Small Business Marketing Tips 2020
Small business marketing is a unique skillset. Unlike marketing for a large company or a startup seeking hyper-growth, small business marketing is all about building a brand in a specific niche.
Learn 5 small business marketing tips to help grow your business in 2020!
I compiled these pro tips based on my experience working as a marketing consultant for small businesses. They are appropriate and effective regardless of your business model, although I will provide specific tips based on what you’re selling.
If you choose to execute them yourself, these are also all free strategies for small business marketing. Otherwise, they may involve some costs if you’re hiring expert small business marketers.
Some small businesses are really focused on marketing in their specific communities. While that is an excellent goal, this post won’t be focusing exclusively on local marketing for small businesses. (If you’re interested primarily in local business marketing, stay tuned for next week’s post all about local business marketing strategies.)
So, what are the top 5 marketing strategies for small businesses? Let’s jump in:
1. Publish great content that answers your customers’ key questions.
I believe deeply that content marketing is the key to good small business marketing. But content marketing isn’t just about blogs and social media! That’s a common misconception.
Instead, think of content marketing in a broader sense. Your website language, your email campaigns, your advertisements, your sales slicks, and any blogs or social media posts are all examples of content marketing.
However, many small businesses struggle with content marketing. The volume of content you “need” (very much in sarcastic quotes) to create can seem overwhelming, and costly. Plus, you may have tried content marketing in the past and not seen good results.
The truth is that content marketing is only effective as long as it’s clearly tailored to your ideal customers. (If you’re not quite sure what an ideal customer is, you might want to check out this free growth marketing glossary.)
When creating content for your small business, always try to answer a key question that your ideal customers are asking, either about the product or service you offer in general, or your company in particular.
Then, consider what media your customers are using, and create your content for that channel. If your customers are signing up for webinars, then consider a webinar series! If they’re primarily using search engines, you’ll want to focus on SEO-optimized blogging. If your ideal customers are social media-first, then naturally, you’ll need to create posts that answer their questions and show how you can help them solve their problems.
2. Focus on your values as a key differentiator.
Even though small businesses tend to be uniquely relationship-focused, I rarely see small businesses using their values as a key differentiator. In my experience, it’s because the small business owner takes it for granted that they’re customer- or community-focused.
Even though everyone has an intuitive sense that small businesses often focus on relationships, quality, family, and connection, it matters to get specific.
Unless you make these values crystal clear, your customers won’t know what they are. (How could they? They aren’t mind-readers!)
Never forget that today’s consumers always have the option to shop at a convenient big box store or online mega-corporations like Amazon. When they instead choose to shop small, you can safely infer that it’s because they believe that the small business offers more value than a larger organization. By making your values clear, you reinforce those beliefs.
For example, if your small business is committed to supporting families, you can talk about that on your website and in your social media.
More importantly, you aren’t the only small business in your space. Focusing on your unique values in your branding, marketing, and sales provides an unbelievable opportunity to differentiate yourself.
If your competitor is not talking about their values, but you are making it clear that you’re focused on supporting veterans, it may spark interest from your leads. It may also be the reason that a customer chooses to stick with you, rather than switching to a competitor.
And finally, having clear corporate values that strengthen your overall culture can create real momentum externally - and internally. Healthy company culture makes for a better work environment and more productive employees. If your employees believe in the values that your company stands for, they are more likely to be engaged and enthusiastic at work.
A values-based marketing strategy is a great solution for every business, but particularly small businesses.
3. Activate your existing customer base.
Your customers are the biggest asset your company has, but many companies - large and small - fail to activate them.
This is a mistake.
Here’s why:
Your customers are the only people who can be honest with you about the real experience of working with you.
They are the most reliable source of information for other leads.
They are the best proof that your product, service, or solution works.
It’s much easier to sell to an existing customer than to a completely new lead.
Too many companies attain a customer and then forget about them until the renewal or the subscription expires. (You’ve probably been on the receiving end of one of those annoying renewal calls.)
Instead, make your relationships with your customers more than transactional; make them real.
If you don’t know your customers very well, consider starting with a survey. This can be as simple as a series of phone calls with questions, or as advanced as hiring a consultant to conduct anonymous interviews.
On the other hand, if you do know your customers pretty well, consider a campaign to show them that you care. From sending birthday cards to investing in a more holistic customer success program, investing in and activating your customers is a winning strategy.
4. Build partnerships with other similar businesses in your space.
It can seem risky to build a marketing agreement with similar businesses, because it may seem like it cuts into your potential profits. However, that’s not often the case.
Most of these partnerships revolve around a simple idea: sharing access to existing customers and leads. How you structure that partnership is up to you!
Here are a few ideas:
Cross-promoting each other on social media.
Working together to develop a joint campaign.
Co-sponsoring an event or giveaway.
Including one another’s products and services in your sales process, for a referral fee.
And any number of other options!
There are a few unique benefits of partnership marketing. Building relationships with related businesses not only provides you access to a wider network of potential leads, but it also supports a more trust-focused sales process.
The important thing to remember when looking for a partnership marketing partner is to find one that also serves your ideal customers. For example, if your small business provides window treatments, you might want to partner with an interior design company on a giveaway. Or, if your small business provides catering solutions, you might consider partnering with a wedding planner to offer a special package deal.
I really love this strategy for small business marketing because it does a great job of strengthening your business and serving your customer’s needs.
5. Evaluate your digital marketing strengths and weaknesses, and choose one of each to focus on.
If you’re marketing a small business, you probably don’t have a huge budget or tons of bandwidth.
At the same time, studies show that digital marketing presents one of the biggest opportunities in small business marketing.
I’m putting two-and-two together and making a little leap to guess that digital marketing is one of the biggest challenges you’re facing in marketing your small business. You can’t - and shouldn’t - do it all.
That said, you do need to have a digital marketing program of some kind. It’s essential that your consumers be able to find your brand online when they go looking for a solution. If they don’t know you exist, they can’t buy from you.
To improve your digital marketing on a budget, and without a huge amount of effort, do the following:
Evaluate all aspects of your digital marketing program, from email to social media.
Give each element, or channel, a rating; use whatever system you like best. I think 1-10 is the simplest, but some people do prefer to use A+, B-, etc.
Look at your list and choose your top-performing channel and your weakest channel. These are the two areas of digital marketing you’re going to be focusing on in 2020.
It’s really that easy! As you move through the year, you can adjust your digital marketing focus, or add in other goals.
A little note: When you’re looking at your digital marketing, make sure to consider whether that channel is generating leads. If your website is generating more leads than your email, I would (in most cases), say that it’s the top-performing channel.
