6 tips for small business marketing success

Your company may have the best product in the world, but if others don’t know about it, then the business won’t flourish. Despite having stretched budgets, and limited resources, there are many ways in which a small business can sell its products. Here are six ideas for marketing success.

1. Always carry business cards

Despite the popularity of online marketing, an old fashioned business card is still popular. If any representatives from your company are attending a networking or trade event, ensure that they are well stocked with professionally designed cards from suppliers, including Helloprint business cards.

Spend time thinking about what the card should say about your company, and make sure that contact numbers and website addresses are clearly displayed. A card is easy to slip into the pocket of a prospective buyer, and a distinctive design will help promote your brand.

marketing your business

2. Define your product and your market

Make sure that everyone in your marketing team is really confident about the product they are promoting and take a good look at the demographic you are trying to appeal to. Writing in Forbes magazine, entrepreneur John Rampton suggests that you use ‘different marketing strategies for 12-16 year old girls than you would for 35-50 year old men.’ In other words, effective market research at the start of a promotional campaign will really help small businesses make the best use of their marketing budgets.

3. You can never offer too much training

Where budgets are stretched, it’s a false economy to set your marketing team to work without offering extensive training. The department that markets your product is the public face of your company and needs to be able to respond as well to criticism as praise. If your product receives complaints from the public make sure that your marketing team will be able to offer a helpful answer to that gripe rather than a dismissive riposte. Ensure that everyone involved in marketing your brand is well aware of the positives and the negatives of your products.

4. Use social media

Once your product is launched you need to tell the world about it. This is where social media is invaluable. Set up Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, even if you haven’t yet invested in a company website. The Semrush blog states that, ‘the Internet Advertising Bureau found that 80% of consumers are inclined to revisit a brand if it has a strong presence on social media.’ Make sure that your social media presence shows the human face of your brand. This will give your social media accounts personality and present your company as one that cares about its consumers.

5. Automation can help

If your social media marketing team is a small one, there are plenty of automation products that can help you manage your accounts. You can still stamp your brand’s unique identity on your accounts, but an automation tool will let you time your posts across all your accounts at different times.

6. The customer is usually right

Effective sales and marketing is as much about talking as listening. If a large group of consumers are complaining about a product, find out why, and respond to these complaints. The company that listens will always command respect and loyalty from the consumer.

 

Photo Credit | IanH.co.uk 

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12 Comments

  1. February 9, 2016 / 8:34 am

    It’s always a pleasure to learn from you Joanne, and I love these great yet simple tips hat you have shared. And surely if there is someone who is doing business and doesn’t yet know that the customer will always be right then they will be out of business soon. Listening to the customer is the best way to win their trust and build relationships. Thanks for the share.
    Cindy

    • February 9, 2016 / 11:37 am

      Thanks Cindy. You are so right listening and building customer relationships is key.
      Thank you for taking time to read my post.

  2. Deynn
    May 3, 2016 / 7:07 am

    No matter how great your product and services is but if your marketing strategy is poor, you might not achieve your goal. In addition, if your customer doesn’t know about your businesses it might disappear without a trace. No one likes failure but still everyone must experience in order to learn. One mistake is enough, twice is too much and thrice is an insult.
    Deynn recently posted..Important Guidelines To Effectively Market To College StudentsMy Profile

  3. June 11, 2016 / 6:39 am

    My unsolicited advice for small businesses would be to first determine who their target market is and where they hangout online. It all starts with this.

    Once they have a clear picture of who and where their prospect customers are at, they can then decide which marketing strategy to go for based on the platform where their customers can be found.

    I have found both strategies to be very effective. Not only does it help establish a business as an authority through the expert advice that they share in their comments and guest posts, but it also helps them with traffic, SEO and all that good stuff.

    I look forward to reading more of your posts.

  4. June 21, 2016 / 6:58 am

    Good article. I love how you point out some stuff that really needs to be noticed and well informative.

    • Scott Biddick
      June 28, 2016 / 8:36 am

      A good business strategy is always important to know the possibilities of rewards and success on the venture.

  5. October 27, 2016 / 4:44 pm

    All of these are excellent, informative tips for small businesses! Defining your brand is so important. Social media is an excellent tool to gain customers and keep them engaged.

  6. February 9, 2017 / 6:25 am

    Hello Joanne, these are indeed great small business marketing ideas to achieve success. If you are a small business owner, then you have to follow effective small business marketing methods to gain success. Using Social media sites and free classified ads sites can be a great platform to spread the words about your business and products at free of cost.

  7. December 17, 2018 / 5:19 pm

    I totally agree with the first point of carrying business cards. I would also recommend having some promotional products with a logo of your business.

  8. January 3, 2020 / 11:09 am

    Good information about the small business. Without marketing people never aware of the products or services. Business promotional products also the best way to promote small businesses.