Small businesses face the challenge of having
minimal resources and a smaller budget than that of a larger business. However,
if they engage a marketing consulting services for their marketing strategies,
small businesses can gain access to the best pool of talent in the most cost-effective
manner. Further to this, they only need to pay consultants whilst they are
engaging them and need not incur the costs of keeping full-time employees. Below
are some of the marketing strategies for small businesses which can be used to
grow your business in a highly competitive marketplace.
Get listed on Google
My Business
One of the most useful marketing strategies for
small businesses is to create their listing on Google My Business (GMB). If you
list your company on GMB and conduct proper SEO for its ranking, your website
will appear in searches made by people in the area where you operate. Adding
customer reviews will add to the credibility of your business in the eyes of
your potential customers. GMB allows small businesses to take control of their
information, such as address, phone number and hours of operation. With the new
Google search ads, your business can appear on the Google Maps app or website.
Your business profile should also be optimized and verified for the best
results on GMB.
Focus on one social
media channel at a time
Marketing consultant services often advise
small businesses to focus on one channel, instead of juggling between multiple
channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and Twitter. It can
be hard to tell how all or any one of them is working, if at all. Having your
presence on all social media channels is a great idea but as small businesses
operate on a limited budget, it’s a more effective strategy for them to focus
on a channel where their target customers are most likely to be found and
engage with. For example, if your customers are constantly tagging your handle
in Instagram posts but rarely retweet you on Twitter, it makes sense to focus
on Instagram, instead of investing in Twitter.
Start with long-tail
keywords
A small business marketing agency can help a
small business grow with search engine optimisation (SEO) tactics to improve
your ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). Though it may take you a while to see results from your SEO strategy, it is
an ongoing, sustainable effort which you will begin to see results for within a
few months. You may find it hard to compete with well-established business for
highly-competitive short-tail keywords, so your small business marketing agency
will often advise you to start with long-tail keywords which are more specific
and less competitive. The agency may utilize keyword research tools such as
Keyword Planner to bring relevant visitors to your website.
Engage on
question-answer platforms
The marketing agency may also search Quora,
Reddit and Yahoo Answers to find out the buzz words being used by the people on
these question-answer forums. These keywords should be used in title tags,
headings, images, and body content of the blogs that you need to post
regularly, and also on meta-descriptions so that search engines can determine
that your content is relevant to the search query typed in by the user, and can
then display your content accordingly.
Stay active on
LinkedIn
Marketing consultant services may also advise
you to stay active on LinkedIn. It’s a great platform to find and network with others
in your industry. They may join chat groups and forums for advice or event
invites. You could also consider hosting an event where you can invite your
local community to an open house via LinkedIn Mail.
Revisit your landing
page
Your landing page is where visitors will take
an action, and in turn convert into a lead or customer. Its design can have a
huge impact on your conversion rate. Analyse your current conversion rate. If
it is dismal, say less than 2%, you may need a more enticing offer, instead of
working on the actual design. One of the proven marketing strategies for small
businesses is to start running the A/B testing on your landing pages. The
length of the contact form, size, and placement of the CTA (call-to-action) and
social media buttons should also be checked.
Tag your local
customers
Tagging your local customers, brand evangelists
and local vendors on social media can help in broadening the organic reach of
your business to a new potential audience. You will be able to grow your
following and even potentially gain more customers. You can also encourage your
followers to tag your social media handle or business location to increase your
page visibility and reach.
Other social media
strategies worth considering
Other marketing strategies for small businesses
that may prove beneficial include sharing knowledge through YouTube tutorials,
webinars, and then repurposing that content, developing an email marketing
plan, creating data-rich infographics, posting and engaging on social media,
forming industry partnerships, setting up a customer-referral program, applying
for business awards, etc.
KnightRiley is a specialised small business
marketing agency that provides a one-stop solution for all your requirements
related to marketing for small and medium sized businesses. They offer a
variety of marketing consultant services to all sized businesses including
marketing plans, vision & mission process, target market analysis,
user-experience mapping, and a lot more. Contact KnightRiley for all your
requirements related to marketing strategies for small business.