Being a small business owner, I see how vital digital marketing is. It brings in customers and speeds up growth. Yet, it’s tough as 20% of small businesses close in their first year1. And an alarming 50% don’t make it past five years. They either get lost in the competition or struggle with effective marketing.
In this article, I’ll give you 20 marketing strategies that work. These include using lead magnets and hosting webinars. Also, working with influencers and sending out SMS marketing. Successful entrepreneurs have used these to grow their businesses. Let’s see how you can apply these to boost your small business.
Lead Magnet Nurture Sequence: Attract and Convert Potential Customers
For small business owners, a lead magnet nurture sequence is a key marketing tool. It helps attract potential customers and lead them to become loyal clients2.
Offer a Valuable Lead Magnet
Start by creating an attractive lead magnet. This could be an eBook, a guide, or a video series. It should be something your audience finds highly valuable2. This way, you not only get their contact info but also earn their trust.
Nurture Leads with an Automated Email Sequence
Next, nurture these leads with tailored email sequences. Address their needs and pain points in these emails3. This step helps build a strong relationship, highlighting your business as a problem solver.
It’s crucial to focus on adding value in your emails, not just selling3. Provide resources, insights, and exclusive offers. This keeps leads engaged and interested in your business4.
This method not only attracts potential clients but also guides them along their buying journey. Ultimately, it boosts your conversion rates and fosters growth for your business234.
Host a Webinar: Establish Authority and Generate Leads
For small business owners, webinars are key for marketing. They help you chat with possible buyers in a personal way. You get to share important info and show you know your stuff5. Many marketers hold lots of webinars every year. A good number think webinars work best for making good leads in the IT world5.
To run successful webinars, you should pick the best software. Tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams work well since most people know them6. They make the experience smooth and fun for everyone. Remember, almost all people like Q&A parts in webinars5.
Webinars keep working for you even after they’re over5. A big chunk of viewers watches them later on5. By collecting info during the webinar, you can stay in touch with these leads. This could help turn them into happy customers later7.
But, your webinar’s content has to be just right. Most B2B buyers avoid signing up if it’s too salesy5. So, share stuff that’s truly helpful and interesting for your audience7.
Especially after COVID, webinars are more important than ever. They make your bond with your audience stronger and increase their interest in what you offer7. So, whether it’s a free webinar to boost your crowd or a paid one to earn more, webinars are a great way to show your expertise and get top-notch leads for your business.
Collaborate with Influencers: Leverage Their Audience
Influencer marketing is key for small businesses aiming to raise brand awareness and connect with customers. Working with the right micro-influencers, those with fewer than 100,000 followers, can give small businesses access to a devoted audience. This audience sees these influencers as experts and trusts their opinions8.
Find Micro-Influencers Whose Audience Matches Your Target Customers
Small businesses should look for micro-influencers with followers that match their ideal customers. These influencers often have a smaller but more loyal audience. This audience can be very effective in converting sales and creating strong brand connections910.
Collaborate on Content that Resonates with Their Followers
Identifying the right micro-influencers is the first step. Then, working together on content that truly connects with their followers is crucial. This content might be sponsored posts, product reviews, or stories showing your brand in a real and interesting light8. Partnering with the influencer on creative projects can introduce your brand to new customers while building deeper relationships with your market.
| Influencer Type | Typical Follower Range | Engagement Rate | Average Cost per Collaboration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nano-Influencers | 1,000 – 10,000 | 5% – 10% | $50 – $500 |
| Micro-Influencers | 10,000 – 50,000 | 3% – 7% | $500 – $5,000 |
| Macro-Influencers | 50,000 – 500,000 | 1% – 3% | $5,000 – $50,000 |
| Mega-Influencers | 500,000+ | 0.5% – 2% | $50,000+ |
SMS Marketing: Reach Your Audience Directly
Reaching your target audience is key for a small business owner to grow. SMS marketing, also known as text message marketing, is a great way to do this11. It boasts a 98% open rate and a 46% response rate11. Besides, it has a phenomenal 42% conversion rate11.
Send Text Blasts About Updates, Offers, and Promotions
SMS marketing is great at quickly sharing important news with your customers. These updates can range from limited-time offers to new product announcements or necessary business news11. This instant connection with your audience has a 20% to 35% click-through rate, which beats email marketing11.
Use SMS to Share Information and Reminders
It’s not just for deals; SMS marketing can also be used to share useful info and reminders. For example, you can update customers on their orders, send them reminders about appointments, or share tips to make their interactions with your business better11. The high open and response rates for SMS mean your messages are likely to be noticed and appreciated11.
SMS marketing is becoming increasingly popular among small businesses. It’s known for being personalized, timely, and engaging12. By using this approach, you can improve your customer relationships, drive sales, and help your small business grow11.
| Key SMS Marketing Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Average Open Rate | 98%111213 |
| Average Response Rate | 46%11 |
| Click-Through Rate | 20% to 35%1112 |
| Estimated Annual Growth Rate | 18%1112 |
| Conversion Rate | 42%11 |
| Cost per Message | Over 1 cent12 |
SMS marketing stands out as an effective and budget-friendly option for small businesses. Its impressive statistics on engagement, sales, and growth make it a must-try for reaching your audience111213.
Host a Giveaway: Generate Buzz and Grow Your Audience
Giveaways are a great way for small business owners to increase growth and attract new customers. A social media giveaway can boost your followers by up to 70% in three months. This figure is higher than for brands that avoid contests14. They also help make your brand more visible and draw in new customers. Plus, they build loyalty and stronger emotional ties to your brand14.
Having giveaways makes people want to give back to your brand. They feel like they owe it something for taking part in a giveaway. This feeling drives more involvement, loyalty, and sales14. Also, you can learn a lot about your audience’s likes, dislikes, and who they are. This helps you make your marketing better14.
Decide if you want to host a social media contest or a simple giveaway. Contests might ask followers to create something, provide ideas, or recommend your brand. On the other hand, giveaways are about chance and building a community feel14. No matter what you choose, the goal is to get your audience excited14.
To make your giveaway really count, consider these tips. Custom apparel can be a standout prize, getting everyone’s interest15. Also, pick a deadline to make people act quickly. And, a referral system can make your giveaway go viral, reaching more people15.
At the end of the day, a giveaway’s success is all about the buzz it creates. It brings people together and helps grow your business. With the right approach, your small business can really benefit from using giveaways16.
Invest in Sales Funnels: Nurture Leads and Boost Conversions
As a small business owner, investing in a well-crafted sales funnel is crucial. It’s the path a customer takes from first seeing your brand to making a purchase. A good sales funnel helps you guide customers smoothly until they buy, and it increases value through upsells and order bumps17.
Create a Strategic Journey for Your Customers
Thinking carefully about your sales funnel is key. A well-optimized one takes customers smoothly from noticing your brand to making a purchase17. Tools like ClickFunnels or Kartra let you build a journey with lead magnets, automatic emails, and more, keeping customers on their path to buying18.
Utilize Upsells and Order Bumps to Increase Customer Value
Don’t forget about upsells and order bumps. Upsells and order bumps offer more value to customers after their initial purchase. This approach increases their total purchase value and enhances their experience with your business18.
Every business’s sales funnel and customers are unique. So, always test and tweak your strategy17. A smart sales funnel, along with upsells and order bumps, is a powerful combination. It helps you nurture leads better, improve sales, and grow your business18.
| Sales Funnel Stages | Boutique Clothing Shop | Dog Grooming Service | Bakery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness | Instagram ads, local events | Referrals, community events | Local newspaper ads, social media |
| Interest | Curated email newsletter, Instagram content | Grooming tips blog, Facebook group | Recipe videos, bakery tours |
| Decision | Personalized product recommendations, trial offers | Discounted first-time grooming appointment | BOGO coupon for cake decorating class |
| Action | Seamless checkout, loyalty program | Upsell on additional services, referral program | Subscription for monthly bread delivery |
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marketing strategies for a small business: Essential for Growth
Being a small business owner, a strong marketing plan is key for growth and success. It doesn’t matter if you’re new or have been around a while. A powerful online presence and clever marketing moves can change everything20.
Knowing your audience is vital for a small biz marketing strategy. By researching well and making detailed profiles of your customers, you can speak their language. This approach can up your website visits by 32% and boost requests for directions by 42%, says the experts21.
It’s also important to highlight your business’s unique selling point and have clear marketing goals. Boosting your Google Business Profile, engaging with the local community on social media, and doing targeted ads can grow your local fan base by 45%. It can also help increase your conversion rate by 2521.
Don’t overlook the benefits of short-term marketing strategies, too. Joining in on hot trends and using platforms like TikTok, with its billion users, can raise your brand’s profile and reach a new audience20.
Then, there’s email marketing, which has a huge return on investment. For every $1 spent, you can get back $36. It’s a great way to grow your customer list and keep them interested with valuable content20. Plus, using retargeting can also draw people back to your site to make a purchase or join your list.
By mixing different marketing tactics, small business owners can craft a full plan. This plan can up their growth, boost customer loyalty, and make them stand out from rivals21.
Smart Blogging: Boost Organic Traffic with SEO
Being a small business owner, you know how vital a strong online presence is22. Smart blogging is a powerful marketing tool for this. It involves picking low-competition keywords and making top-notch, SEO-friendly content. This way, your website can draw more visitors and raise its online visibility22.
Target Low-Competition Keywords with Optimized Content
Success in small business blogging comes from targeting low-competition keywords that your customers look for23. Using tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs helps you find these keywords, considering things like search volume and difficulty. By utilizing these keywords and crafting search engine-friendly content, your site can climb in search engine rankings. Consequently, you’ll attract more visitors22.
Outrank Competitors by Creating Better Content
It’s vital to offer high-quality, engaging content that benefits your readers. Google ranks sites higher when they show Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT)22. Regularly sharing fresh and pertinent content betters your site’s authority. This, in turn, improves your search rankings22.
Also, forming bonds with reputable sites and gaining backlinks can up your site’s domain authority. By making content that’s more thorough and appealing than your rivals, you can surpass them. This helps bring more customers to your small business22.
Smart blogging can truly change the game for your small business. By focusing on the correct keywords, creating valuable content, and gaining authority through links, you could see a surge in organic traffic. This could take your business to new levels2223.
Keep in mind, small business blogging is an affordable and potent way to increase your site’s organic traffic23. Start mapping out your content strategy now. You could see significant growth in your business soon2223.
| Keyword | Search Volume | Keyword Difficulty | CPC |
|---|---|---|---|
| digital marketing agency | 4,400 | 78 | $12.50 |
| digital marketing agency for small business | 2,900 | 42 | $8.20 |
The table above shows the importance of balancing keyword difficulty and search volume in SEO. Choosing lower-difficulty keywords, like “digital marketing agency for small business,” can help you rank better and attract more qualified leads23.
Aside from just content, making your site mobile-friendly is crucial24. More than half of web traffic comes from mobile devices. Google favors sites that work well on phones. So making sure your site offers a great experience on all devices is key to attracting visitors24.
Smart blogging and content marketing are potent for small businesses’ growth. By using SEO and creating top-notch content, you can stand out from your competition. This positions your small business for long-term success222423.
Conversion Rate Optimization: Increase Sales from Existing Traffic
In digital marketing, more website visitors may not mean more sales. It’s crucial to make the most of your current traffic. You achieve this by optimizing your conversion rate, which is the share of visitors who complete a goal, like buying or signing up. This approach, called Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), can boost revenue for small firms using their current website visitors.
Test Variables to Identify High-Converting Versions
The core of CRO lies in tweaking and testing website parts like call-to-actions, design, and content. A/B testing, comparing two versions of a page or feature, helps find the best ones for your audience25. Pages that rank high on search engines get over 39% click-through rates[1].
Changing small things like CTA button text can make a big difference in conversions26. For example, Going boosted their homepage conversion rate by 104% by changing CTA text slightly26. Altering your site’s design and layout can also drastically affect user actions and conversions.
Continuously testing and fine-tuning elements helps find what works best for your business26. Adding customer testimonials can up your conversion rates by 34%26. Moreover, using attractive visuals on landing pages plays a big role in capturing user interest due to how the brain processes visuals26.
Leverage A/B Testing for Optimization
A/B testing is key to CRO. It’s about comparing versions to see which performs better26. Expedia made $12 million more in profit by removing a checkout form field, making their process simpler26. By meticulously testing and reviewing different variables, you can pinpoint the top-performing versions and enhance your conversion rate wisely.
Optimizing your conversion rate requires constant effort. Through consistent testing and improvement, you can fully utilize your current traffic and increase sales for your business27. Doubling your conversion rate from 1% to 2% means doubling the leads and customers you get27.
Offer a Referral Incentive: Turn Customers into Advocates
As a small business owner, you have a powerful tool – your customers. It’s much cheaper to keep and sell more to current customers than find new ones28. This is why encouraging them to refer others is a great idea.
Getting customers to refer friends is both cheap and effective. Referrals have a bigger impact than regular ads28. They influence 74% of buying decisions28. And 84% trust their friends’ advice over ads28.
Referral marketing works well, but many potential referrers don’t act28. By giving them a reason to refer – like a reward – you can see more success. It’s a way to get your happy customers talking about your business.
Creating a good referral program takes thought. You should target your most loyal customers29. Then, offer them something special if they recommend your business to others.
To make your program really work, use tech and data. These can help track and improve how your program does29. This way, your customers help bring in new ones, and your business keeps growing.
Referral marketing helps your small business grow. With a good incentive, your customers will spread the word. This can bring in new customers and increase sales30. So, start using this strategy today and see your business flourish.
Grow Your Facebook Group: Connect with Your Audience
Facebook groups can really help small business owners. They let you reach out to over 1.8 billion people every month31. This means you can make a strong community and connect with people closely.
Creating a private Facebook group has special advantages. For example, in 2020, 40% of marketers said focusing on private groups was important32. And almost half of customers join them to talk to brands directly32. A closed group makes members feel special and encourages important discussions32. Plus, more people might see your posts in a group than on a page, and it costs nothing to set up33.
To make your group successful, try different types of posts. Always answer questions fast and be active in the discussions3233. It’s smart to have more than one admin to help out. They can respond fast to people’s needs. Also, focus your content on what your audience needs or wants. This will keep them interested3233. Promoting your group outside of Facebook can bring in more members and make your bond with customers stronger32.
Source Links
- https://www.growthcollective.com/blog/marketing-strategies-small-business
- https://optinmonster.com/9-lead-magnets-to-increase-subscribers/
- https://www.39celsius.com/the-unstoppable-lead-generation-technique-for-small-businesses/
- https://robynkyberd.medium.com/a-basic-5-email-nurture-sequence-you-can-use-for-your-lead-magnet-c8e5f16b2daf
- https://www.actualtechmedia.com/blog/webinar-lead-generation-the-only-guide-youll-ever-need/
- https://practice.do/blog/how-to-host-a-webinar
- https://unbounce.com/content-marketing/webinar-marketing/
- https://theprocesshacker.com/blog/how-to-leverage-social-media-marketing/
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/influencer-marketing/
- https://www.collectivealternative.com/power-of-influencer-marketing-for-small-business/
- https://textdrip.com/blog/text-message-marketing-for-small-business
- https://www.textline.com/blog/small-business-sms-marketing
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/sms-marketing/
- https://referralhero.com/blog/how-to-do-a-giveaway
- https://www.realthread.com/blog/how-to-use-giveaways-as-an-opportunity-to-gain-more-customers
- https://popupsmart.com/blog/giveaway-ideas-for-small-businesses
- https://www.close.com/blog/lead-nurturing
- https://flyrise.io/automated-sales-funnel/
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-can-small-business-adopt-sales-funnel-strategy-michael-jessa-htbzf
- https://www.benchmarkemail.com/blog/12-essential-small-business-marketing-strategies/
- https://warespace.com/articles/small-business-guides-and-tips/local-marketing-strategies
- https://www.startupwind.com/seo-strategy-for-your-small-business.html
- https://getacopywriter.com/blog/blogging-tips-for-businesses
- https://memberpress.com/blog/small-business-seo/
- https://hawksem.com/blog/conversion-rate-optimization-trends/
- https://unbounce.com/conversion-rate-optimization/how-to-increase-conversion-rate/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/conversion-rate-optimization-guide
- https://referralrock.com/blog/referral-marketing/
- https://www.salesforce.com/blog/referral-marketing/
- https://www.socialchamp.io/blog/referral-marketing/
- https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-groups-business/
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/marketing-tips-facebook-groups/
- https://www.singlegrain.com/blog/how-to-grow-your-facebook-group-from-0-to-10k-members-without-spending-a-dollar/
