Leads for prospective sales opportunities are the lifeblood of any small business. The largest small business marketing challenge faced by most small businesses is not having enough leads, and getting enough leads is number one on their wish list.
Creating a lead generation system is difficult for most small businesses because the owner or owners have so many competing things to do and creating a lead generation system is often low on their to-do list.
Lead generation is most effective using a small business marketing plan, and it is one of the most challenging things for a small business to develop. A clear marketing strategy and effective advertising plan can make the difference between success and failure.
Creating an effective small business marketing plan is not easy but is not complicated and once developed and implemented consistently the returns always outweigh the costs.
This article covers the fundamentals and essentials for creating powerful results-oriented small business marketing strategies that any small business can implement.
An old saying about the concept of planning and its importance is the quote “if you fail to plan you plan to fail.”
A marketing plan is like a blueprint that an architect creates to lay out the steps to build a building.
A business should have a marketing plan to guide the owner’s steps to build it over some time.It should be a top priority for any small business.
What is marketing?
Marketing is everything a business does to get people to pay attention to a message and build a relationship with the targeted persons to get them to make a purchase or take a specific action.
Marketing concentrates on a problem that any particular segment of people is experiencing and describes how a product or service solves that problem.
Marketing messages should concentrate on people and what they want or need rather than on a company or organization. The reason is simple. At the end of the day, it is a person or a group of people who make decisions to buy or not to buy, not a company or organization.
The purchasing decision may be for the benefit of a company or some other organization but the key point to understand about marketing is people make buying decisions.
A good marketing plan should have short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals are designed to find prospects and turn them into buying customers as soon as possible. This provides for continuity of income to keep the business going.
Long-term goals include keeping customers satisfied, building a relationship of loyalty and repeat sales, and growing the business using a combination of short-term and long-term strategies.
Marketing vs. Advertising
Marketing and advertising are often thought to be the same. They are not, although they have similarities. Advertising is a unit of marketing. Marketing has the broader objective of finding a predetermined targeted audience that has an identified problem its product or service can solve.
Advertising is making a product or service known to the identified audience or marketplace. Its function, as part of marketing, is to communicate as simply and clearly as possible the benefits of buying and using a product or service.
What is marketing for a small business? Is it different from a large company?
Whether a business is a startup or has been operating for years, the basics of marketing are the same. The objective is to match a message to a target market and convince them to purchase a product or service.
The methodology of how the message is delivered to the identified market depends on the type of business, its size, budgetary restrictions, the market, and other factors, but at its core marketing’s job is to make the recipient of the message aware of the benefits the product or service delivers and convert sales. These fundamentals don’t change.
Why you should have a marketing plan for your business
Every business, no matter its size, needs a marketing plan. Whether it’s a one-person company or a global corporation a marketing plan makes a crucial difference.
A marketing plan makes you focus and think about goals and objectives. It puts into place a set of milestones that can be used to measure a business’s success along the way.It helps with time management by keeping the functions and activities focused on priorities that don’t waste time and create distractions.
One of the most important reasons for having a marketing plan is to put the company in the best position to raise money for additional capital when needed. At some point in any business’s operation, additional money will likely be needed for the expansion and growth of the business.
A bank, investors, or other funding sources will want to see a marketing strategy.
A clear, practical, and persuasive marketing plan can provide the information necessary for any bank or other money source to provide the requested funds. Without a marketing plan, it sends a message of lack of organization, focus, or seriousness about making the business a success.
A marketing plan will also help to make sure a small business’s money is spent wisely. Without a guide to follow a business owner is more prone to spend money on whims and emotion rather than rational thought.
What a Small Business Marketing Plan Should Include
We’ve covered what a small business marketing plan is and why every small business should have one. The next steps are to show what a small business marketing plan should include.
There are seven (7) fundamental steps that a marketing plan should include:
1. An identified audience or target market
A sage marketing phrase says “if you want to be rich find a niche. If you want to go broke market to all the folks.” What this means is a business’s product or service will not benefit everybody.
Therefore, it’s a mistake to try and market a product or service to everyone. It just won’t work. A business product or service should be targeted to a specifically identified targeted market that the offered product or service delivers a problem-solving result.
In marketing speak this identified target market is sometimes referred to as an “avatar” or “persona.”
2. A Message That Speaks Directly To The Identified Market: (It Should Show How Your Product or Service Solves The Reader’s Problem)
Your marketing message should draw the target market like a magnet and get them to act right now.
The message should generate an emotional response from the person reading, seeing, or hearing it and motivate the taking of the desired action intended by the business.
3. Use the right media channel to send the businesses’ message to the target market.
Communication of a business’s message is essential. Which communication method to use may vary depending on the size of the business, the product or service offered to the target market, the cost to communicate the message, the makeup of the target audience, and a host of other factors.
A small business marketing plan should utilize more than one communication channel to deliver its message. Each of the essential channels is covered in the small business marketing strategies section below.
4. Manage expectations of the marketing efforts
Marketing is not a sprint. It is a marathon. A small business marketing plan should take this into account and the business operation should develop a mindset that it will take time for the marketing strategies to produce the results that the business owner ultimately wants.
Unfortunately, many small business owners expect results too quickly and give up on marketing before its effectiveness can take place. Numerous factors should be considered before shutting a marketing campaign down.
5. Measurement of the marketing plans success
You cannot manage what is not measured. A small business marketing plan should have a measuring method to determine its successes and losses.
Measuring can determine the number of messages it takes to generate a sale, the average dollar amount of sales, and give feedback on how to change strategy to increase those metrics and the costs associated with them.
The business operates blindly without measurement. A marketing plan is designed to make sure this doesn’t happen.
6. Effective monetized returns on the marketing efforts
Making a profit is the goal of any serious business. Working with measurement metrics a small business can see where it is making the most money. It can in turn discontinue efforts that are not making money and lessen its marketing and advertising expenses.
Those funds can then be more aptly applied to the marketing messages that are producing sales and contributing to the bottom line.
Testing one ad against another and seeing which one outperforms the other is one way to find out which strategy makes more money. This is referred to as A/B testing
A/B testing is one of the best ways to determine the monetization of a business’s efforts.
7. Multiply the results that prove profitable.
Using the seven steps above, a small business should be able to determine over time what works and what does not. A pattern should emerge that can be replicated or multiplied. It is the multiplier effects that will provide the results that prove profitable.
Again, the key is to match the product or service with the right target market and communicate a message to that target market that the businesses’ product or service delivers the benefits that will solve the target market’s problem.
Small Business Marketing Budget (Get Results Without Spending a Dime)
Most small businesses don’t budget for marketing their business at all. They wing it here and there and their results are spotty or nonexistent. If they do have a marketing plan that is followed, it is one of the first costs cut when cash flow is low or a crisis comes.
This is a mistake. A small business should continue to market through the up and down cycles of its business. Marketing is the gas that fuels the vehicle of sales.
Fortunately, there are many ways a small business can market itself and it doesn’t cost any money. It does take time and some commitment.
Some resources that are free or are light on the budget consist of:
Free marketing tips for small business
Write articles and give free valuable information that helps the business’s target audience solve a problem or gives them other valuable information to make their lives better. This can be done through a business’s blog or by posting information through social media.
Word of mouth – people telling other people about the goods and services they’ve used and the benefits they’ve received is still one of the most powerful and effective ways to market a business. Getting customers, friends, and family to spread the word is an excellent way to market a business.
Speaking is one very effective way to market a business for free. There are numerous opportunities that a small business can take advantage of to get its name, services, and products in front of an audience for free. One of the most effective ways is to research local service club organizations like the Lions Club, Rotary Club, Kiwanis, and a host of other service club organizations.
These organizations are very open to having speakers present at their luncheons and meetings to share information that can help their members.
Webinars – using a free account of online webinar companies is an excellent way to put a business’s products and services in front of an identified audience. Webinars are very powerful and popular. If it provides value and answers to questions that the target audience has it can boost business tremendously.
Build a presence on online forums – online business forums are free but they are powerful as a marketing tool. A business owner can join the conversation inside of a forum and provide valuable information and once a relationship is established you can offer your product or service as a solution to whatever problems people within the forum might be experiencing.
Partner with influencers – connecting with influencers is one of the best small business marketing strategies. Any person that has a large follower base that lines up with what you offer as a product or service and is not a competitor to you can generate loads of leads and opportunities for sales.
It can be as simple as arranging with the influencer to market your offering to their followers and split the sales made from using the influencers mailing list.
Low-cost small business marketing tips
Some low-cost methods of small business marketing used along with free marketing efforts can be all a small business needs to generate traffic and sales.
Paid advertising, also known as pay-per-click (PPC) does not have to be expensive. It is a matter of finding a keyword that has a very low cost per click but a high degree of searcher interest.
A keyword is a phrase or term that a searcher types into a search browser like Google when looking for information or a product or service to buy. A PPC campaign is an effective way to increase leads and generate sales.
Offer free samples – the word FREE is an attention-getting and emotionally charged word. With just a little cost involved a small business can offer a product for free or trial use of an offered service. This becomes a hook to attract new prospects or motivate an existing customer to purchase again.
Free samples can be made very inexpensively and repeated without adding more costs.
Prepare and offer free guides, checklists, eBooks. – Offering free valuable information is another low-cost way to market a small business.
Digital products that prospects and customers can download for free and use immediately are the best and most practical. Calendars, checklists to ensure nothing is left out when doing something, and short eBooks that cover a subject well and give a guide, outline, or instructions on how to do something are all good examples.
Small Business Marketing Strategies: (Multi-Channel Tips To Draw Prospects and Customers Like A Magnet)
There are several small business marketing ideas to attract attention and convince the taking of a certain action. In marketing, these are all referred to as channels of communication and take on several forms.
What is the best marketing strategy for a small business will depend upon what the mission and marketing goals are of the particular business. This is where testing comes into play. It is the only way to determine which communication channels work best for a business.
There are marketing essentials that should be part of any marketing plan. They include marketing channels like an online website, social media, small business marketing apps, local marketing, and offline marketing. Some of the essential marketing channels are:
Online Marketing for Small Business (Have An Online Website Presence)
Whenever someone is looking for a product, service, or information the internet is usually the first place they use to find it. The common phrase is to “Google it” when someone wants to be informed.
Your business needs a web presence. Today, without a website, your business doesn’t exist.
Email is one of the most effective communication channels for a small business. Statistics show that for every $1 spent marketing through email there is a $42 return. This is huge and should become a focal point of any small business’s marketing strategy.
Emails should be sent a minimum of once a week to keep those on the list engaged and keep the business’s presence on their mind with valuable information, discounts, prizes, and other incentives to create sales.
Podcasts
A podcast is a communication channel that has become common for marketing a business. It can be especially effective for a small business. It is like a radio show or T.V. channel that comes on regularly and shares the latest product updates, guest speakers, and experts to engage and educate the target audience and creates a name or brand for the business that uses it.
Podcasting can be but does not need to be expensive. It can be created and operated on a shoestring budget.
Digital Classified Ads
Classified ads have been a mainstay in offline marketing and sales in newspapers, magazines, consumer mailers, and similar publications. Digital classified ads are simply the old-styled classified ads that are now on the internet and digitized. They can be very effective. According to Statista, an online marketing organization that tracks marketing trends, digital classified ads are trended to be a huge part of online marketing for the next three years and beyond.
Solo Ads
Solo ads are advertisements that can be placed on another business or person’s email list and that is the only ad that is contained within the list. The list can be a newsletter list, a product list, or any list that has a good chance of reaching out to the target audience of the business using the solo ad.
Craigslist
Craigslist can be used for local marketing and when done properly can bring good results. It is a media resource that has over 10 million visitors every day looking for deals, bargains, opportunities, and communities to connect with.
It is one of the most powerful small business marketing tools available for use. However, like any other tool research must be done to make sure it would be the right communication tool to use for your business.
Forums
A forum is an online website where people with the same or similar likes or problems meet and discuss how to resolve them and share information about the latest and best way to get things done.
If there is a subject it is likely covered by a forum somewhere. The key to using forums for small business marketing is to join the forum and make yourself familiar to the forum members. Share with them your stories and how you’ve overcome a particular problem or know how to reach a solution that the forum members are talking about.
This allows you to share your knowledge and in sharing that knowledge you can send them to a link on your website. Relevant forums can also be found on forum directories.
Public Relations
When it comes to public relations, it is often thought that only large companies and corporations use it and the myth is it’s too expensive for a small business. Nothing could be further from the truth. Public Relations (PR) can be one of the strongest marketing tools for a small business.
Public Relations is simply putting what a business has to offer in front of the public as often as possible and in the best light showing how a business’s product, service, or brand best solves problems or delivers pleasurable experiences to a target audience.
It can be very expensive, but it can also be free with proper knowledge and how to apply it. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has a complete guide for using public relations as does Accion, a non-profit small business advisory organization that concentrates solely on business startups and very small businesses.
Unknown to most small businesses is a small business marketing resource known as Help A Reporter Out (HARO). A business can connect with reporters who are seeking material for their audience. If the business’s message matches what the reporter is looking for it can be published in several news outlets.
Any small business should take a serious look at HARO and find a way to implement it in its marketing strategy.
Employee Ambassadors
A business’s employees can be its best marketing team. Engaged and happy employees can become an army that delivers a business’s marketing message.
Creating employees prizes, competitions, and other incentives can go a long way to turning employees into employee ambassadors to tell the business’s story and promote the benefits of its products and services.
Social Media Marketing for Small Business
No business should be without a social media marketing strategy as part of their overall marketing plan.
At a minimum, the following social media platforms should be considered for inclusion in a small business’s marketing strategy.
- Facebook Business Page
- Facebook Group
- LinkedIn Business Page
- LinkedIn Group
- Tik Tok
Gather information on each of these powerful marketing platforms and make a decision which one or more would likely be the best social media platform for your business.
It can become overwhelming to try and use them all so the better strategy is to take one and test it and then the next until enough information is gathered to determine which one works best.
For more detailed information on the use and application of each of these social media platforms and how they can be used for small business marketing, Social Media Journal has created a compendium of articles and reports on some of the most popular.
Small Business Marketing Apps
There are thousands of business applications that a small business can use to market its business. It’s overwhelming to learn them all. This is where small business marketing apps come in.
Apps make marketing efforts easy and more effective. Some have a cost, but in most cases they are free. The investment is in time but it is time well spent.
Starting with a list of the best marketing apps is the best way to determine which apps might be the most effective for your small business.
Two of the most popular and trending marketing apps are Whatsapp and Clubhouse
Whatsapp has over one billion users. That’s more users than Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin combined. It is the most engaging marketing channel on the internet. Such a powerful marketing tool should not be ignored. Getting familiar with and implementing the power of this tool could be a game-changer for small businesses on a limited budget.
Here’s a website that outlines how to use Whatsapp as a small business marketing tool.
Clubhouse is a recent app that has become very popular and in use for small business marketing. It is free but does require a membership invitation to join. The details of how to join and get started using this platform can be found at many well-known marketing expert websites like Social Media Examiner, Neil Patel.com, and The Guardian.
Local Marketing Ideas
How do I market my small business locally is one question small businesses ask often. Rightly, it should be top of mind because most small businesses are local and while they may have a website that reaches globally, their concentration and sales efforts are local.
There are several ways to market and advertise a small business locally. Some of the most effective ways are:
Google My Business
Google my business is a free tool that allows you to promote your business using Google as a platform. It creates a map on your website and when someone is looking for what your business offers, Google brings your business up showing a map, address, and contact information.
Web Directories
Web directories are a collection of websites that a business can list itself in and be found when internet searches are made within an industry or a particular subject.
For Google search purposes, web directories are no longer regarded as highly effective to generate leads for a business. However, for local marketing, they are still very useful.
Other Local Marketing Ideas
Local marketing should be part of a small business’s overall marketing strategy. Aside from Google my business and other web directories, several other local marketing ideas can be seen at wordstream, a small business marketing blog that provides over 40 local marketing ideas.
Offline Small Business Marketing Strategies
We’ve covered online small business marketing strategies, but there are offline marketing strategies that are important too. The combination of online and offline marketing is an effective way to produce the best results for marketing a business. Offline business marketing strategies that have a proven track record of success are:
Direct mail
Direct mail was the mainstay of marketing before the internet and since then it has become a much less go-to tool for marketing. However, not using direct mail in connection with digital marketing would be a mistake.
Direct mail is still a great way to reach a target audience, grab their attention and connect with them on a personal level. Using direct mail can be a game-changer and should be a standard-bearer in a small business’s marketing channel.
Statistics that should not be ignored about direct mail are 73% of American consumers say they prefer being contacted by brands via direct mail because they can read it whenever they want.
The average lifespan of an email is 17 seconds, compared to direct mail’s average lifespan of 17 days.
Up to 90% of direct mail gets opened, compared to only 20-39% of emails.
Statistical research shows when digital and direct mail is combined, marketers see increased leads and conversion rates.
Vehicle wraps
A vehicle wrap is a digitally-printed mobile billboard wrapped around a vehicle and displayed wherever that vehicle goes. Vehicle wraps reach a wide audience.
According to Quickbooks, a well-known accounting and management company, one vehicle wrap can generate between 30,000-80,000 impressions daily. That’s 15x greater than other advertising channels like newspapers, radio, and television.
Also, it is a one-time investment. Once wrapped the vehicle can display the message over and over again day after day.
Small Business Marketing Services
Thus far, the marketing strategies covered in this guide have concentrated on small business marketing systems that primarily apply to a small business owner who handles the marketing themselves.
However, with so many other hats that a small business owner has to wear, often it is very difficult to create and implement an effective marketing plan. That’s where a small business marketing service comes in.
A small business marketing service is an individual, company, or agency that can be hired to do all of the marketing for a small business. These are sometimes referred to as “outsourced help” or a “marketing agency.” They concentrate entirely on small business marketing.
Outsourced marketing help for a small business can be found on outsourced platforms like Fiverr where the costs can be as little as five ($5) dollars for a service and Upwork where hundreds of freelance workers list themselves for hire on a temporary and as-needed basis.
These and other sites are a ready source of help for the small business owner creating or expanding a small business marketing plan.
Small Business Marketing Compliance (How to keep the government out of your business)
Most small businesses are unaware that they are required by law to comply with certain government rules and regulations if they have a website. This affects a business marketing plan.
The two most important laws that a small business should be aware of and make sure they comply with are privacy policy requirements and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which mandates that every website must be accessible to persons with disabilities.
Privacy Policy
A privacy policy is information that is placed on a website, usually at the bottom of the website, that tells a website visitor what kind of information the website gathers from them when they visit and how the information will be used, and more importantly how it will be kept safe.
Global privacy laws are in place and they make it a legal requirement that if a business collects personal information when a visitor comes to a website it must have a privacy policy posted on the site.
Small business owners should be aware of this and make sure that their web developer or designer is aware of the privacy policy requirement when creating and maintaining the website.
If the business owner creates the website themself then the owner must make sure a privacy policy is part of the web design and function.
Mandatory website disability access compliance (ADA)
Most small businesses that have a website are not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). They are unaware that this federal law requires all websites must be accessible to persons with disabilities.
This law is designed to ensure that blind, deaf, physically impaired, or otherwise have access to use a website and have guidelines for website accessibility standards.
ADA website accessibility is a mandatory law and carries with it the exposure to heavy penalties and fines and even damages if a disabled person files a lawsuit and wins for lack of ability to access a particular website.
In recent years several website disability access lawsuits have been filed and are still being filed against large, medium, and small businesses.
Failure to comply with these mandatory laws and their notice requirements can affect the profitability of the business. Therefore, government compliance should be part of a small business marketing plan.
Conclusion
This ultimate guide to small business marketing is a comprehensive step by step model that any small business can use to create and implement a marketing plan that will be a beacon light to follow to guide them with:
Identifying the best target audience marketing a product or service
Creating a relationship with that target audience to generate and maintain sales
Using relevant channels of communication to scale the business and reach its goals
Complying with government regulations to keep the business from penalties and claims.
Now you have a roadmap! What’s your small business marketing plan?