Take a look at some of the tips below.
Branding
Cohesive and attention-grabbing branding is the backbone of your marketing strategy. Branding helps your audience remember all the stand-out qualities of your business and recognize your content in the wild.Make an eye-catching logo
The logo is the anchor point. The consumer will associate everything they know about your business with it. It’s worth the investment to get a strong logo . A cheap option is to use Crowdspring or you can commission a designer.Write a brand abstract
Write up the key qualities, voice, and look of your brand. Refer back to this document while working on your copy and creative to keep your branding consistent.
Optimize Organic Traffic
If you don’t have a huge budget for paid advertising, you’ll want to maximize your organic growth. Make it easy for potential customers to find and learn about your business, and take every opportunity to network.Google My Business
Google’s My Business puts your business on their maps and search engine for free. As the #1 search engine and digital map, this is a must. Take some time to update your business profile with accurate information including hours, contact information, website, and photos. You can also post updates that will appear alongside your listing. With customer reviews and basic data tracking, you can learn about your customers as well.Search Engine Optimization
There’s more you can do to land your business on the first page of search results. If you have a website (and you really should) spend a bit of time making sure each page has appropriate keywords on the page, in the url, and in the page’s tags. Above all, the pages of your website should have rich and relevant content.
Social Media
Everyone has probably told you that you have to be on social media. Social media can be a great, free way to connect you with your customers and pairs well with all content marketing. However, if you don’t have the content that matches the platform, you could end up wasting your time. If you do chose to use social media, you don’t have to be on every platform. It’s better to invest in posting consistent content on one social channel than having a profile on multiple platforms with content spread thin.Get to know the platforms
What social media do your customers use? What types of content work best on what platforms? Businesses with visual content will do better on Instagram. Facebook is a welcoming place for all B2C enterprises, with Pages that act as an auxiliary website and multiple tools for advertisement and engagement. Twitter, on the other hand, can be trickier to adapt to since it supports brief content and immediate interaction.Social Media Contests
Increase engagement and outreach by holding a giveaway on social media. Every share and follow can count as an entry into the contest.Engage on Linkedin
Linkedin is an under-utilized site, but can be a great place to network with other companies and promote your brand, especially if you’re a B2B company. You can join business groups, publish blog posts, and grow your connections.Social Media Tools
Programs like Hootsuite or Buffer gather all your social accounts into one place, making it easy to manage your social media and queue posts.Hire a social media savant
The best way to build strong social media is to have someone on your team who knows it inside and out. If that’s not you, you should consider bringing someone in.Engage with your audience
Like and reply to comments, follow people back, and start conversations. Remember to always reflect the best of your business.
Content Marketing
The great thing about content marketing is that it's basically free to make your own content. As a small business owner, you are an expert in your niche. Share your knowledge, share what you love, and above all make sure your content is relevant to your audience.Make an Infographic
Infographics are hot content -- they are informative, visually stimulating, and easy to digest. Infographics tend to get a lot of shares and engagement. Thankfully, there’s a lot of data available out there that just needs to be put into context. Do a bit of research to find data about your industry and draw up an infographic or write a blog post.Reach out to influencers
Influencers are masters at creating content for their audience. Find a niche influencer that appeals to your target audience.Segment your audience
Make sure your content gets to the right place by creating customer personas. Market segmentation is easy to do in email campaigns and will result in higher engagment.Fundamentally, marketing is about standing out from the crowd. Leverage your unique traits, get creative, and always keep an eye out for networking opportunities.