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5 Marketing Strategies that Actually Work

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5 Marketing Strategies that Actually Work

Many small business owners can struggle to compete with larger businesses. A larger business may have the advantage of having more brand recognition, a bigger advertising budget, and a larger marketing team. However, there are very effective ways that small businesses can market themselves for success. The key to success is using marketing techniques that are affective.

Finding marketing strategies that gives you the best return on investment (ROI) requires you to do some research before selecting the best marketing methods for your business. Websites, SEO & Marketing for Business (WSM4B) recommends that you follow this 5 step process before deciding on where you want to concentrate your efforts.

  • Define your business objective or what you want to achieve with your marketing
  • Do your research and understand the audience you are trying to reach
  • Create excellent content that focuses on that audience
  • Have a reliable method for delivering that content
  • Analyze the results and make any necessary changes

While there are many different marketing methods, there are some that every small business should be doing. Here are the top 5 marketing strategies can be used by any small business effectively:

Social Media Marketing

With over 1 billion monthly active members on Facebook and over 200 million users on Twitter, it makes sense to look for your target audience among the users. It is important to not simply create a membership and expect people to see it. Whether you are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+, being an active member can help increase brand awareness, build trust, share information about your business, as well as put you in the position of being recognized as an expert in your field. Yola reports that 69 percent of consumers are more likely to use a local business if it has information available on a social media site. Here is Yola’s twitter page, just as an example of social media marketing.

Reviews

Internet reviews can be one of the most important factors to making or breaking a business today. Statistics show that 72 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. But online reviews also reach a far greater audience than personal recommendations. Currently 61 percent of consumers research a business online before purchasing from them. Encourage satisfied customers to post reviews about their experience. Sites such as Ciao and Dooyoo focus strictly on consumer reviews.

Create a Blog

Creating a blog for your website that offers pertinent and quality content can have a significant impact on inbound traffic to your site. According to Business.com a company that posts 15 or more posts a month generate five times more traffic to their site. A blog is also another way to show yourself as an expert in your field with accurate and helpful posts. One example of a company that has created a relevant blog in order to increase traffic is Crazy Egg.

Special Offers

Everyone wants to save money and feel like they are getting a good deal. By running sales and special offers, customers feel like they are getting a good deal. Creating promotions around your products can increase sales of current customers as well as attract new ones. Customer’s like deals, whether you offer a percentage off or even a two for the price of one. Drive Dynamics is an excellent example of how special offers can make an impact.

Email Marketing

Email is an excellent way to reach customers. However, the target of an email campaign has to be focused on previous customers. Getting customers to offer their email addresses is not difficult and should be utilized. However, it is not an effective tool to capture new leads or solicit sales. Unsolicited emails are called spam and can be more damaging than lead generating. Companies like New Zapp can help with an email marketing campaign.

The five marketing strategies listed can all be utilised at little to no cost, which is appealing to small businesses with smaller marketing budgets, but can lift your business up to a level where you can be competitive. Evaluating your marketing efforts for results can tell you if you are reaching your goals or if you need to try something different. Marketing doesn’t need to be expensive to be successful, it simply takes some Internet know how and the drive to succeed.

E.Bergeson is a blogger and marketing fanatic – she loves to write and generally this is about a business or marketing related topics. In her spare time, she loves to spend time in the kitchen where she absolutely loves to make cakes.

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