Where to start with small business advertising

Running a small business requires an abundance of passion and grit. Whether you are new to entrepreneurship or have many failed attempts under your belt – you’ll still need a lot of support to drum up new sales. But when you have a small budget to work with, it can be challenging to find effective ways to advertise your small business.

With all this in mind, there are many creative ways you can advertise your business – and that’s why we have compiled some ideas to get you started.

Blogging

Blogging is an effective way to establish yourself as a thought leader. Whether you are new to blogging or you have been doing it on and off for some time – you can still get it right. However, if you are worried about not having enough time to publish fresh content, why not hire a writer to handle it.

When it comes to blogging, here are some of the ways you can get the most out of it: 

• Blog consistently – have a regular schedule and stick to it.  
• After you have published a new blog post, you can share it on LinkedIn. 
• Encourage your employees to reshare your blog posts via LinkedIn and other social media networks.
• Share your blog posts by emailing your existing customers and sharing the articles with them.
• Run competitions and host them via your company blog. Share it with your desired audience and existing customers. Encourage your existing customers to share it with their friends.

Email marketing

According to HubSpot, email advertising generates $42 for every $1 spent, which amounts to an ROI of 4,200%.  It is one of the most effective online advertising options out there.  That’s why you should build an email list with your existing customers.

Here are some techniques that help you get the most out of your email marketing efforts:

• Personalise your email marketing campaigns by finding out more about your customers and then tailoring your messaging to fit your customers buying patterns.
• Use A/B testing methods to find out what language and messages convert the most
• Add call to action (CTA) in prominent parts of the email and promote conversion.
• Tweak your headlines consistently and continuously test to see what works and what doesn’t work.   

Customer referral programs

Small businesses need to leverage their relationship with existing customers by building a solid customer referral program.  Doing this is a straightforward way to gain loyal customers.

Ways to make your referral program more effective:

• Offer a freebie or discount to your existing customer for referring a friend
• Share your customer referral program to new customers through every available medium
• Target new customers after they have just made a purchase – engage with them when they are pleased with the service provided.
• Target customers who have given you a positive review.
• Add a CTA for the customer referral program on your marketing channels, e.g., emails, landing pages, blog posts, and social media.
• Add a discount and reward to the new customers who have been referred via the referral program.
• Track your referral program – use a good analytics tool to track how effective your referral program is. Ensure that the analytics show the total referral emails you’ve sent out, how many people actually signed up after each referral and the total amount of money or discounts that customers have earned through the program.
• Use questionnaires to get valuable feedback about the referral program and improve it based on the insights gained.

SEO

SEO (search engine optimisation) is an essential part of online marketing that allows small businesses to compete in a very crowded space. If you are a small business with a website, SEO is definitely an essential digital marketing tactic to implement.  Along with your blogging efforts, you can always check what your competitors are doing then ensure that your content team considers the essential keywords to rank for.

Start with local SEO

• If you have a local store, ensure that you sign up for Google places and Bing places.
• Get your customers who visit your stores to review their experience online.
• Create a store page on your website and update the local information there.
• Use important local keywords and optimise your store landing page. For example, if you have a local hair shop in Bromley, use keywords like ‘hair shop in Bromley’ on the landing page.
• Embed Google Maps on the store landing page on your site.

Optimise your product/service landing pages

• If you have more than one product, you need to create separate landing pages for each of these products/services.
• Compare and contrast similar pages from competitors who rank very highly on search engines for your targeted keywords. Note down what they do well and then attempt to do it better. 

Free webinars

Webinars are an excellent way for a small business to establish its expertise with potential customers. For example, if you are a small business specialising in offering mortgage comparison services, you can run a webinar about picking the right mortgage. 

Here are some of the ways you can make the most out of your webinar session:  

• Give a free sample of your services or products at the webinar.
• Offer discounts at your webinar.
• Share the agenda of the day on your landing page for the webinar.
• Use all your marketing channels to promote your upcoming webinar.
• Record your webinar session and share it on your website.
• Create a landing page on your website to showcase your webinar.  
• Provide valuable information that will help your audience realise why they need your services. 
• Get feedback from attendees on what to improve and fine-tune your efforts to use in the next one.
• Create an annual plan for webinar marketing efforts. Learn more about your target audience and focus your efforts on them.

As a small business, there are many creative ways you can start advertising. Don’t be discouraged when you see larger businesses spending a ton on advertising – all you need to do is leverage with what you have got.  For example, a customer loyalty program can be built using your existing customers.

As a small business within the Bromley Borough just starting out, there is so much you can do to gain traction and drum up more sales. Therefore, you should focus on fine-tuning your process and try to learn new things as you go along.