16 Essential Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Small Business

Posted on May 2, 2023May 2, 2023 by gregadmusr

As a small business owner, you wear many hats. You’re the CEO, the accountant, and the marketing manager all wrapped into one. With so much to do and so little time in the day, it can be easy to overlook or delay marketing efforts for your small business.

However, marketing is an essential component of growing your business and reaching new customers. In this article, we will cover 16 essential marketing strategies that will help you build a powerful foundation for your small business. From understanding your target audience to leveraging many digital tools, we’ll take you through each step of the process. We’ll also show you how to craft a brand persona, expand your reach through advertising, nurture existing customer relationships and measure success along the way.

Understand Your Target Audience

To effectively market your small business, it’s crucial to understand your target audience. By identifying the demographics, psychographics, and buying behavior of your ideal customer, you can tailor your messaging and marketing campaigns to resonate with them. Conducting market research and customer surveys can provide valuable insights into their pain points, needs, and desires. Creating buyer personas can help you visualize and segment your audience for more effective targeting.

Build a Brand Identity

Crafting a strong brand identity is important for any small business looking to establish a lasting presence in the market. By creating a unique logo, color scheme, and tone of voice that reflect your company’s values and personality, you can differentiate your brand from competitors and build customer loyalty. Consistency across all marketing channels is key in fostering brand recognition, so make sure to use your branding consistently on your website, social media profiles, email communications, and other marketing materials.

Create a Powerful Marketing Foundation

Developing a strong marketing foundation is crucial for small businesses to grow and succeed in today’s competitive market. By defining your target audience and creating a unique value proposition, you can set your business apart from competitors.

A comprehensive marketing plan with clear goals and measurable objectives can also help align efforts towards achieving success. Utilizing various digital marketing tools such as social media platforms, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, and paid advertising channels can help increase brand awareness and expand your customer base.

Identify Your Unique Selling Proposition

Developing a unique selling proposition (USP) is critical to differentiate your business from competitors and effectively market your product or service. Your USP should be laser-focused on addressing your customers’ pain points and demonstrating how your offering solves their problems better than anyone else in the market. By clearly communicating your USP across all channels, you’ll create a strong brand identity and build trust with potential customers.

Set Measurable Goals and Objectives

Setting clear and measurable goals is essential to produce a successful marketing campaign for your small business. By identifying your objectives, you can determine the strategies required to accomplish them. For instance, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, your strategy could involve social media marketing or search engine optimization.

Measuring progress towards goals enables you to identify areas for improvement and adjust strategies accordingly. With regular review and adjustment of goals, you can stay on track and adapt to changing market conditions. Remember that setting measurable goals is not enough; tracking performance data is equally crucial in measuring the success of your marketing campaigns.

Build a Solid Marketing Plan

A solid marketing plan is the backbone of any successful small business. It provides a clear roadmap for achieving specific goals and objectives, while also helping to identify areas of improvement and growth opportunities.

By defining your target audience, competition, and unique selling proposition upfront, you can create a comprehensive marketing mix that includes product, price, promotion, and place. Your budget should be allocated appropriately to maximize ROI and ensure that you are getting the most out of your marketing investments. With a solid plan in place, you can move forward confidently and build a strong brand identity that resonates with your customers.

Develop a Website That Converts Visitors to Customers

A website is a crucial component of any small business’s marketing strategy. However, merely having a website is not enough; the site must be designed with conversion in mind. A well-designed website that is user-friendly can attract and retain customers.

Ensure that the site has a clear call-to-action to encourage visitors to take action. Additionally, make sure the website is mobile-responsive as more and more people are accessing websites via their mobile devices. Finally, optimize the website for search engines to ensure it ranks high on search engine results pages.

Build Website Traffic with Solid SEO Strategies

Achieving a high ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) can be challenging for small businesses, but implementing effective SEO strategies can make a significant difference. Optimizing your website with relevant keywords and meta descriptions, creating high-quality content that is optimized for both search engines and user experience, and using local SEO techniques can all help improve your website’s visibility.

In addition, regularly tracking your website’s performance and making necessary adjustments to your SEO strategy based on metrics like bounce rate, click-through rate (CTR), and conversion rates can ensure long-term success.

Incorporate Content Marketing as a Key SEO Tactic

Creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content can be a game-changer for small businesses looking to grow their customer base. Content marketing is a powerful tool that can help your business establish itself as an authority in your industry while building trust with potential customers.

By providing informative and helpful content, you can attract and retain a clearly defined audience. This can include blog posts, social media updates, videos, podcasts, and more. It’s crucial to create a content plan that aligns with your overall marketing strategy and goals to stay on track and ensure success.

Use Email Marketing to Nurture Leads

Email marketing is a vital tool for small businesses to build relationships with existing customers and nurture leads. It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to keep in touch with your audience, promote your brand, and drive conversions.

By creating personalized email campaigns, you can target specific segments of your audience and provide them with relevant content that meets their needs. This helps establish trust and rapport with potential customers, ultimately leading to increased loyalty and sales.

Use Social Media Best Practices

Consistency is key when it comes to social media marketing, and choosing the right platforms is crucial for success. Understanding your target audience will help you determine which social media channels they frequent, and what type of content resonates with them. Create a content calendar that aligns with your overall marketing strategy and post regularly. Engage with your followers by responding to comments and messages in a timely manner.

Utilize paid advertising options on social media platforms to expand your reach and increase brand awareness. By following these best practices, small businesses can effectively leverage social media marketing to grow their customer base and improve their bottom line.

Reputation Management

Maintaining a positive reputation is essential for small businesses to succeed in today’s market. With the rise of online reviews and social media, it’s easier than ever for customers to share their experiences with others, making reputation management more critical than ever before. Negative feedback can spread quickly, damaging your brand image and credibility. Responding promptly and professionally to negative comments can help mitigate damage and demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction.

Building a strong brand persona that resonates with your target audience is also crucial in establishing trust and loyalty, which ultimately contributes to a positive reputation. Consistency in branding across all channels provides customers with a clear sense of what your business stands for and what they can expect from you.

Expand Your Reach Through Pay-Per-Click, Social Media Advertising & Direct Mail

PPC advertising can be an effective way for small businesses to drive traffic to their website and increase conversions. With this advertising model, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad, making it a cost-effective method of advertising. One advantage of PPC is that you can target specific keywords and demographics, allowing you to reach the right audience with your message.

Crafting successful social ads is all about understanding your audience and delivering a message that resonates with them. To get started, choose the best social media platforms where your target audience spends most of their time and ensure your ad features concise messaging, eye-catching visuals, and a clear call-to-action. A/B testing can be an effective way to refine your strategy over time, enabling you to identify which ads perform best and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.

We have found that direct mail is still a powerful means of attracting new customers to your business. Our company follows a five-step program to ensure postcard marketing success.

Create a Customer Retention Program

Creating a customer retention plan is critical for small businesses to maintain existing customers and build long-term relationships. By prioritizing customer satisfaction and loyalty, you can significantly increase the lifetime value of each customer. Identifying the needs of your customers, addressing their concerns, and providing excellent customer service are crucial elements of a successful retention strategy.

Offering loyalty programs or rewards can incentivize customers to continue doing business with you, while personalizing communication through email or social media can also show them that you value their business. Monitoring customer feedback and reviews can help identify areas for improvement and show customers that their opinions are valued, ultimately leading to stronger relationships and increased revenue for your business.

The Power of Referral Marketing

Referral marketing is a powerful tool that can help small businesses expand their customer base. One of the biggest advantages of referral marketing is that it allows businesses to tap into their existing customer network. By encouraging customers to refer friends and family members, businesses can generate new leads without incurring significant marketing costs. In fact, studies have shown that referred customers are more likely to make a purchase compared to those who discover a business through other means.

To make the most out of referral marketing, businesses should offer incentives or discounts to encourage their existing customers to refer others. Additionally, creating a referral program that rewards both the referrer and the referred customer can help build goodwill and loyalty among existing customers.

Track Your Marketing Metrics and Adjust Strategies from Time to Time

Tracking your marketing metrics is crucial for measuring the success of your marketing strategies. By monitoring key metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, and social media engagement, you can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Regularly reviewing these metrics can help you identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to adjust your strategies accordingly.

One of the most important metrics to track is ROI, or return on investment. This metric helps you determine which strategies are generating revenue and which ones are not, allowing you to adjust your approach accordingly. By focusing on the tactics that generate the highest ROI and minimizing those with lower ROI, you can maximize profits while minimizing expenses. However, remember that marketing in a variety of channels helps you break through the clutter since everyone is bombarded with nearly 10,000 advertising impressions every day.

In conclusion, marketing is the backbone of your business, and small businesses need to make their presence known. Your marketing strategy can be the difference between thriving and merely surviving. To create a successful marketing campaign, you must start with identifying your target audience and building a strong foundation for your brand. Leverage digital tools such as SEO, content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, and advertising to reach your audience. Don’t forget to nurture existing customer relationships as they can be your biggest brand advocates.

Over thirty years ago, 24-7 Marketing LLC was established specifically for small, emerging businesses and medical practices. Our experience working with a variety of categories has helped our clients prosper no matter what economic conditions exist. For that reason, the overwhelming majority of our customers have been with us over ten years.

Top New Jersey SEO Expert For Google Page One Ranking & Brand Awareness Growth

Posted on November 18, 2022November 18, 2022 by gregadmusr

If you’re tired of ranking behind your competitors on Google, you’re not alone – but for small & mid-sized businesses, it can be challenging to know where to begin. With 24-7 Marketing’s FastRank program you benefit from cutting-edge digital marketing solutions designed for maximum ROI.

Targeted at small and medium-sized companies, the SEO/Content Marketing service aims to increase online exposure and generate more website traffic for your business. The tailored SEO strategy leverages proven solutions to help you obtain first-page ranking for keywords in your niche.

Grow your business at: https://www.24-7marketing.net/seo

24-7 Marketing LLC leverages high-authority content placements across multiple media types to position you as an authority figure in your space. This builds trust and credibility while organically improving web ranking.

With industry research showing that 75% to 91% of online searchers never scroll past the first page of results on Google, a high-placed ranking is critical for online success. 24-7 Marketing LLC creates compelling content for you by combining blogs, videos, podcasts, and PowerPoint presentations. This allows for optimal engagement across social channels and popular publications.

The service begins with in-depth research of your business and competitors in order to target the most effective keywords. Each campaign focuses on long-tail keyword combinations centered around this research to build a strong foundation of conversion-optimized web content. This allows you to drive more leads through mobile and traditional searches.

By combining SEO with content marketing, the agency can create a more predictable stream of inbound leads for you while reducing advertising spending on other, less effective methods of brand promotion. Data shows that content marketing costs 62% less than other marketing strategies while maintaining a 13-times higher impact.

24-7 Marketing LLC has an experienced team of professional writers and advertising experts who keep up-to-date with the latest SEO techniques and traffic-generation frameworks. They can apply this knowledge to your business so as to build stronger brand awareness. The multi-faceted strategy allows for deeper audience connection and can help to meet the unique needs of more customers.

A spokesperson for the agency states: “At 24-7 Marketing LLC, we have had nearly instant success getting and keeping our clients at the top of Google’s organic placements. How? Our FastRank proprietary strategy utilizes a variety of techniques that are ever-changing.”

Are you ready to take your business to the next level? You’re only one click away!

Check out https://www.24-7marketing.net/fastrank-seo-content-marketing/ for any extra info you need!

HOW TO GET MY COMPANY BACK UP AND RUNNING

Posted on April 20, 2021April 20, 2021 by marketing

Anyone who has owned and operated a small or medium sized company has experienced many ups and downs. After working with a variety of companies over 30 years, we have seen so many business owners remarkably excel during uncertain times.

During challenging economic periods try using adversity to your advantage. Be strong and use these tough times to be more creative. People who play sports call it “being in the zone”. You have worked so hard to sacrifice and build your company, do not stop now. Avoid watching television news that often can be disheartening. Stop paying attention to all that negativity and focus on what needs to be done. Create a to-do list and then prioritize each task. Review it every night before going to sleep and each morning when you awake. It sets the tone for getting things done.

Past failures or hard times should motivate businessowners more to get their company back up and running. Adversity can often make your judgment very sharp. But there are times when you are so close to a problem, you cannot clearly see what needs to be done. This is where a business or marketing consultant can help.

Remember the best ideas in the world are useless until they are carried out. Every downturn creates opportunity. Even with hard times there are other resilient companies doing quite well. Why? Because they acknowledge that consistent marketing & new customer acquisition are essential for any organization. How do you know what is working for other people? That is another added benefit of having a marketing consultant. Eliminate wasteful spending by avoiding trial-and-error.

You are already operating a company wearing a half dozen hats or more. Do you really have the time to devote constant marketing functions that are proven to work? A marketing intern or someone on staff who took a marketing course or two in college does not really solve the problem.

Imagine having a full-service marketing agency provide you with superb ideas plus implementing your daily promotional tasks for the cost of a part-time employee. Give us a call for a free no obligation meeting and let us see if there is a fit working together.

Fine Tuning Your Direct Mail Message to Increase Results

Posted on April 2, 2021April 9, 2021 by marketing

Guidelines for Successful Direct Mail & EDDM Postcard Campaigns

Postcard marketing encompasses a wide variety of materials and areas. With so many options to choose from, the message being sent is often overlooked. More often than not, marketers don’t spend enough time thinking their ideas thoroughly. Just as a designer takes the time to create artwork, a marketer needs to take time to present a message. Thoroughly selecting WHAT you say and HOW you say it, is essential.
Here are some things to consider when creating an effective direct mail message:
Less is More: The easiest way to get your mail piece thrown in the trash is to put an excess of words on it. Think of ways to convey your message without losing the reader’s attention. Bullets, text color, bolding and italics can all help to highlight the most important words. This is referred to as “The KISS” (keep it simple stupid) method, which is virtually fool-proof.
Repeat Your Message: The more times a recipient sees the same message, the more it will be recalled. As a result, readers are then more likely to respond. Also, the repetition of a message creates the feeling of trust.
Focused Theme: In direct mail, it is important to coordinate your message, artwork, design and audience together to form the theme. When any of these are out of alignment, it detracts from the message, confuses the recipient and the mail piece ends up in the trash.
Rhyme: People enjoy rhyme. It’s easy to remember and fun to read. When your message rhymes, it resonates more with recipients. Have some fun with your messaging.
Brand: Your brand is how people identify you. If your message conflicts with your brand, people will not believe it. Take the time to tailor your message to your brand.
Think about the last direct mail piece you received and really looked at. What intrigued you? Usually, a person can recall a few key words that stuck out. Using that information, how can you modify your message to do the same? What words will grab attention and stand out?
All the words you use in the postcard piece need to work together towards the main goal: Is the goal for them to visit your website? Come to your store? Call you? Or something else? When you have a clearly defined goal, it makes it easier to create your message.
Remember that using a message from previous campaigns is good for recognition, so it may be useful for your next postcard. However, make sure to integrate aspects of your new mail campaign as well. Crafting your messaging can be really fun, so take some time, get inspired and be creative!

Direct Mail vs. Email: Which Is Better for Acquiring New Business?

Posted on March 13, 2021April 9, 2021 by marketing

Direct Mail vs. Email Marketing

Postcards or Email…Which Delivers More Prospects for Your Business?

In our opinion direct mail postcards are more effective than email marketing due to the inherent benefits highlighted in this article. Of course direct mail has one major weakness – cost. Email is significantly cheaper. However, while it has a higher front-end, on the back-end direct mail is cheaper when calculating cost per sale.

BETTER RESPONSE: When searching for “new” customers, study after study proves mail postcards will generate more new customers than email. A study by the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) shows direct mail being 10 to 30 times more effective than email.

CONSUMERS PREFER DIRECT MAIL OVER EMAIL : An Epsilon study found that over 50% of consumers prefer mail over email. And 67% feel postcards are more personal than the Internet. 70% preferred mail messages for receiving unsolicited information from unfamiliar companies.

OFFERS THAT ARE MORE TRUSTWORTHY: The Epsilon study also found that 25% of consumers found mail offers more trustworthy than email offers.

MORE PROSPECTS: Accurate – quality email addresses are very difficult to acquire – mainly because most people do not opt-in for third party offers. For this reason, all email lists are missing the majority of the target. Typically a mail list offers 80% more prospects.

EMAIL OVERLOAD: Sending and receiving emails is easy, possibly too easy. Most people receive dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of emails in a single day. That’s simply too many to give each one adequate attention. This means that your email is likely to be glanced at and quickly tossed aside, if it’s even opened at all. Regular mail will get tossed aside too, but the fact that there’s actually less of it going out these days increases the odds that someone may actually open what you’ve sent. When there’s currently less competition with postcards why waste your time fighting to stand out among all the email?

LESS COMPETITION: More than ever consumers are bombarded with digital offers that they don’t want. Email is now the cluttered option, while direct mail represents the uncluttered option. With postcards your offer will not get loss in avalanche of competitive offers.

SPECIAL – UNIQUE: Unlike the old days when every marketer was using direct mail, these days a mail piece is special and unique. These days it’s not often when someone receives a personalized envelope with a catchy teaser – open me – line. This uniqueness will inherently stimulate more interest from the reader … thus response.

POSTCARDS CAN BE MUCH MORE CREATIVE

Your chance to wow a customer with an email goes about as far as the subject line. Take too many chances with a creative subject line and it will likely get deleted for fear there is some sort of virus or phishing scam involved. Stick a boring subject line in, and, yes, it will also likely get passed over and deleted. While there are ways to spice up emails, they just don’t seem to have the same potential as direct mail.

LONGER SHELF LIFE: The shelf-life of an email offer is measured in seconds, while a direct mail postcard piece can linger on a coffee table for days.

MORE SELECTIVITY: Most email lists do not offer the extensive array of selectivity factors available with a mail list. With a list you can pinpoint your best prospects … cream of the crop prospects, while email often forces marketers to take the old-fashion shot-gun approach.

HIGHER DELIVERY RATE. A mail list is typically 95% deliverable. On the other hand, the great majority of email lists being advertised have a delivery below 50%. Also, due to the constant onslaught by spammers, the ISPs (Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc) are beginning to block unsolicited emails … and for this reason some are predicting the demise of email “prospecting.” Fantastic offer, fantastic creative, fantastic list … all this is irrelevant if the ISPs don’t deliver. With direct mail – your offer gets delivered!

HIGHER OPEN RATE: With the great majority of email “prospecting” campaigns, 95+ percent of all emails are not even opened. The email recipient will either delete or transfer to the SPAM box … without even peeking at the email … your brand name. On the other hand, direct mail is a tangible item that typically captures a glance. The receiver may not read every word, but your company name/brand will gain much more awareness with mail than email.

SAFE: With the growing threat of identity theft, viruses, and SPAM, people are becoming more and more hesitating in responding to on-line offers … even legitimate interesting offers. Mailing postcards is safe … the user can visit website on own time schedule and without having to click potentially dangerous links.

IMPROVES EMAIL RESPONSE RATE: One sure way to boost email OPEN and CLICK-THROUGH rates is with postcards. One week before the email blast, send the email recipient a postcard informing that a special “email” offer will soon arrive. This one-two punch will increase the odds that the email recipient will OPEN the email … instead of deleting before even blinking at the email.

MORE CONTROL: The majority of quality email list suppliers will not release their email addresses. With mail you can receive the direct list. Having a prospecting database in-house … offers innumerable marketing applications / opportunities; for example, data append, market analysis, market penetration reports, SalesForce Prospecting Management, Telemarketing Follow-Up Campaigns.

TELEMARKETING. A direct mail list can also include phone numbers. A telemarketing list is not the ideal tool for generating sales, BUT telemarketing is very effective for gathering information on potential customers … relationship formation.

INCREASE WEB TRAFFIC & ONLINE SALES: Direct mail has a tremendous influence on generating online sales. Per USPS study, over 60% of direct mail recipients were influenced to visit promoted website – with the greatest influence on first-time shoppers. Direct mail recipients purchased 28% more items and spent 28% more money than non direct mail recipients. The study also noted a revenue lift of 163% for websites supported by direct mail as opposed to those that were not.
SOURCE: USPS survey of 5,000 visitors to retail websites

DIRECT MAIL GENERATES ACTION

The US Postal Service did a third-party study that revealed these direct mail facts:
… 46% direct mail recipients read their direct mail and nearly everyone at least glances at it for a few seconds (that’s an impression)
… 23% visited the sender’s store location
… 21% visited the sender’s website
… 12% called an 800# listed on the mailer
… 9% replied via email
https://www.usps.com/business/pdf/Acquisition_WP1.pdf

VERIFICATION: With an email campaign there is no way to verify the accuracy / quality of the email list since in most cases the email supplier will not provide the email contact data to the marketer. With a direct mail list the marketer has a physical address … that you can cross reference with other databases for verifying demographics / quality.

HISPANICS AND DIRECT MAIL: Due to cultural and other issues, direct mail is an excellent way for reaching Hispanics. According to a USPS survey, Hispanics are six times less likely than non-Hispanics to discard their direct mail without reviewing. And even though Hispanics look forward to direct mail, Hispanics receive 20% fewer direct mail pieces than the average non-Hispanic household. Also note that studies have shown Hispanics spend more shopping each year compared to non-Hispanics.

CONSUMERS LIKE THE TACTILE NATURE OF DIRECT MAIL: In focus groups consumers said the interactive part of direct mail helped them connect to the brand and left a lasting impression.

EMAIL IS NOT AS TRUSTWORTHY: Spam, identity theft, and a multitude of viruses that can crash your entire system are just a few of the fears people have when opening their email. Unless the person already knows you, attachments almost never get opened. Images may not even make it through spam filters. Even if someone is intrigued with your tag line, the fear of a virus is often enough to keep them from opening it. An attractive envelope, however, does not hold the same sort of fear.

DIRECT MAIL IS MORE PERSONALIZED

There’s something much more personal about holding a letter or a brochure in your hand than clicking and gazing into a screen. Direct mail can connect to another individual in a way that a standard email can’t. The feeling of holding something in your hand creates a psychological connection that just doesn’t exist with an email. Once someone has actually opened your envelope they’re more likely to spend some time looking over the physical materials they’re holding than they would an email. In the time it takes a person to walk to the trash can, you have a chance to actually capture their attention.

DISCOUNTS: Consumers believe more valuable discounts/coupons come through the mail than email. For example, over 50% prefer receiving credit card offers via mailbox than Inbox.

IN SUMMARY: For “prospecting” … direct mail is more effective than email! Email “prospecting” is still effective in varying degrees and direct mail is regaining strength. Many marketers choose email marketing because it is cheaper when prospecting for new business. Mail is the overwhelming winner especially in the densely populated New Jersey market because it is difficult for many companies to advertise on New York TV and radio at a cost-efficient price. Have you noticed that you are not receiving a lot of postcards in your mailbox at home? This is a big opportunity for you to stand out from competitors with less competition. Marketers that use direct mail gain a competitive edge on those that skip direct mail.
Keep in mind, we recommend using both direct mail and email marketing because both deliver a powerful punch to obtain new customers.