7 marketing tips to help small business owners

Getting your business noticed is fundamental to achieving any level of success. However, small and new businesses generally don’t have the time or budget to dedicate to their marketing activities.

Fortunately, there are some quick, simple and – yes – affordable things that small business owners can do to advertise their business and the products and services they’re providing. In this article, we share our tips for marketing your small business.

1. Build a website

Let’s start at the obvious place. Whether you’re a florist, freelance copywriter, or plumber, if you want to reach as wide a customer base as possible, it’s imperative that you have an online presence. While you can manage without one, a website does a great deal to raise your business’s profile and give your operations that professional touch.

With your own site, you can showcase your brand and expertise, sell your products and services, answer customer questions, and boost your overall visibility – essentially making yourself findable to anyone who is interested in what you offer.

Thanks to build-your-own platforms, building a site can now be done by anyone (no web dev skills required!), so make your website a marketing priority.

2. Use your customers

Word-of-mouth is one of the most effective marketing tools for businesses, with positive comments from content customers often helping you reach new consumers and boost your brand.

Make the most of your satisfied customers by using them as advocates for your business. Publish their testimonials on your website, get them to leave reviews and encourage them to talk about you on social media.

When you provide a good service you build a connection with the customer. Making the most of these connections is not cynical, it’s good marketing. Some customers will share their experiences without any motivation from you, but when encouragement is required, don’t be afraid to give it.

Make the most of the goodwill that you have built up and use it as a way to reach even more people.

3. Embrace social media

Whilst some business owners may be suspicious of getting involved in social media, the statistics around use of the most popular sites should be enough to convince you that social media is a tool that can help your businesses. According to Ofcom’s 2023 Online Nation Report, 91% of adults with smartphones, tablets or computers visited YouTube in May 2023 and only a very slightly smaller proportion visited Facebook. Imagine what it might do for your business if only a tiny fraction of them saw what you were offering.

Social media provides a unique (and often free) chance to advertise your products and services, promote your brand identity, engage with your customers and push any content that you have created. However, it takes effort. You can’t expect to start shouting about your business and expect an immediate response.

Instead, take some time to engage with the right accounts (such as existing customers and thought leaders in your industry), find your target audience, and curate interesting content that’s not just about you.

Whenever you do post, measure the impact you are having and react accordingly. For example, if linking to a blog you have written consistently receives no response, try repurposing the same content into a video.

Social media is too good an opportunity to let slip, ensure your business takes advantage.

 

 

4. Start a Google Business Profile

Take advantage of Google’s free Business Profile facility (sometimes referred to as a Google My Business Profile).

Simply put, this provides you with a listing and presence on Google, whereby – if anyone searches for your business online, they are presented with your key information. This includes:

• Address
• Website address
• Telephone number
• Opening hours
• Information on specific products and services
• Popular times (when you’re busy/not busy)

You can also publish relevant photos, manage reviews, answer public questions and engage in 1-2-1 conversions through the direct messenger tool.

As well as signing up for a Google Business Profile, you should consider listing your business on directories such as Yell and Bing Places. Again, this will help make your business easier to find for anyone who is interested.

5. Create customer profiles

For any form of content to have an impact, you need to know who the target audience is. Otherwise, you’re basically guessing. Whether you’re writing a product description, marketing mail, blog, or social media post, having a picture of who you’re writing for is vital.

The best way to do this is to create multiple customer profiles using the data that you have for your existing customers. These profiles should be made up of information such as:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Income
• Job title
• Buying habits
• Goals/aspirations

Whenever you produce a piece of content, you should have a particular profile in mind to help inform the tone of voice and type of language that you use.

For example, if you are running a special offer on a service that you provide, and you know that most users of that service are based outside the UK, you can tailor your content by delivering it in a more succinct style to avoid any language confusion.

Not only will this help you practically when producing any content, but it will also help you creatively – if you are ever struggling for inspiration.

6. Focus on your core offering

There are a multitude of ways that you can market any one thing. If you provide a range of products and services, it’s easy to spread yourself too thin with your marketing activity, with each element of your business receiving very little attention.

In the initial stages of your marketing activity, ascertain what your main proposition is and, for the time being, focus on that rather than doing a ‘so-so’ job on lots of different things.

This will make it easier for you as you look to deliver worthwhile marketing that will do your business justice, and will also help your customers as they try to get a handle on exactly what your business does. Hook potential customers in with your core offering, then plate up everything else that you are able to provide.

7. Always consider how you communicate

Marketing, when boiled down to its basics, is all about communication. As a small business owner, you need to make sure that you are doing all you can to clearly communicate with your customers. Clarity needs to be at the forefront of everything that you do.

Consider every point of contact that you have with your customers; the content on your website; how your telephone calls are handled;  the emails that you send; the way your live chat operates. It all matters.

• See also: 7 benefits of using a telephone answering service
• See also: What is a virtual call centre?
• See also: Turbocharge your customer services through managed live chat

In this highly competitive business world, if the way that you communicate with a possible customer doesn’t resonate, they will simply look elsewhere. Take the time get it right by putting thought into every touchpoint.

So there you have it

That’s seven marketing tips to help small business owners. We hope you have found this article useful.

Find out how our PA services, including Telephone Answering and Managed Live Chat can help your small business.