How To Market A Small Business Online
You’re no longer competing with just a row of shops in a specific area any more. Instead, you suddenly have millions of competitors, who are equally looking to achieve sales in the same niche as you. Therefore, marketing your business online is all about saying the right things to the right people. In addition to helping you get small business insurance to protect assets and guard against liability claims, we've put together this guide to help you grow your business.
How To Market A Small Business On Social Media
Naturally, social media is one of the easiest and most effective ways to get your brand’s name out there.
It’s a simple fact that to succeed on any social media platform, every business needs a social media marketing strategy to build an audience, and ultimately direct people towards its products or services. The trick is posting both quality content and doing so consistently.
Your content should be a mix of posts designed to boost engagement as well as updates about your business. Think about how you can grab people’s attention the most, and make sure you regularly monitor your analytics to identify what content is working and what is falling flat.
As a general rule, posting links alone works against any platform’s algorithm, because you are essentially directing people away from the site. However, images accompanied by links or live videos will pick up more traction. Giveaways also bring in plenty of attention, especially if you state entrants must follow your page and share the post.
It’s really important to centre the content on what your customers are most interested in. For example, a hair salon may post images of cutting or colouring styles, along with a number to call to book in for the same service. Such content will work to boost engagement, because it’s what people expect to see from the business, and it’s what they are known for. So, it’s crucial to apply the same logic to whatever your business is about.
Carefully curating your posts and scheduling content to go out daily, in addition to leaving time to respond to posts and messages will offer the maximum potential for new business to come your way.
How To Market A Small Business On Facebook
Facebook has almost 3 billion active users, which is a lot of potential customers for your business! In fact, Facebook continues to be the most popular platform even ahead of the likes of YouTube, WhatsApp and Tik Tok. So if you’re yet to create a Facebook page for your business or establish a healthy following, you could be missing out.
By far one of the best ways to market your business on Facebook is through Ads Manager, which is a dedicated platform allowing you to create paid advertisements for your brand. What’s great about Ads Manager is you can control your audience, meaning your adverts will be targeted at specific age groups, interests, locations etc.
So now is a great time to run through your demographics, so that when you go to set up an advert you can target your campaign at those most likely to earn you a conversion. For example, a sportswear company in the UK may target those aged 16-30 who are into health and fitness who live in London, based on this demographic being those who purchase from them the most.
Excluding irrelevant audiences will reduce your advertising budget and ultimately bring in a healthier return on investment, compared with randomly creating ads and hoping for the best.
How To Market Your Small Business With No Budget
We all have to start somewhere, and if your small business is yet to turn a profit, it’s understandable you may not have a marketing budget in place just yet.
People power is going to be the order of the day here, and ways you can recruit friends, family and the general public to support you include:
- Asking people to leave a positive review of your business on social media, Google, Trustpilot etc
- Posting your business pages on personal accounts and asking/inviting people to follow them
- Offering incentives such as a discount on purchases for completing certain actions
- Ensuring your SEO is on point using free tools such as Google Trends and Ubersuggest
- Adding video content to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube linking back to your business
- Using as many relevant hashtags as people in your public social media posts
- Consider creating an affiliate scheme, whereby someone will get a percentage of any sale they make for you
- Contact local media outlets and ask if they would consider doing a feature on your new business/or an element of your small business that their readers may be interested in
Essentially, it’s all about getting creative to draw as much attention to your website and provide a quality experience for your visitors while you are establishing your brand. Don’t get disheartened if you’re not an overnight success either, as it takes sustained effort to build up your page views, especially without a budget. But, if you concentrate on the above and maybe take some free courses on digital marketing to sharpen your skills, you can definitely increase your sales.
To Sum Up
Just because your business is small, that doesn’t mean to say it can’t be mighty! When putting in an effort to market your brand, it’s a good idea to think about why you got into business in the first place. If you have a real passion for your industry, then let this shine through the way you market your business online.
Great copy, images and video will help entice your audience. Combined with a continued effort to deliver excellent customer service, your small business will scale to new heights in no time.