25 Marketing Strategies to Help You Grow Your Small Business

Whether you’re starting a new business or growing an existing one, having a strong online presence for your small business is critical. Therefore in order to grow your business, you need to think about all our marketing efforts from offline to online.

Here are 25 fundamental marketing strategies to help you grow your small business:

1. Identify Your Ideal Audience or Target Market

It is not good enough to sell something in hopes that people will buy it. It would be best if you first tried understanding what clients are looking for and what they expect. This will significantly strengthen your brand and reputation.

Who are you attempting to sell goods to? What do they want the most from products like yours? You must answer these questions to identify your target market (also known as a buyer persona). This is typically discovered by observing trends, analyzing analytic data, and interacting directly with those customers.

When it comes to your ideal market, here are some things you need to identify:

• What do your clients do? 
• What's your client's job title? 
• Where do your clients work? 
• What are your client’s hobbies outside of work? 
• How old are your clients? 
• How do your clients find their information? 
• Do your clients prefer to contact people on the phone or by email?

When you know who you're marketing to, even if you're not actively blogging, creating email campaigns, or local landing pages, you will still be able to make more informed decisions about your small business and with whom.

2. Get Serious About Your Website

As a small business, your website is most likely the first point of contact a potential client will have with you. Even if you have a brick-and-mortar business, people will probably look you up online before stopping in. 

Take a look at these statistics:

• 76% of consumers that search for something local on their phone visit a store that day. (Source: Think With Google)
• Consumers search for a variety of local information on their mobile devices. 54% will look for business hours, 53% for directions, and 50% for the address. (Source: Think With Google)
• 71% of people who have been surveyed have said they search for the location of a business in order to confirm its existence before going there for a first-time visit. (Source: Search Engine Roundtable)

So your SMB website must look good and function properly to help your small business grow.

If you want to grow your small business, then utilizing your website to help you better market your business is key. Here are a few of the basic things your website needs to have: 

• Make sure it works and is easy to navigate or find things
• Make sure it's responsive or mobile-friendly website design, or it works on any size screen
• Make sure your contact information is prominent throughout your website. 
• Highlight the services and the products you offer

Additionally, it’s the only channel you will always own. It also has the capability of generating tons of organic traffic in addition to being a place to send traffic from other marketing initiatives and advertising.

3. Build Interesting Landing Pages

A marketing landing page often provides a free resource in exchange for filling out a short contact information form. When they receive your free resource, they may be even more impressed with your business and more inclined to hire you.

4. Focus on Quality Content

Creating high-quality content your buyer personas and prospective clients want to read will bring them to your local small business. This includes creating content that is optimized for mobile and voice search. 

Take a look at these statistics compiled by Serpwatch:

• The latest data shows there are 4.2 billion digital voice assistants worldwide.
• Siri and Google Assistant are the most popular digital assistants, with 36% of users each.
• The entire voice recognition market was valued at $10.7 billion in 2020.
• An average voice search result is just 29 words long.
• Around 46% of voice search users search for local businesses each day.

Therefore some of the best types of content to create include:

• Tutorials and how-tos
• Listicles or list-oriented posts
• FAQs

Excellent content helps build your reputation, spread brand awareness, and attract potential clients.

5. Use Your Blog to Attract Prospects for Your Website

When it comes to ranking on the search engine, content and blogging are extremely important, as it is a great way to generate organic traffic, especially for prospects who have not yet made a purchasing decision. Furthermore, it can help you establish credibility in your industry and position you as a thought leader. The reason is that the more frequently your desired keywords appear in your high-quality and helpful content, the more likely you will appear on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

6. Be a Contributor

Prospective clients can be found in forums, blogs, and other online discussion groups. You can pique buyers’ interest by answering questions on sites like Quora that are relevant to your business.

Being a guest blogger, forum participant, or answering questions on HARO (Help A Reporter Out) only increases your small business’s authority. The bottom line is that people are more likely to interact with a company that understands what it is talking about.

7. Partner With Others

Good collaborations are mutually beneficial. This means that by pooling their resources, both companies benefit. I’m not talking about one company buying out another. Instead, you’re sharing each other’s clients. This is common when traveling because fast-food restaurants share the same space as truck stops.

Partnerships can be very beneficial if you find the right social media influencer. Indeed, influencer marketing can significantly increase sales and brand awareness. Just make sure to find an influencer who is relevant to your company’s niche.

8. Build out Your Social Media Strategy

For many people, social media is essential to their daily lives. According to research from the Pew Research Center, “Seven-in-ten Facebook users say they use the site daily.”  

While Facebook and Google Business Profile will be great tools for local searches and reviews, platforms like LinkedIn, //www.tiktok.com/@city_countrymouse">TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest will offer you even more opportunities to share your posts and content.

If your clients can purchase your products or services online, these platforms will also give them another way to find you.

9. Use Email Marketing

Because you converted website traffic into leads does not mean those leads are ready to buy. It’s critical to stay top of mind and move them closer to making a purchase decision.

Email marketing as an overall strategy is a simple, free, and scalable way of communicating with both new and existing clients.

Once you have an email list in place, you need to choose an email marketing tool. Here is a good list of email marketing platforms that are inexpensive or even free. As a small business owner, you don’t have much free time to devote to digital marketing, but you shouldn’t underestimate the value of email and newsletters.

10. Understand the Power of Existing Clients

Depending on which study you believe and what industry you’re in, acquiring a new client can cost anywhere from five to twenty-five times more than retaining an existing one, according to Bain & Company and HBR. It makes a ton of sense if you think about it, as you don’t have to spend time and resources going after new clients. What this really means is that you shouldn’t stop marketing to current clients once they’ve made a purchase or hired you.

Identify your opportunities for repeat purchasing, upselling, and cross-selling. Because your existing clients have already made a purchase, they already know, like, and trust you. If you’ve provided a good experience, you’ve given them a reason to do business with you again should the need arise.

Even if the need doesn’t arise (in cases where it’s a one-and-done purchase with no upsell opportunities), you should still delight your clients. Word of mouth is a powerful (and free) promotional tool.

11. Use Testimonials and Reviews

According to Bright Local, “90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business.” Users will seek reviews across many different channels, online and offline. These testimonials and reviews can and will affect your bottom line. Take a look at these statistics to see how reviews can influence your small business’s revenue:

• 90% of users need less than ten reviews to form an opinion about a business.
• 50 or more reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates (Source: Econsultancy)
• 9 out of 10 customers are afraid to buy from a company that has no ratings at all (Source: BrightLocal)
• 70% of people trust reviews and recommendations from strangers (Source: Nielsen)
• 88% of consumers trust online testimonials and reviews as much as recommendations from friends or family (Source: Big Commerce)
• On average, testimonials on sales pages increase conversions by 34% (Source: Impact)
• Displaying reviews can increase conversions by up to 270% (Source: Spiegel Research Center)
• 83% of people trust reviews over advertising. (Source: Nielsen)
• Businesses who reply to reviews at least 25% of the time have an average of 35% more revenue (Source: G2)

People are more willing to trust a product or service when they see lots of positive online reviews, while negative reviews have the opposite impact. According to a Harvard Business School study, Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com, “a one-star increase in Yelp rating leads to a 5-9% increase in revenue.” 

If you are not investing a little time and resources into gathering and managing your reviews, you may be walking away from more sales for your small business. 

12. Use Social Media for Customer Service

Using social media as a tool for customer service may seem a bit odd and overwhelming. However, your clients and prospects are using it to get support and get questions answered. 

Consider this:

• 1 in 3 social media users prefer social media customer care services to telephone or email. (Source: Social Media Today)
• An estimated 67% of consumers now use social media networks like Twitter and Facebook to seek resolution for issues. (Source: Social Media Today)
• Customers spend 20-40% more with companies engaging and responding to customers via social media. (Source: Social Media Today)
• Nearly 70% of consumers have said that they have used social media for issues to do with customer service on at least one occasion. (Source: Social Media Today)

Consider hiring a social media manager with community management experience if you have the funds. In addition to posting content regularly, community managers are responsible for responding to followers’ questions or concerns.

13. Brand Your Email Signature

One of the simplest ways to market your small business is by branding your email signature. Not only does it help to promote your small business, but it also looks far more professional than simply signing off with your name.

Depending on the email distribution system, you can include fancy signatures with your company logo and links to your website.

Include links to your company’s social profiles in your signature is also a good idea. Any method of getting the word out about your small business is beneficial. Adding them to your email messaging application or service is usually free.

If you want help building your own, check out HubSpot’s Email Signature Generator. It is a free tool that can help make your professional email signature. Then it’s just a matter of adding it to your Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, or other email providers.

14. Emphasize Your Value Proposition

There is no reason for a prospect to want to work with you if there is no difference between you and your competition. Your value proposition will set you apart from the others and convince prospective clients that you are the service provider to choose. 

15. Track Your Site With Analytics Tools

When it comes to your website, you need to know how much traffic you are getting and from where. This is where analytics tools come in handy. By incorporating Google Analytics (which is a free product), it allows you to track who is visiting your site easily.

16. Make Sure You're Capturing Web Prospects' Information

You can take your analytics one step further by capturing your prospects’ information and identifying more about them. You can do this by incorporating a tool such as HubSpot Marketing (which is a free product) to track who is visiting your site easily.

17. Manage Relationships With a CRM

A CRM or customer relationship management system is intended to collect and manage the vast amounts of data collected by sales teams on leads, prospects, and clients. CRM software has been around for decades, but its popularity is growing as features get more sophisticated. CRMs are also gaining popularity as a simple tool to manage sales activity across different channels and as a dependable approach to improve the customer experience.

18. Boost Your Google Ranking With SEO

As a small business, you may have searched for yourself or your product/service online?

If so, have you ever wondered, “Why isn’t my website showing up on Google?” Or you may think that you are showing up when you aren’t. 

Now you may be asking yourself what I mean. Well, Google will personalize your search results if you are logged in. While this is often a good thing for many searchers, it can have a negative effect on your results and make you think you are ranking better than you are. 

Numerous factors now influence why a particular site or page appears near the top of the Google (or other search engines) search engine results page (SERP). Backlinko reports on some of Google’s top factors, such as having relevant keywords (and placing them on your site), the length of your content, having high-quality content, how quickly your page loads, how frequently you post content, and more.

When it comes down to it, Google essentially seeks the best piece of content to present to the searcher. For example, if I’m looking for the best salon in Taylorsville, North Carolina, finding a website for a salon that has closed down and is located in Taylorsville, Utah, would be useless. It would, however, be beneficial for me to find a salon in my area that has excellent reviews, an easy-to-navigate website, and readily available contact information. Google always wants to show the most relevant, high-quality content.

You need to think about your SEO strategy to ensure that you are showing up when you are supposed to be and rank higher. Adam and I have written a lot on the subject. Check out our SEO blog posts here if you want to dive deep. Here’s the kicker unless you use a testing tool such as SEM Rush, Moz, or SpyFu, you can’t honestly know how your site is performing on the SERPs.

19. Don’t Forget Local SEO

Local search engine optimization or Local SEO is very useful for your small business. The channel allows your small businesses to show up on the maps and higher for localized searches. With local SEO, your ultimate goal is to improve your ranking in the search results and bring more visitors to your website. 

But don’t take my word for it. Here are five stats that prove the importance of local SEO:

• 97% of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else. (Source: SEO Tribunal)
• 92% of searchers will pick businesses on the first page of local search results. (Source: SEO Expert)
• 4 in 5 consumers use search engines to find local information. (Source: Think with Google) 
• 86% of people rely on Google Maps to find the location of a business. (Source: Backlinko)
• Businesses ranking in the Local 3-Pack enjoyed at least 100 percent more clicks. (PDF Source: MomentFeed)

20. Invest in Ads

Organic traffic takes time to build (usually six to nine months, but it can be as high as 18-24 months), and as a small business, you want to invest in quick wins. Pay-to-play tactics that target buyers with high intent are excellent for achieving short-term wins to jump-start other objectives.

Google Ads are ideal if you know your who your target audience is and what product or solutions they are looking for. You might also consider using social media ads instead if they aren’t. People on social media have lower purchasing intent, but with highly targeted ads and enough impressions, you can pique your audience’s interest.

21. Experiment With Photo and Video Content

According to HubSpot Research, “more than 50% of consumers want to see videos from brands.” Furthermore, most social media apps, such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, are adopting more visual layouts. It’s a good idea to create a few marketing videos to keep up with these trends. 

22. Integrate On and Offline Methods

In today’s market, you must focus as much online as you do offline. However, many elements can be easily integrated to increase your small business’s engagement and awareness.

One of the best things you can do now and the silver lining of the pandemic is the use of QR codes. While they have been around since 1994 and saw a small-scale adoption in the early 2000s, the pandemic made them mainstream.

23. Lean Into Word of Mouth as a Promotion Channel

As mentioned previously, delighting clients can significantly impact your business, primarily in repeat purchases and word of mouth. If you provide a great experience, your clients will be more inclined to leave reviews, give testimonials, and tell their friends about you.

24. Concentrate on the Marketing Strategies You Have Time For

As I previously mentioned, the key to marketing your small business is making time to put in the effort.

If you’re like many local small businesses, you’re short-staffed, and most of your employees wear multiple hats. Nobody has time to learn how to set up a complex Google Ads campaign, figure out how Instagram Reels work, or make TikTok videos.

However, my best advice is to take whatever time you have available, whether it’s 5 hours per month or 5 hours per week, and devote it to the tactics that will get you the best and most results.

25. Be Consistent

People think a lot of things about marketing, but the hard truth is that consistency is what produces results.

Sure, you can invest in flashy ad campaigns, a new website, and cute imagery for your social media accounts, but none will work unless you take the time and seriously stick with it.

If you’ve decided that the only thing you have time for right now is your website, that’s fantastic. Set aside a certain number of hours per week, month, or quarter to work on your website.

The more consistent you are in your marketing efforts, the faster you will learn what works and what doesn’t. And once you’ve figured out what works, you can keep doing it to expand your small business.

Final Thoughts

There you have it, twenty-five of the top marketing tips to help you grow your business. 

Having a strong online presence for your small business is essential whether you're launching a new business or expanding an existing one. Whether you choose to focus on more offline initiatives or online, you can’t go wrong trying to market your small business.

If you need help with your online marketing strategy, reach out to me, I will be happy to help!