As a small business owner, you know how important it is to keep growing your customer base. Marketing and promotion efforts are critical, but where do you start? And how can you reach prospective customers affordably and successfully? Here are six tips to help you better market your small business.
1. Identify your audience
Marketing your business costs time and money, so it’s important to understand the audience you want to reach before you spend money on advertising or invest time writing advice columns to post on LinkedIn. So how do you identify your audience? Take a hard look at your current client database, and see if you can identify any patterns or trends:
- How old are the majority of your clients?
- Are they homeowners?
- What is their income bracket?
- Do they have children?
- In what industries do they work?
- What do they care about, and where do their interests lie?
Answering these questions can help you develop more targeted marketing to garner more customers in markets you already serve and in which you have expertise or product offerings.
2. Tailor your content
Once you’ve identified your target audience, you can start tailoring your promotional efforts to that niche market. Whether you’re marketing through your website, a blog, a monthly e-newsletter, or social platforms, make sure the content you produce and share resonates with your niche market.
If you’re a tax preparer, for example, and your primary market is military families, then address your experience working with Armed Forces personnel on your website, and send out marketing emails with tips on tax deductions and credits specifically for active duty military. iIf your target audience is small business owners, you could address filing deadlines in your LinkedIn posts, or publish blog articles on business tax deductions and incentives.
When it comes to website or blog content, make sure you’re creating relevant, search engine optimized (SEO) content that will help your website(s) appear when your prospective customers search for a service provider with your expertise or a retailer with your product offerings. Consider enlisting the help of a digital marketing agency who can help you with SEO.
3. Leverage social media platforms
Next you’ll want to make sure your niche audience is seeing the marketing content you produce. Be cognizant of what social media platforms your customers use most often. For example, if you’re a florist, it probably makes sense to showcase the beautiful bouquets you create on Facebook or Instagram. If you’re a financial consultant working mostly with business owners, then you’ll probably find them on LinkedIn.
Post informative content or imagery on those social media platforms, or provide links from your Facebook, LinkedIn, or X profile to a blog post you wrote or a YouTube video you produced that addresses how your product or service can make your target audience’s life easier. Engage with your audience on social media. Answer their questions, acknowledge their comments, and establish yourself as a trusted resource, so you’ll stay top of mind when they need the product or services you provide.
4. Create a referral program
Another way to win new business is to ask existing clients for referrals. Reward those customers for their trust in you by developing a referral program. That means giving them an incentive to tell their friends, colleagues, and acquaintances about you.
If you own a catering business, for instance, offer existing customers a discount on the food for their next event if they send you a new customer. Highlight that referral discount in monthly marketing emails to existing clients or on your social media platforms, so they can easily share your information with a simple email forward or social share. The less effort your existing clients have to make to share your name, the more likely they are to do so.
5. Get involved with your community
If you want to build on your referral methods even more, work to get involved in your community, so you can meet prospective customers and potentially obtain even more referrals. That means you should be ready for any opportunity that might arise to share your expertise or product offerings in the community you serve. Join your local chamber of commerce and attend their events, workshops, and meetups for the chance to acquaint yourself with small business owners who might need your services..
Other good ways to meet potential clients locally include getting involved in parent organizations at your childrens’ school, attending local sporting events and festivals, volunteering for a local nonprofit or community event, or offering your expertise to a local small business resource center.
You might also consider partnering with local service providers in complementary industries. If you’re a wedding cake designer, propose offering cake and photography packages with a local wedding photographer. If you’re a freelance graphic designer, partner with a writer to develop content for the websites you design, and establish a relationship where you refer clients to one another. If you’re a tax preparer consider partnering with a financial planner.
6. Craft marketing emails to support your sales funnel
Email marketing is a cost-effective way to pitch new services to existing clients and gain business from prospects you’ve gained through your networking efforts and social campaigns. According to Constant Contact, you can expect an average return of $38 for every $1 you spend on email marketing.
Email marketing is easier than you think. You don’t have to manually enter email addresses and send out hundreds of separate emails. Instead use email marketing software to collect and pull email addresses automatically from your customer database. Then you can send one email to all your clients and prospects with the click of a mouse.
Ready to ramp up your marketing efforts? There are a wealth of resources online providing advice for better targeting your niche audience and developing new marketing strategies. No matter your goals, whether it’s just bringing in a few more clients for your sole proprietorship or building a larger tax office with more tax preparers, knowing your target market, and then tailoring your marketing to them will pay off in new business growth.
