In the modern age of digital marketing, where businesses endure immense pressure to compete with millions of advertisements, small businesses feel as if they are fighting a losing marketing battle. Whether it be because they don’t have the expertise to market themselves effectively, or the budget to invest in large-scale publicity, small business owners assume marketing is for big business only.
Yet, small business marketing doesn’t have to be complicated or cripple the business financially. There are many awesome, affordable marketing opportunities small businesses are missing out on every single day. In this article, we share with you the obvious, and not so obvious, small business marketing possibilities every brand should consider, and why most of these won’t break the bank either!
Word of mouth
Don’t make the mistake of discounting traditional, yet powerful, word of mouth marketing. There is a misconception that brands are no longer able to leverage from the herd mentality, where satisfied customers openly praise the business to their family and friends, and in the process, gain a following from the customer’s recommendations.
Word of mouth marketing is still one of the most effective means of promotion, as well as the most cost-effective to implement into your business. Encourage word of mouth marketing wherever possible, by merely asking loyal customers to tell their friends and family about your business offering.
Referrals and customer rewards
The key to capitalising on affordable small business marketing, like word of mouth marketing, is to reward the people who’ve actively promoted your business. A referrals system is an easy way of generating continual promotion from these customers, as the reward encourages them to repeat their actions, all the while fostering brand loyalty and forever clients. Don’t take these customers for granted; free spokespeople for your business need repaying for their ongoing support, especially if you rely on their word of mouth to fuel your business.
Social media
When we talk about social media marketing helping small businesses go big, we are primarily referring to online word of mouth. Essentially, this is what social media realises for a business; it creates an easier way to communicate word of mouth referrals to a broader, invested community. Starting any social media account is free, and it doesn’t require much effort to create content and start connecting with potential customers.
Why social media made this list is because too often small businesses exclude themselves from needing social media, claiming it’s impossible to compete with businesses with a greater presence. However, as social media grows in popularity and reliability, businesses who fail to engage with the style of marketing won’t survive (#cancelled).
Blogging and vlogging
The form of marketing made famous by influencers is blogging (writing articles) and vlogging (tell the same story through a video medium). However, documenting the day-to-day and providing advice shouldn’t be left to the influencers. Businesses, whether they realise this is or not, position themselves as experts in their industry, and consumers continually seek recommendations from the experts they trust. Capitalising on this concept is vital, as you can connect with your customers, give back to them with free advice, all the while marketing your small business in the process.
