In today’s competitive business landscape, small businesses face unique challenges when it comes to marketing. Small business owners, particularly those managing startups on limited budgets, are constantly looking for marketing strategies for small business that won’t break the bank. This is where innovative marketing ideas come into play. By leveraging smart strategies and thinking outside the box, you can effectively reach your target audience and grow your business, even with limited resources.
This article will attempt to stay away from the most basic marketing tips for small business (often widely covered). Instead, I will cover 9 small business marketing ideas that focus on elevating your current use of digital marketing, whilst covering some potentially less obvious business promotion ideas, local marketing ideas and offline marketing strategies. Whether you’re looking to tweak what you’re currently doing, or try something completely new, these ideas are designed to refresh your thinking and put some pep into your small business marketing.
Drive Customer Engagement
1) Utilise & Optimise Customer Feedback
Many small business owners fear feedback. However, customer feedback analysis plays a crucial role in making customer-centric decisions that improve experiences 6. Keeping your eye on what customers say about you, whether it’s good or bad, is essential in knowing not just what you can improve, but also what you can build on.
So, you’ve received a negative review? Granted, they’re not the nicest things to receive and it’s easy to feel discouraged when you receive them. However, what if you saw this as an opportunity to fine tune your business offer and to make valuable improvements? Importantly, what if multiple customers have been unhappy about the same thing and have spread that negative opinion, but simply haven’t told you about it? It’s sometimes a hard pill to swallow, but wouldn’t you prefer to know than not know and be given the opportunity to turn a negative into a positive?
On the other side of the scale, what are you currently doing to learn from and optimise your good customer reviews? When I talk to small business owners about small business marketing strategy, they sometimes struggle to identify what they do well and what their points of difference are vs. competitors. Have you thought of using reviews to help you with this? Customers often explain better than you can what you do best and the main reason why they shop from you. How about using some of that in your marketing? At the very least you could share a testimonial on your website or social media (see below template), at the very best you could lean into what people say they love and develop your brand further along those lines.
How to market your business by leveraging the power of reviews:
- Encourage customers to leave reviews on Google, directories or social media – this also helps with search engine optimization (see point 3 below)
- Explore the use of questionnaires like Survey Monkey or Google Forms to get honest feedback from your customers, that you can then include in your small business marketing plan
- Follow up with reviews and feedback to thank your customers for their time and honesty and give them the kind of 5-star customer service experience they might recommend to their friends and family
What comes next? Maybe some very powerful user-generated content or word-of-mouth marketing.
2) Create an annual promotional calendar to entice and reward customers.
Key calendar dates, as well as known slow sales periods, are a good place to start when building a calendar of marketing and sales activities.
For price promotions or free samples, simply look at the types of tactics the supermarket brands use when you next go shopping.
Creative restaurant marketing ideas could be to develop exciting dining experiences around seasonal produce or collaborations with visiting chefs, as well as (the usual) special menus for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Christmas.
Please note though…you don’t always have to rely on discount codes. You can also use marketing offers that have a low cost and high perceived added value. For a beauty client in Lancaster, I helped to develop a back-to-school marketing campaign in September, where mothers received a complimentary hair treatment if they brought in their children for a cut at the same time. In 2023, I drove awareness of the promotion across social media and through mobile marketing. In 2024, I released a press release to the leading local press, Lancaster Guardian and it was published in their print edition.
Leverage Digital Marketing Strategies
3) Optimise for Local SEO
Local SEO is vital for small businesses to remain relevant and beat local competitors. It focuses on increasing rankings, traffic, and conversions for local businesses 2.
To optimise for local search:
- Claim and optimise your Google Business Profile listing 1.
- Ensure your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across online platforms 1.
- Use localised and “near me” search terms in your meta titles and descriptions 2.
- Generate authentic reviews, as they are a direct ranking factor 2.
I helped a London restaurant achieve +1895% on impressions, +664% on clicks and page 1 on Google for some key, highly targeted local search terms. You can see my local SEO case study here.
4) Social Media Marketing tips
It would be remiss not to mention social media marketing, given that it is an essential part of a well-rounded digital marketing strategy. As of January 2024, there were approximately 56.20 million active social media users in the United Kingdom, which is about 82.8% of the total population.
Aside from the more obvious recommendation of making sure you use the right social media channel for your specific audience, here are some things to remember:
- Identify your key brand & business messages and build content around conveying those messages in a compelling way.
- Keep things consistent and looking professional. Stick to your brand guidelines and style of communication for a cleaner, clearer profile.
- Create valuable video content. Videos capture attention quickly and allow you to tell compelling stories that resonate with your audience. If you’re scratching your head for creative instagram marketing ideas, I would start with exploring the ready-made reel templates and editing capabilities on that platform. In my experience as a social media marketing manager, reels on Instagram can really boost your chances of being shown to people who aren’t already following you. If you’re wanting to go one step further and are interested in how to make an engaging corporate video, this blog post will help.
Remember, social media marketing brings your brand directly to your customers and provides an accessible way for them to discover and learn more about you 3.
5) Blog Collaborations with Other Businesses
Collaborating with other businesses can lead to mutual growth and new market opportunities. Blogging is a powerful tool to enhance your web presence and showcase your expertise. By consistently publishing relevant content, you can attract potential customers and position yourself as an industry expert. Blogging also helps improve your search engine rankings, as Google favours fresh, updated content 5. When you publish a new post, it alerts search engines, prompting them to index your site and potentially boost your visibility.
Whether you’re focused on local marketing and choose to take part in a local blog post or one covering a specific topic of interest to your target audience, collaborative blog posts are a great way for small businesses to showcase themselves to new, relevant audiences.
Thinking strategically about your content marketing is good for business. Taking enough time to plan and write something that is of value to others, whilst ticking some of the SEO boxes is worth doing. Don’t be sloppy in your writing because you’ve left it to the last minute. Don’t rely on AI to do all the work for you… as often, you’ll still need to do a fair bit of editing (even when you use the correct prompts). Whilst marketing a fashion brand, I created a sustainable fashion blog post involving several brands that helped to drive brand awareness and gain multiple backlinks, a valuable part of SEO Marketing. Reach can be further increased when all brands promote the blog on social media and tag each other. A next step from this might be writing guest posts on each other’s websites.
Implement Creative Marketing Ideas Offline
6) Leafleting To Buyers Not Browsers
Third-party parcel inserts are an increasingly popular marketing strategy where businesses place their promotional materials inside parcels sent by other companies. This strategy targets consumers who have already made a purchase, positioning them in a highly receptive state. This contrasts with many other forms of advertising that reach broader, less targeted audiences (including door-drop leafleting campaigns). If the recipient has had a positive experience with their purchase, this positivity can transfer onto the insert and associated brand.
The ROI of parcel inserts is relatively easy to track. Promo codes and QR codes on inserts can directly link sales back to the insert, providing clear data on effectiveness.
7) Produce Marketing Collaterals That Customers Will Want To Keep
In the online world, it’s very easy to disregard content, read and forget or click and move on. However, if marketing collaterals are printed, of high quality and with valuable content inside, they are more likely to be kept and referred to. Their lifespan and marketing effect might be much greater – particularly if they are helping the customer to solve a specific or niche problem. While working for Purina (previously known as Nestlé Purina Petcare), one of the world’s leading pet food companies, I created and produced a high-quality booklet specifically about senior cats. It had beautiful photos interspersed with fascinating facts about the particularities of senior cats and how to look after them well. In a world where many companies focus on the larger market of adult cats or kittens, such a booklet has huge value to a smaller target audience of senior cat owners. You also stand a chance of standing out against a host of competitors, who put all their eggs in one basket and focus purely on digital marketing strategies. Small business owners can use these free guides and booklets in a multiple of ways in both offline or online marketing campaigns.
Harness The Power Of Communities
8) Host Community Events
Community events are a powerful way to connect with your audience and showcase your business. They provide an opportunity to create loyal customers and build strong local ties. By hosting events, you show your customers that you care about them, making them feel valued and appreciated 4.
Consider organising a networking event for local businesses and professionals. This creates a relaxed setting where attendees can connect, share ideas, and form valuable relationships. Such events strengthen ties within the local business community, opening up opportunities for partnerships and referrals 4.
Whilst in Singapore, working for a financial planning company, I organised numerous events with partners, that included a networking event for newly arrived expatriates at a well-known local bar. These events were a fantastic way to meet newcomers, who needed help with areas such as insurance and who had not yet been courted by competing financial advice companies.
Last year at Construction Week in Birmingham, I helped one of the charities I volunteer with, Rebuilding Lives UK, to collect over 100 extremely valuable contacts of people who were interested in donating or volunteering.
Do get in touch if you’d like to find out more about how I can help you optimise your lead generation potential at events.
9) Offer Free Workshops & Explore Speaker Opportunities
Event organisers are always looking out for speakers who can add value at their event. They might need someone to cover a 1-hour session within part of an expert-filled panel, or it could be for a quick 15-20minutes during a local networking session. This is a fantastic, free way for you to showcase your products and services to people who are potential clients. Simply find an event that attracts your target audience and contact the organisers about ways in which you could participate.
As a small business marketing consultant, my clients own or work in small businesses. Enterprise Nation is an organisation that provides expert advice and support for small businesses… A perfect match! I am an adviser with Enterprise Nation and over the last couple of years have given several talks with them. In fact, I was invited to be a speaker at an online event in partnership with Vodafone Business and JPMorgan Chase titled “Marketing on a shoestring budget”. I can attest that this visibility and association have helped to bring me new clients.
Conclusion
Rome wasn’t built in a day and for most small businesses, there aren’t any easy, cost-effective “silver bullets” that will immediately translate into a massive, overnight increase in sales and growth.
However, small businesses do have a wealth of marketing strategies at their disposal, that they can explore. By driving customer engagement, leveraging digital platforms, implementing creative marketing ideas offline and harnessing the power of community building, businesses can reach their target audience more effectively than ever before. These approaches allow businesses to develop and showcase their unique value propositions and build strong connections with customers, ultimately driving growth and success.
To make the most of these marketing ideas, it’s crucial to measure and optimise efforts continuously. By tracking key performance indicators, analysing customer feedback, and adjusting strategies based on data, small businesses can refine their marketing approaches over time. This ongoing process of evaluation and improvement helps ensure that marketing efforts remain effective and aligned with business goals, paving the way for sustained growth in an ever-changing marketplace.
I would love to help you. If you’re a startup or small business owner and you need help with marketing, please e-mail me at info@smallbusinessmarketingconsultant.co.uk or get in touch via my website contact page here.
References
[1] – https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/local-seo
[2] – https://www.boostability.com/resources/local-seo-for-small-business-guide/
[3] – https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-tips-for-small-business-owners/
[4] – https://www.networked.co/10-awesome-ideas-for-your-small-business-community-events-youll-love/
