7 Effective Ways To Market Your Small Business

For every business to grow, it is important to generate and retain the customers. The biggest challenge that most business owners face is to build brand recognition and to attract customers. Marketing is a huge challenge to businesses and it occupies their time and money. Getting repeat business, generating new customers and retention of the customers is the main point of focus for business owners. Here are some of the most effective marketing strategies for your small business.

1. Build a website for conversions

Whenever you create a website, the design should be your top priority. Many business owners tend to fret over the shades of color and the sizes of the image. How does it help attract new customers? When you build a website, you need to strive for higher conversions. The design is highly important. It will help serve the function of the website which is the generation of new customers. When you begin to create a conversion driven website, there are certain factors you need to keep in mind. Your home page should have a headline which will grab the attention of the visitor and will compel them to keep reading. Next, the home page needs to have called to action. There should be a clear call-to-action which will encourage the visitors to take the next step in order to build a relationship with you. The content on the website needs to focus on the benefits which will talk about the products or services to the customer. It should not only talk about the facts of the business but also about the challenges. Your customers want to know how you can help them and elements like trustworthiness or awards in the business will help them make a decision. The website should have your contact details that are easy to find. You need to provide details about your phone number, email address or in case of a brick and mortar store, an address for people to find you.

2. Optimize the website for SEO

After you create a conversion driven website, you need to drive traffic. Most online experiences start with a search on the search engine. Majority of customers will find you through Google. This is why it is important to make it easy for the customers to find you in a sea of competitors. When you optimize the website for SEO, you can achieve this goal. One of the main aspects of small business marketing is to use local digital marketing channels to attract website traffic. When you run an SEO campaign, you need to ensure that the title and meta descriptions are optimized. These two elements will decide how your business appears on the search engine. You then need to claim a listing on Google in order to increase the chances of exposure on the search engine. Lastly, you need to generate reviews which will help increase the ranking in local search results. Ask your customers to leave a review whenever possible.

3. Build a funnel

Every visitor to the website will not be willing to buy from you straight away. This is why you need to have a call to action at every stage of the funnel. There are three different stages to the funnel which range from the top, middle to bottom. At the top of the funnel, there will be people who will be at the awareness stage and will be looking for a solution to their problem. At the middle level of the funnel, there will be potential customers who will be searching for certain products to meet their needs. The bottom of the funnel is the final stage to convince them to buy from you. This is when the customer is ready to buy and will be choosing from a number of vendors. When you build a funnel, you need to ensure that the customer will be convinced to make a purchase from you.

4. Connect with local industry influencers

An important aspect of marketing is influencer marketing where brands can partner with social media influencers who have access to a significant audience so as to promote their product and services. Due to the huge number of micro-influencers in the country, the art of influencer marketing is easily available for small businesses. Micro influencers have a niche audience and they do not cost too much. It is an affordable option which will help receive a high engagement level.

5. Optimize the user experience

Customer experience is not restricted to after-sales service. Your relationship with the customers should be optimized in order to delight them. The overall customer experience should be positive and enriching. It includes marketing, sales as well as customer support in addition to one strategy. Optimization of user experience is about going the extra mile while doing your business and moving towards a goal. You need to make every touch point with the business a delightful one. Right from talking to the sales representative to browsing the website, this entire experience should be optimized. You need to create a vision first and ensure your employees are aware of it. You then need to understand the journey of the customers. Talk to them and conduct market research by segmenting the customers into different categories. Ask your employees to come up with the best customer experience strategy and empower them to serve all the customers in a better manner. If done right, the user experience will become your biggest asset and it will bring you the best business.

6. Build your website localization strategy

You need to remember that not every consumer will be willing to buy from you at the first go. This is why you need effective content marketing. But before that, you need effective market research. You need it in order to gain essential insights into your target audience and understand how best to shape your products, services and content to meet their needs.

With that knowledge in hand, you can set out your content marketing and website localization strategy. The former concerns creating value-driven content so as to capture a wider audience. You need to begin by defining the content strategy and talking to your customers. It should not always be related to the product but it should be relevant. Build a schedule and stick to it. It can be done once a day, once a week or even once a month. Consistency is the key here. You need to publish new content and promote it on your social media pages so as to attract a wider audience.

You’ll also need to localize your content to suit different target audiences – along with your entire website. Website localization is a broad task that moulds your website content in practical and language terms to create a native feel to the user experience, no matter which country that user is in. It relates to everything from coding and side design to things like date formats, currencies and payment systems. It also includes ensuring that your content is relevant to the audience, wherever in the world they may be.

7. Build native social media content

It is possible for you to create a strong organic audience by creating content that will meet the expectations of the customers. The social media strategy will vary from one platform to another. You can use Facebook to create ads or Instagram to display your products in high-quality images. You can organize contests for customers to be a part of and ask them to share with their friends. You mainly need to create content which will work in the context of the social media platform.

Use these strategies to market your business effectively in the ever-expanding industry. In order to set yourself apart from the competitors, you need to give them something unique and different from what the other brands are doing. You might not be able to achieve success overnight. It will take time for you to reach out to the customers and build brand recognition. Use social media in the right manner and always keep the customers at the forefront when making any marketing decisions. Ensure that the marketing strategy is aligned with the long term financial goals of your business. Your marketing strategy should reflect the vision and goals of your business.