5 Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses

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Liam Fariss is the General Manager of the marketing and website agency Cloud Cartel (Leederville, Perth). He’s been working in the industry for over 7 years, specialising in helping small, medium and large businesses refine their digital marketing strategy. With a people-oriented approach, Mr Farris has mastered the ability to build a strong brand presence digitally, connecting with audiences in a way that’s personable and authentic whilst driving results. 

In this blog post, we have the privilege of tapping into Liam’s vast knowledge as he shares his top five marketing strategies for small businesses. Discover how to navigate the ever-changing digital landscape and kickstart your marketing efforts with expert tips from this marketing maven.

What are the most effective marketing channels for a small business on a limited budget?

For small businesses working with limited budgets, you are best making the most out of the free channels available. This includes building profiles on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and so on, and squeezing as much juice out of these platforms as you can. For example, connecting with relevant Facebook groups, offering discounts and incentives to existing customers and regularly posting and engaging with your followers. Once you have a bit of momentum there, you can start to scale up through paid advertising via your social media platforms and/or google ads, depending on your niche. 

When you’re spending money on marketing, it’s important to think about marketing in terms of an investment rather than an expense. Businesses can be discouraged too early if they’re not seeing returns instantly. However, marketing is cumulative, it takes time and you only get out what you put in.

How can small businesses identify and target their ideal customer in their marketing efforts?

Most small business owners will have a good idea who their best customers are. Working closely with the business, often small business owners know customers by name, whether that’s because they are a pleasure to deal with or they pay well. 

To target your ideal customer, start by identifying who they are and why they are your ideal customer. If you feel inclined you can break your customer profile down into demographics, psychographics and their behaviours—this will give you a complete picture on the customer you should be targeting in your marketing efforts and determine the best avenue to target that customer segment.

What type of content should small businesses be creating to engage their audience and promote their business?

Keep it simple and authentic. Focus on what you do best and why you are great at what you do and showcase this in a variety of ways. Through your social media channels, on your website, in your blog, in your newsletter and so on. Great content isn’t about selling direct to customers but rather, it’s about providing valuable resources and tools to your community so that they engage with your brand and when they are ready to purchase you are who they think of.

How can small businesses measure the success of their marketing campaigns and adjust them accordingly?

Keep a tally of where your leads come from, chat to your customers about how they found you and ask them what brought them through your doors. Whether this is engaging in conversations with your customers, asking employees to collect data or having a suggestion box in your business—this will give you valuable data you can use to steer your marketing efforts. 

If you have a website, set up Google Analytics and Google Tag manager and start to track where your phone calls and website form submissions come from. You will not always have a complete idea of which marketing channel led to which customer, but you will start to get a pretty good idea of which channels are working.

What are some creative ways to stand out from competitors in a crowded marketplace?

Carve out your niche and craft a unique selling proposition (USP) by doing something different from your competitors. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel but just put your own spin on what your competitors are already doing. You will find that your competitors will fall down in some areas and that’s where you can pick up the slack.

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