You’ve assembled an amazing team, perfected your product, and you’re ready to break into the industry. There’s only one problem: getting people to notice your small business. Entrepreneurs often struggle to get their companies recognized at first, but that can change quickly with some small business marketing strategies.
A great product and great marketing go hand-in-hand. When done right, small business marketing strategies can take you from startup to industry leader, but you need a solid foundation first. To get started, let’s go over what your company needs to build a successful small business marketing strategy.
Small Business Marketing Strategies: Target Demographics
You probably already know the people your product is aimed at, but fine-tuning your marketing strategy means identifying more than just age or gender. Are your customers urban or rural? Homeowners or renters? Are they educated? Affluent? Do they fall somewhere on the political spectrum?
How you answer those questions can help you fine-tune your marketing. Of course, you probably can’t answer those questions right away, but paying attention to the populations that are most impacted by your product and adjusting your content to their needs can make you a market mainstay.
Small Business Content Marketing
If you have a sense of who’s interested in your product, you can create a content strategy that will keep them engaged. This is probably the hardest part of a small business marketing strategy, as it requires a lot of writing, rewriting, and optimizing.
To get started on writing effective content, ask yourself what will engage your target audience. Will they be more motivated to read think pieces, listicles, or historical essays? Do they prefer in-depth paragraphs or 2-3 sentences per idea? Will they be more likely to watch video content? How does your audience speak – do they prefer slang or academic lingo? Are they Millennials, Gen Xers, or Boomers?
Figuring out what your content is and how to write it will help steer your business in the direction of your target customers, but be sure to stay on top of the demographic data, as your content will change over time. Whatever you put out for your audience, just be sure it reflects your brand.
Small Business (Re)Branding
Speaking of brands, this is a good time to make sure your branding works for your company. A brand is more than a logo and some taglines, it’s how your company presents itself on everything it puts out! Good branding means a consistent design on your products and social media. It also means that the content you put out uses the same language, your public relations image is consistent, etc. If anything, this entire article is an exercise in keeping your brand strong.
To polish your brand, be critical of every tiny detail. Does the company’s visual design match its written content? Is our social media presence consistent? Do our logos, packaging, and web design draw the right viewers in? Consistency is key, as your brand is what draws customers in and inspires them to stay.
Small Business Social Media
Knowing who your company is marketing towards will help you optimize your social media content. We’ve covered visual design, content writing, and keeping your brand consistent; nowhere is this more necessary than on social media, where your products and images are on display for the world.
Social media is more than just good posts on the right websites, it’s also about interacting with your audience. Responding to comments and writing engaging captions is one way to do it. You can also run contests, post featured customers, or ask engaging questions to build trust with your followers. Also, are you posting content that’s relevant to your city or area? Is your content relevant to your target age group? Social media is about being a member of your audience’s community, and engagement is key to a successful social media plan.
Small Business Networking
The last thing we want to mention is to develop strong networks with other businesses. Companies that share similar demographics or geographic areas can boost each other’s presence by sharing customers, running joint events, and even just creating more community interest.
Let’s Fine-Tune Your Small Business Marketing Strategies
Your marketing plan requires a lot of work, but if you’ve made it this far as an entrepreneur, you have what it takes to create small business marketing strategies that’ll put your name at the top of the industry. Need help with branding, content writing, or social media strategy? You’re already in the right place! Read more about Summit Collaborations here or book a call with the CEO, Ashlee, to discuss our services.