A good marketing strategy is essential to scale up a small business. Many business owners neglect to promote their businesses and hope that customers will automatically come to them since they make good products. This can’t be further from the truth. If your customers don’t know you exist, how will they buy your products?
Small businesses often have a shoe-string budget to work with for marketing. Traditional marketing techniques can be expensive and out of reach for small business owners. With the rise of social media, digital marketing has made it possible for small businesses to market themselves.
Here are ten low-cost marketing techniques to promote your business online.
1. Create a Google My Business Account
Creating a Google My Business account is by far the fast and easiest method out there to kick start the process of promoting your business online. Works great for local businesses as it allows your business to show up on Google Maps, in your local listings, and on the knowledge panel when you search on google. The quickest way to get your listing to the top is to verify that you own that particular business via your Google My Business Account.
2. Use Social Media Extensively
Building a community online is another great and free way to help grow your business. Consistent social media engagement will increase trust amongst your customers and give you a worldwide platform to express your brand’s personality. Posting ads online is another great way to let people know about your business. There are millions of Ad designs available online to get you started or inspire you to create something unique to your brand.
3. Use Hashtags!
Hashtags are a powerful tool that should be used generously in your social media posts to broaden your reach and help your presence grow organically. You should be using them on Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.
Use hashtags judiciously to reach the customer base you intend on targeting. Use a combination of trending hashtags and those unique to your business. If you are a local business, then do not forget to add a location Hashtag too.
4. Don’t Ignore Linkedin
Linkedin is not a platform that immediately pops up in your mind as a place to advertise your business. Unlike platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok, Linkedin’s userbase is more suited for Industry-specific technical content. Engaging with users on LinkedIn will help you gain credibility and connections within your industry, which is always good for business.
5. Don’t Overlook the Power of SEO
Google’s Algorithm works as a great leveling field in advertising. The algorithm shows the most accurate and relevant results to the search query entered. So it does not matter if you are a large multinational corporation with an advertising budget that runs in the billions or a small business that is just starting with a shoestring budget.
If you optimize your webpage or an online listing, you stand a great chance to appear on top of a search result. Add the relevant and accurate keywords that best describe your business and location to your websites’ titles, headings, and body content. Getting listed on local directories will also help you reach your area’s top 3 search results.
6. Have an Email Marketing Plan.
Email marketing is not new. It is a great way to gain new customers and helps maintain relations with existing customers. Craft your emails with creative subject lines that will encourage potential customers to go through them and engage with what you are offering as a business.
7. Create and Use Infographics to Your Advantage
Infographics are underrated and yet powerful advertising tools. They are visually appealing, and you can throw a lot of information to your customers about your business without losing interest. If you put out great content, customers may organically share them within their circles, and it is a great way of spreading information and driving traffic to your website.
8. Start a Blog
Blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your website, increase user engagement and improve your online presence. Blogging is completely free, and a great way to put out information clients seek related to your business. If you can convince your clients that you know what you are talking about, it will automatically give them more confidence to do business with you.
Blogs don’t necessarily have to belong and be boring. You can keep them short and to the point, target a variety of topics relevant to your business and use as many keywords as possible to improve your SEO rating.
9. Post Videos
In the yesteryears getting professional videos or ads made for your business was expensive and out of reach for most small businesses. Today with personal devices such as smartphones and tablets becoming more capable with every generation, you can make some great professional levels videos yourself and from anywhere. You can find a ton of ad templates online, which are completely free to use, along with free versions of video editors to create some amazing content to help market your small business.
You can post behind the scene videos of how you run your business. This will help you gain the trust of your customers. You can post product demos or instructional videos using your products and explain all their features. Try to finish your videos with a CTA to encourage people to interact with your business.
10. Reuse and Recycle Old Content
All the content you come with to promote your business does take a lot of time and effort. So rather than just letting them be one-hit wonders, you can always reuse them on various platforms. For example, you can split one long youtube video into multiple informational snippets for platforms such as Instagram or TikTok. You can use content from your blogs and relevant infographics you have created and curate them into an ebook. The possibilities are endless.
In Conclusion
Promoting your small business online does not need to burn a hole in your wallet. It just requires some time, effort, and creativity. All it takes is careful planning, understanding your audience and your customer’s needs, and using the right content for each platform to make the most impact on your customers and grow your business.
