing.
Some small business owners may already have their audiences divided in buyer personas, some may have already good following on social media etc.
Which means that the tips I am about to list here, you as a small business owner may already have implemented in your business model. Anyway I hope you will find some of the tips useful.
Now lets starts with the first tip.
1. Define who you are as a brand
Who are you as a company/ brand? What do you stand for? Your values, mission, vision? Culture of your business? How do you want to position yourself? These are so called brand fundamentals. I’ve written more on branding in one of the previous blog posts.
Once you set up and know your brand fundamentals, you create your brand identity:
- typography
- color scheme
- logo
- graphics etc.
- all the other elements such as promotional material, visuals, website (which I mention as another tip in itself later etc.)
2. Know your audience
Knowing your audience, your consumers or buyers is a crucial element when selling goods or services on the market.
Better you know your consumers, better you can cater to them which subsequently affects your sales, customer satisfaction, their loyalty and maybe them becoming your ambassadors, promoting and recommending your business for free.
So if you know:
- who your consumers are,
- where you can find them,
- what they like
- how they like to be approached
- why they would buy your product or services…
Then you are already half way there and can start with other tips.
If you don’t know the answers to the questions above, you first need to find the answers. Analyse your buyers (with their consent of course), gather their information, look up your sales statistics etc.
3. Website
Even though you may be a local business, catering to locals only, I would still recommend creating a website. Not to mention if you are offering products or services regionally, nationally or even worldwide. In that case I hope it would be a no brainer to you, that you need website or a online store (depending on the business).
Website is an online identity card. It represents you, your business, your products and services. You can raise awareness through your website, generate leads and even profit.
Nowadays there are so many CMS systems, that are easy to navigate and use, so if you don’t have plans for a complex website, don’t pay anyone to create you a WordPress website, because you can do it yourself.
Here are my simple tips for creating a website on WordPress CMS:
2.1. Buy a domain name and a hosting
There are so many varieties online, so just browse the internet and find the best solution for you.
When buying a domain name, be careful on the top level domain (TLD) choice. Meaning; don’t purchase a .org domain if you are creating a profit driven website. You can read more on the link provided.
To make long story short. For-profit businesses should create a .com domain if available (they are the most used, therefore the hardest to find a domain name that is not already registered), if not .net in another best TLD.
Best case scenario would be (if you sell worldwide) to find a domain name that has all the TLD available:
Example: ello.com; ello.net; ello.co.uk; ello.de; ello.si etc.
Your domain should preferably be short (memorable) and it should represent your business (use your brands name, acronym or any other way to let consumers know it is you).
2.2. Set up a WordPress CMS
Not that WordPress is the only CMS out there, because it’s not. There are many others, easy to use CMS like Wix, Magento, Drupal etc. I personally prefer WordPress, that’s why I will use WordPress as an example.
When you set up WordPress CMS in your hosting C-panel, launch it. In the Admin dashboard, you will have the option to install different themes. My personal favourite free WP theme is OceanWP (in the menu on the left side click appearance-theme-add new-OceanWP- activate).
After the theme is activated I would suggest installing different plugins, that are essential to the process.
My top plugins are:
- Elementor: drag and drop WP page builder, which gives you freedom to design your website as you wish.
- Wordfence Security: Anti virus, firewall, anti-spam plugin
- Yoast SEO: all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more.
- W3 total cache: performance plugin.
There are so many others plugins, but these are a must for everyone.
Now as you have your WordPress set up, you can start creating pages, menus, posts etc.
If you would like to get more in depth information, or would even like for me to do an example for you on YouTube, please let me know and maybe I will do a tutorial for you.
If you would like to set up an online store, my top pick for you would be Prestashop CMS, Shopify or WooCommerce.
Don’t forget to set up Search Console Account and Google Analytics account.
4. Promote your products or services
You know what is your brand and you have a brand identity.
You know who your audience is and where to find it.
You have created a website/ E-Commerce shop.
Now you need to promote your products or services. Depending on where your audience is, depends where you should focus to promote.
Let’s presume you’re selling products on your online store for example and you have a brick and mortar store. Your business is called Ello and you sell organic, homemade cosmetics.
What you should do is set up a Facebook page for your brand , set up Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube and Tik Tok account.
Next you should think about CONTENT.
Content Marketing
I’ve mentioned content marketing in my previous post, so if you haven’t checked it out, here is the link. Write educational content and tutorials on your blog (and send Newsletters), post on all social media, create videos for youtube, short videos on Tik Tok, beautiful pictures on Pinterest and start building a public image and reputation.
Google ADs
Promote your website/ products / services online through Google ADs. On Google ADs you can create Search campaigns, Display campaigns, Video campaigns etc. Based on your audience and your Google analytics stats you create targeted campaigns for your consumers and can also create re-marketing campaigns ( for example targeting a group that visited your website, have put products in the cart but didn’t go through with the purchase).
If you have a brick and mortar store (like in our case) you can also promote/target geographically, so that your store is shown anytime someone searches for organic cosmetics close to you. There is so much you can do with Google ADS and the most you can learn through Google’s Skillshop Exceedlms where you can get certified as well.
Facebook Business Manager Account
If you have Facebook and Instagram account for your company, a wise thing would be to set up a Business Manager Account.
Before promoting your business, you should ( If you haven’t already) connect the Instagram and Facebook page accounts.
On Facebook Business account you can learn about marketing on these platforms and you can start promoting. Creating different targeted campaigns, create audiences etc.
Setting up Facebook Pixel on your website is a must, so you can measure your success, you can use the information for re-marketing etc.
Build brand loyalty and keeps consumers happy
This should be of big importance to you. In order to succeed long term you need to think of your existing consumers, listen to their feedback and get better all the time.
Keep in mind that the consumer is your focus. Happy and satisfied consumer means more business in the future.
Conclusion
This is it. This were my top marketing tips for small business owners. I hope you will implement them in your business and see the results (conversions) as quick as possible.
If you are fast learner and you are interested in the digital marketing, you will grasp, learn and implement these tips pretty fast. If not, you can still ask professionals to help you or you can even contact me and we will find the best solution for your company.
A very helpful post indeed!