Effective Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

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What are the most effective marketing strategies for small businesses?

Marketing strategies for small businesses to grow your business

There are only so many hours in a day, right?

And when you are running your small business, your time and focus are already split between a million different tasks.

Learn these important  and effective marketing strategies for small businesses.

So the first thing to fall to the wayside tends to be on your marketing strategies.

You think I’m busy enough now, I don’t have time for marketing.

But that, dear friend, is the problem.

If you are busy now, and you stop marketing your business, you won’t be busy for long!

Having good marketing strategies as a small business is critical to a successful business.

But how do you choose where to spend your time?

The three most popular free marketing strategies for small business are :

  1. Grow an audience/following on social media
  2. Create content via a blog, podcast or video channel
  3. Send emails to your email list.

But how do you choose what is the best option?

And which option do you choose?

Most people opt for social media. You spend hours upon hours posting and engaging and creating content in hopes that you get noticed.

But with each algorithm change, you see fewer people connecting with you.

So you spend more time on the app. New post, more engagement, more hours wasted.

I think this is a flawed strategy that will only continue to get harder to be seen, while fewer people see what you are putting out there. Talk about a rigged game huh?

There is one marketing strategy that will continue to work in your favor as time passes. Content Marketing

Create content that answers the question your ideal client wants to know.

Show up BEFORE they need your service, in a way that helps them without any strings attached, and you’ll end up creating a trust that will encourage them to buy from you when they are ready.

But doesn’t content marketing take time and energy?

Yes. Yes it does. There really is no way around that, but it’s time and energy that you are putting out there that will continue to work for you for months and years after you’ve hit publish.

Which is much more useful to you than relying on only a social media post which could possibly not even make it past an hour before it hits the algorithm graveyard!

But isn’t social media important too?

Yes, yes it is.

The amazing thing about creating content on a weekly or bi-weekly basis is that you are creating things to talk about on social media that can attract the attention of your ideal client.

Because let’s be real.

Your people are on social media. You need to be there too.

But social media should be part of your overall marketing strategy not the only strategy.

Now, what was it you were saying about emailing people?

Email is one of those things that service businesses know they should be doing but somehow avoid ever actually doing. Can you relate?

You may be worried that you are going to alienate people if you show up in their inbox. And if you only show up when you are there to sell them something, then you’d be right.

If you show up weekly and share with your ideal client the details about the content you created on your blog, podcast or video show that will help them, they are going to be stoked!

You share weekly how you can help make their lives easier or better with the knowledge you have, then you’ll find yourself some raving fans.

And you KNOW they will buy from you when they do find themselves in need of your service!

So how do you implement this marketing strategy?

branding photographer

Step 1: Find how your ideal client wants to learn about information pertaining to what your business provides.

This will look different depending on your area of expertise. The biggest options are a blog, video or podcast.

My business talks a lot about images and visuals, so blogging made the most sense to me.

But if your ideal client wants to see a walkthrough type demo or a how-to, then video would be the place to be for you.

If your ideal client can learn how to fix their problem by listening to audio while on the go, then a podcast is the best option for you.

Don’t decide on the platform without considering how and where your ideal client is spending their time.

The key to marketing strategies for small businesses

Step 2: Decide how often you will be creating content, and stick to that schedule.

People love routine, and if you always publish your video at 3 pm on Wednesdays, they will know when to expect more from you.

If you are publishing willy nilly whenever you feel the draw, then people won’t come back to you to answer any more of their questions. They won’t know when to expect the info, so they will find someone else who is providing it.

Woman searches on her computer for a social media photographer

Step 3: Use Keywords to Rank organically in Google

As you are creating your content, you will start to tell Google more about what your website is all about.

Using keywords that you know your audience will be searching for will help you rank better in Google searches organically and give your website more authority.

Before I create content, I do a little Google sleuthing to make sure what I am talking about is searched for on Google.

And I make sure to use the term that people are searching for. This is a great way to figure out what type of content you should be creating as well!

For example, there is a reason why this post is called Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses. I searched and found that this is what people look for on Google. I knew I could talk about this topic in a way that would help my ideal client (that would be you!) and decided to write an article.

Social media is not the most effective marketing strategies for small businesses

Step 4: Share the content on your social media channels

Now that you have this amazing content that is there to help your ideal client, then you have something HELPFUL to talk about on social media!

You can post about it on Facebook. And even go live on your Facebook page with a couple of the tidbits

I suggest uploading a photo and putting the link in the caption instead of using the link option on Facebook. Facebook likes to share images over links because links will pull people away from Facebook (which Zuckerberg doesn’t like).

You can mention your new content in your Instagram posts as well as Insta stories.

The most amazing thing about having created content is that you can reference past articles/videos/podcasts again and again.

Create a social message for the content once, and then schedule it to post again and again (with time in between posts of course) via tools like Buffer or CoSchedule. This way it’s constantly being shared again and again on your social channels.

Effective marketing strategies for small businesses

Step 5: Write about your content to your email list

After you’ve published your content, you want to share that with the people who’ve said they want to hear from you!

Draft up an email via an email service provider (I use and love Convertkit *affiliate link*) and send it to your people.

Tell a story that can relate to what your content is.

Make it conversational and let your audience know that they can find out more over on your blog or video or podcast.

The magic is getting people on your email list. As a small business, this should be your goal. And everything else should tie in some way to your email list so that you can stay in contact and be available when they are ready to buy!

How do you get people to signup for your email list?

Add value to your content via a free pdf that they can get if they optin to your email list. You want to make sure that what you are offering for free gets the attention of your ideal client and helps them out.

Once they are on your list, then email them when you have new content andyou’ll be the one they trust to do business with.

What kind of optin works? Well, something like this optin below works wonders! ↓

The end-all goal should be to get your ideal client to allow you to stay in contact via email. The content you are creating will get their attention initially and what will keep them coming back for more!

What do you think about creating content for your small business? Add a comment below to let me know what you think!


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