• Search Engine Marketing (SEO & PPC)
• Social Media Marketing.
• Content Marketing.
• Email Marketing.

Growing a business isn’t easy. First, you need a viable idea. From there, you need to discover a profitable niche, define a target demographic and have something of value to sell them. Whether you’re peddling products, services or information, getting the word out has become increasingly burdensome. And without the right marketing strategies to fuel your growth, churning a profit and staying afloat is virtually impossible.

Succeeding as a small business often comes down to the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. You will need to employ many powerful marketing strategies

Long-terms success means consistent revenue. However, continued success for small businesses is not just a numbers game; it acquires greater depth. From a marketing point-of-view, long-term success is achieved if you’re able to consistently maximize ROI from your campaigns.

The landscape is changing…big time

Most customers don’t head to a sales representative when they want to know more about a product. According to the State of Inbound 2016, in their search for information, 62% prefer to use a search engine to get straight to the answer to their question and 48% of customers will visit the business’s official website to learn more about its products. 

Specific Targeting

Effective marketing is targeted to a specific, not a general, audience. By way of illustration, consider the different approaches that might be taken with a product as basic as rice if selling to these audiences: retirees, young mothers or athletes. By focusing on a specific audience and seeking to understand that audience’s needs, interests and desires, marketers can be most effective in achieving their objectives, says Lin Grensing-Pophal, author of “Marketing With the End in Mind.”

Stay Nimble

Here’s the thing about digital marketing: it’s a bit of a trial and error process. So while you absolutely want to make a plan, you also have to be flexible with:

• Shifting SEO patterns
• Upcoming trends
• Your content calendar and timeline
• One or two social channels only (the ones that perform best)
• Which KPIs to focus on
• When to get progress reports, where you can discuss and regroup

A successful strategy will always need some tweaking and as such needs careful and continual monitoring and adjusting. If you’re working alone or in a small company, don’t be afraid to hire outside consultants to help you dig through your metrics and redefine goals if something doesn’t seem to be working the way it was planned.

Search Engine Marketing. 

This is an area of marketing that I’m incredibly passionate about. But it’s also an area that many people are deathly frightened by. Yes, SEO can be frightening. But it can also be powerful. And when you learn to leverage it and you learn SEO the right way, the sky truly is the limit.

When is it most effective: SEO and PPC are always an effective strategy. 96% of informational/educational content is distributed through search engines, and is usually anyone’s first step during their research stage of selecting a good or service.

Social Media.

What it is: Social media is a great way to broaden your audience at a lower cost than some of your other marketing efforts. Much like a search engine, you can create both organic posts for a business page, as well as sponsored ads and content to reach beyond your current followers. Social media is a great tool when it comes to remarketing by showing new content/services/products to past website visitors.

Content Marketing

Content marketing emphasizes education over selling to influence buying behavior. This strategic marketing approach focuses on creating and distributing information relevant to prospects’ needs in order to attract those best aligned with – and most likely to purchase – your product or service. Since communication is ongoing, content can be tailored to reflect what you learn about leads over time, and may include varied formats like infographics, webpages, podcasts, videos, blogs, white papers, webinars and eBooks. It’s important to note that content marketing is not synonymous with inbound marketing (see below). Content marketing is an important component to an overall inbound strategy, but it does not integrate other marketing methodologies to maximize content value.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great tool for segmenting your audience based on behavior. For instance, you can create lists of leads based on those who sign-up for more information about your product or service. You can also retarget past buyers to remind them when new shipments of their favorite products come in, or recommendations for what they also might like.

Email has truly withstood the test of digital time, and will likely continue to do so as the preferred method of communication among professionals. This means it’s a good place to reach prospects under a more professional environment and create personalized messages that cater to specific interactions and purchasing behavior.

• The following are examples of what your overall business aim might be, and marketing strategies that you could use to achieve it:
  • Increase sales.
  • Bring in new customers.
  • Get existing customers to buy more.
  • Introduce a new product or service.
  • Increase market share.
  • Better establish your brand.
  • Improve customer loyalty.

  More items…

What is the best marketing strategy for a small business?

How do you create an effective marketing strategy?