Today we are going to discuss extensively time-tested and proven marketing strategies you can apply to your business to explode your sales.
Without any further ado, below are the strategies you can use as a small business owner:
1. Know Your "Difference" Or Value Proposition.
The only reason why people buy from you and not your competitors is because of the difference between you and them.
What now differentiates you from everyone else in the marketplace is your value proposition which makes you a go-to business.
What do you do better than anyone in the industry?
Or your product or service delivers more results than everyone else?
This answer will differentiate you from the competition and allow you to make a very strong marketing argument.
2. Invest On Short-term Plays.
As a start-up business owner, it would be a good idea to start with a marketing strategy that will produce results in a short period.
That will give you more courage and momentum to keep going and cash flow to put toward larger projects, long-term plays, and more sustainable growth models.
Those marketing strategies that take time to build(like SEO) should not be your primary focus as you are starting because you would not see the return immediately.
And of course, if you have enough resources to start with, definitely go for it.
If you would like to do SEO by yourself, you can refer to Google’s original article:
3. Know Your Audience.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to say "everybody" is your audience, especially as a start-up business owner.
However, some big companies might find it easier to appeal to a very large market because of one reason or another.
But niching dawn as a start will not only help you to communicate effectively to your audience but also allows you to generate more profits for your business.
And having a niche and also appealing to buyers within that niche will allow you to understand their pains, problems, triggering events, and priorities.
If you can answer the questions below it will give you more idea about your audience:
● What is pushing them to make a purchasing decision?
● What does it look like if they succeed?
● What are your audience's pains, problems, triggering events, priorities, desires, hopes, challenges…
If you can answer those questions well enough, it will help you craft marketing messages that will resonate with your audience.
Start by thinking about your existing customers and who you'd like to work with. Then, create a buyer persona to start the process of getting into the head of your ideal client.
4. Singular Goals And Objectives ( Rule of ONE).
As a start-up business owner, it is necessary to stay focused on your set goals without jumping from one objective to another.
Take different marketing channels that are available to you as a start-up business for example.
We have Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Google, and YouTube. You just name it.
Still, it would be a great idea to focus on one platform until you reach that stage where you can start using different marketing channels.
Also, based on having a singular goal or objective, you need to identify where the biggest impact will be in your business and focus on it.
That you can focus on revenue-producing activities and delegate other aspects of your business to others.
Where is the biggest blind spot in your marketing that's deterring your growth?
Set a performance goal around that one key area and focus your resources on the activities and tactics that will achieve that one performance goal.
You can expand your efforts or pivot to other initiatives when you've made more progress toward that singular goal
5. Focus On What Works.
Immediately you have your business running and you have experimented with some marketing strategies, then, you should pay close attention to data.
And not only data but also what that data is telling you.
This will allow you to know what is working for your business and what is not.
As you scale, it's a good idea to double down on proven methods of generating revenue.
6. Leverage Free Promotional Tools.
As a small business owner or start-up, there are some free promotional tools you can use to market your product or service.
And it will be great enough to use free promotional tools where possible, and only use paid tools when you know that they will help your business operations and performance drastically.
Here's a helpful list of marketing tools (some free and paid).
7. Leverage The Power Of Existing Customers.
"On average it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than close an existing one."
That's telling you that you should nurture your existing customers enough so that they keep patronizing your brand.
And that will only happen if you keep on marketing your product or service to them and when you build a strong relationship with them.
Identify your opportunities for repeat purchasing, upselling, and cross-selling. Because your existing customers 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 and again whenever the need arises.
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 customers. Word of mouth is a powerful (and free) promotional tool.
8. Have A Website For Your Online Presence.
One of the best things you can do for your business is to have a professional-looking website. A website is one of the most important assets for every business.
Having a website allows you to show who you are, what you offer, where you are, and how a potential customer can get in touch with you.
It is a channel you will always own (unlike other platforms which may change policies or go in and out of style), and it has the capability of generating organic traffic in addition to being a place to send traffic from advertising and other marketing initiatives.
Your website is a 24/7 salesperson if you understand how to convert traffic and turn them into leads and from leads to customers.
And make sure you optimize your website for mobile devices.
Vastly Google searches are done on mobile devices, so it's significant to have a site that looks clean and easy to navigate when someone enters it on their smartphone.
Also, make sure you track your site with analytics tools.
If you've never made a website before and aren't entirely comfortable with the technical elements, there are a variety of free tools and services to help you get started.
9. Consider Blogging To Attract Prospects For Your Website.
One of the greatest ways to generate organic traffic is by blogging. This also helps you to position yourself as an authority in your marketplace and increase credibility.
Once you start writing, you can add a call-to-action to your posts for visitors to subscribe to your blog and receive emails.
This is a great way to start collecting leads and offering potential customers a way to get information if they aren't ready to buy anything from you yet.
10. Promote Yourself On Social Media.
There's no doubt that your potential customers are already hanging out on various platforms. It's your job to find where your target audience hangs out and create social media presence on that platform to attract them.
Also, social media marketing can help you engage with potential customers, build brand awareness, and promote your products.
Launch business pages on Facebook and Yelp, set up Google My Business.
If your business is focused on a local area, the most important accounts for you are Yelp, Google's business feature, and Facebook.
Having high Yelp reviews improves your authority online and helps your search ranking. You can claim your business on Yelp for free, customize your profile and add pictures, and start asking for reviews.
Likewise Google business page. You can register your business with Google (for free) and add pictures.
This will allow your business to show on Google Maps.
Creating a free Google My Business profile is a simple first step to helping potential customers find your business on the internet.
And it only takes you a few minutes to add your business contact information, business hours, and photo.
On Facebook, you can create a Facebook business page so that people can find your location and hours.
Having up-to-date social media accounts will help you be found and engage with prospects.
If your business is focused on B2B, LinkedIn could be the best platform.
You can create Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest accounts (if relevant), and use them as a way to discover new clients.
There are several things which are important for establishing social media presence:
Keep the same brand voice, links, logo, profile and brand color themes in all social medial platforms.
Constantly provide high quality articles with proper tones, spelling and grammar.
Active engagement.
User generated contents.
Ideally, in order to get the best engagement, you should be at least posting:
Facebook: 1 post per day.
Instagram: 1 post per day.
Twitter: 5 Tweets per day.
LinkedIn: 1 post per day.
Pinterest: 5 pins per day.
11. Invest In Ads.
When done in the right way, investing in ads can triple your business revenue almost overnight.
The problem is that most business owners think that investing in ads is a waste of money whereas it's not.
Understandably, organic traffic takes a while to build, and as a small business, you want to invest in short-term plays.
Pay-to-play tactics that target buyers with high intent are great for short-term wins to jump-start other objectives.
Google Ads are excellent if you know that your target audience is searching the web for your product or solution. If they aren't, you might consider social media ads instead.
Individuals on social media have fewer buying goals, but with highly targeted ads and enough impressions, you'll gain the interest of your audience.
12. Use Email Marketing To Nurture Leads.
When you generate leads either from any platform, the next important thing is to nurture those leads so that they can become happy customers.
And that's achievable by staying on top of the minds of your leads and moving them closer to a purchasing decision.
Email Marketing is very important when it comes to marketing strategy because it allows you to keep communicating with your customers or leads.
Also, the return from email marketing when done in the right way is always encouraging.
This strategy is an easy, free, and scalable way to communicate with both new and existing customers.
When you have put an email marketing tool in place (some are free or inexpensive), the next thing is to keep mailing them values, your offers, product launches, etc.
More importantly, email marketing works best when you're sending personalized, entertaining, informative, and targeted emails to your customers.
This begins with a customer database or customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Your CRM stores information about your leads, prospects, and customers so that you can keep track of customer interactions and identify sales opportunities more effectively.
But how can you generate email addresses from your target market?
Build landing pages.
Landing pages allow you to collect the contact details of your ideal customers in exchange for something valuable.
But you must make sure that they have great experience dealing with you because that is your first chance of creating a great impression.
Make them have a WAW moment after getting what you are giving them in exchange for their email address.
13. Offer A Free Webinar.
Apart from using free ebooks or reports or anything to collect contact details of your ideal customers. The other strategy you can use is a free webinar.
Those who are interested in your webinar need to sign up with their email address which is usually between 30 minutes to one hour.
This allows you to give tips and answer questions related to a topic your brand is familiar with.
This strategy not only helps you boost your credibility in your field, but it can also offer you potential leads and sales opportunities.
14. Understand Word-of-Mouth Promotion.
As mentioned previously, delighting customers can have a big impact on your business,
primarily in repeat purchases and word of mouth.
If you provide a great experience, your customers will be more inclined to leave reviews, give testimonials, and tell their friends about you.
That's why it's a good idea to measure customer satisfaction and encourage customers to spread the word.
15. Determine Your Brand's Identity.
As a business owner, having a stable means of identification to promote your business will not only make you look professional but also help you to attract consistently new customers.
According to a 2020 study, nearly 9 out of 10 people are brand loyal with nearly 25% of them climbing to be more brand loyal in 2020 compared to 2019.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has described a company's branding as "what other people say about you when you're not in the room."
In other words, your brand is the feelings and emotions people have when hearing your company name. It is a combination of your brand name, logo, aesthetic, and the design of all your assets.
16. Try Co-marketing Or Host Beneficiaries.
The host beneficiary is a strategy of selling someone's products or offers to your customers which do not directly compete with your product or service.
On the other hand, you can also allow someone to sell your products or services to his customers in as much they are not directly competing with their products or services.
Rather, they help your customers or their customers get better results from your product or service.
You can promote each other's products or services either on social media, via email, or in your blog.
This strategy will not only help you sell more of your products but also add more profits to your business.