Marketing Advice For The Small Business

For the average business owner marketing can be a slightly cloudy area. If your business is small you may not be able to justify bringing in a marketing professional to manage all your marketing needs. It is possible to manage this yourself though using only a little time every day. You just need to understand what exactly your business needs and how it can be done as efficiently but effectively as possible. Here is a look at various marketing methods and how they can help your business grow-

Digital Marketing

Internet marketing is essential to almost every business and there are few that could get away without practicing it. It isn’t enough for your company to have a website; your website needs to be easily found by potential customers and clients. The easiest way to do this is to ensure your sites are on search engines. Many of us just assume that when someone searches for our services or products they will come across our website but this isn’t always the case. Try doing a search for your website using key words that others might use when looking for what you do. If you’re not on the first page you need to look into SEO or PPC.

SEO is a method of increasing your rankings on search engines for targeted keywords increasing the traffic to your website and the interest in your business. PPC is paid advertising also on search engines used to increase traffic but at a set cost every time someone clicks through to your site. SEO and PPC can be read up on online and self taught.

Social Media Marketing

A great way to generate interest in your business is through social media. Since sites like Facebook and Twitter took off in a big way businesses have taken advantage of this highly effective and free method of marketing. It’s pretty easy to manage but there is a knack to getting it right. There are lots of sites out there and some companies choose to use all, but in keeping with the theme of small business advice I’d recommend using the two most popular sites- Facebook and Twitter. Using these will bring the best results with minimum effort put in.

Use both these sites to build followers, so offer advice, offer deals and discounts and contribute useful information that is relevant to your line of business. This will help you gain loyal followers and customers.

Traditional Marketing

Online marketing certainly has taken over traditional marketing, but some of the age old methods are still effective and worth trying for the right kind of business. Traditional marketing methods include-

Advertising- I.E. News papers, television adverts and street adverts (buses, trains, billboards).

Networking- Networking is great for any business especially in the early days of launching. Use networking events to make contacts and spread the name of your business to get the ball rolling.

Street Stunts- Street stunts are considered by some as ineffective as we are increasingly busy and few of us have time to stop in the street to talk to someone or watch a stunt. Get it right though and carry out a really unique street stunt that grabs a lot of people’s attention and it can help spread the word of your business name.

Eilidh MacRae works for New Business who offer business advice across a whole range of subjects including small business advice.



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