Small Business Marketing Blog

Tip 2. Put Yourself in Your Audience’s Place

What problems are they having right now?  What will help them solve their problems.  What is unique about your customers / clients?  Where are your customers / clients spending time right now?

Make sure you have a clear definition of your customer/client base. Write it down and refer back to it frequently. For more on marketing and branding strategy view this page >>.

Each of the 10 marketing tools will be more or less effective for your small business depending on your ideal customer and their habits. All of the tools will increase search engine ranking and thus increase website visits from search engines. We are not covering paid advertising, only organic content used to generate connections. All of these can be useful in connect with an online advertising campaign.

1. Webinars / Online events – Use this if you have good content available, someone on staff that can produce these and if you have ready access to a large mailing list of invitees.  Additionally, you can partner with a
2. Case Studies and Reports – Focus on this if you need to present proof of experience and if you have a business where the customers don’t mind publicly endorsing your product/service.
3. Blogs – This can be a time-consuming commitment but if you have some staff that are interested in becoming known in the industry or the budget to hire a specialist, this is extremely effective when entering new markets or just getting your name our.
4. Email marketing / Newsletters – If you have a blog then your email marketing can use that information and push it out to your list of past clients, current and prospects who have signed up on your site.
5. Video – This is extremely effective if you either have a very visual product/service or if you would benefit from having your personality associated with the business.  Video has become very popular is only going to continue to grow in importance for search engines.
6. Landing pages – These are effective for driving online advertising visitors to download important information (see below white paper etc) and also if you have a lot of services on your site, a landing page can focus on one industry or service in depth.
7. Infographics – If the results you provide your customers / clients can be expressed in a visual way, infographics can be very effective. Additionally if you need to quickly communicate and reach your audience these are effective. They can be a complex online infographic – see this example, or a simple one-subject social media post (see below)
   
8. White papers – If you have someone in your company that is a good writer, lots of great information and a complex subject matter, this will be your go to tool.  Visitors will happily provide you with their email in exchange for a download of your proprietary and useful information. You’ll be able to re-market to them using your email newsletter and make a lasting connection.
9. Social Media – Knowing where your audience is looking is the key to making social media work for your lead generation program. Is it LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest …? Find your audience and find new leads.  It is important to note that most social media today needs a paid advertising component.
10. News Releases – If you have a constant flow of new products, services, awards or newsworthy accomplishments, this will be the tool for you.

Although there is no guarantee in marketing, selecting the right mix of tools will put you a step ahead.  Our last and most important tip for small businesses is:  use your content in a multitude of tools, slicing it in different ways without having to recreate new content as frequently, you’ll get more for your money.

Please note this is written mostly for the a small business market which includes firms that generate $3 – $35 million in revenue. If you are smaller than that, you are probably a micro business and have an additional set of issues related to staffing, time and money but these suggestions may still be useful to you.