Every business need marketing strategy to build enough online and offline presence to develop, maintain, and attract strong customer relationships. As a small business owner, you may still be confused about which thing to focus on first because all you have been thinking about is business survivability. Don't worry, we have prepared small business marketing strategies to get your business off the ground, without having to spend large investments or years of expertise. Let's take a look at what you can implement to your business strategy.
Do small business need marketing strategy?
Yes, small businesses need a marketing strategy to define and analyze their environment to grow their business by making educated decisions. An effective marketing strategy is like a compass that provides clarity and insight to business owners and aligns it with your business goals. The benefits when you implement small business marketing strategies are brand awareness, gaining customer loyalty, increasing sales and revenue, and being able to compete with larger businesses.
Can you run a business without marketing?
It's difficult for a business to survive without marketing. A competitive and always adapting market makes you have to stand out compared to other businesses, stay on track with business goals, and continue to find ways to make your brand known to wider audiences. But all of these things cannot be realized if you do not have marketing strategies, because when you want to rely on word-of-mouth or organic growth from sales alone it will be difficult.
Small business marketing strategies to thrive your business
Once you understand the importance of small business marketing strategies, we will give you some ideas for differentiating your business from competitors and start building your loyal customer base.
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Customer profiles
As a small business owner, defining who your ideal customer is is a key step to a solid marketing strategy. This means you need to describe in detail what your ideal customer's needs, interests, preferences are, based on market research and psychological evaluations. Trying to appeal to all consumers if your product or service is in a specific niche will not make your brand stand out easily.
Find a way to make it easier for you to resonate with your target audience and differentiate yourself from your competitors. For example, if you want to open a coffee shop, pay attention to your menu, and who the main connoisseurs of the menu are, are they coffee lovers? young people who like sweet flavors? suitable for all groups, or only for those who like unique flavors. Ensure to conduct surveys and customer interviews to enrich your personas.
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Pick a dominate marketing platform
Social media marketing strategy is one of the keys to brand awareness and reaching potential customers. Even if you try all media platforms already, you only need to focus on one platform with the highest engagement. Each social media has its own user demographics, and make sure you continue to analyze which platform is the most crowded and most interested in your posts. If you focus more on the appearance of images and videos, you can use Instagram, and if you focus more on long videos or presentations, you can focus on YouTube. You don't need to use advertising right away, but learn about certain hours when social media is busy with users, what posts potential customers like the most, and what trends you can make into new marketing materials.
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Giveaway items
Everyone loves free, useful, and unique items. You can give various items related to your product or service, by including the company logo in the middle of the item as brand awareness. You can give it for any occasion, such as introducing a new service or product, free items after purchasing a certain amount of your product, awards for loyal customers, etc.
Choosing high quality products and adding company logos needs to be done by professionals. BestGiftHK is the solution for creating giveaway items, available for all business scales that want to create promotional items, corporate gifts, merchandise, etc. BestGiftHK has thousands of products from clothing, stationery, tech accessories, houseware, plus various printing methods for company logos with stunning and durable results. Check our website for a variety of options available, ready to ship worldwide, and no minimum purchase.
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Highlight customer testimonials
Put customer testimonials on your business's social media platforms, or include them in some of your ads. This gives a good prospect for potential customers to see your brand, act as social proof because it comes directly from consumers who directly use your products or services. If possible, show pictures of your customers when using your products and services with their permission. Testimonials always have maximum impact, because you let the customers tell others about how well you provide to them. It shows how customers care about your products and services, plus puts your brand in a positive light.
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Use offline marketing strategies
Offline marketing tactics such as flyers and posters are still very effective for spreading brand awareness in your local area. Plus you can do this when you attend local events. You need to align social media marketing strategies with offline strategies. Local brand recognition will be more meaningful when you and your employees can directly chat with potential customers, directly answer and understand what potential customer's needs are. Old strategies are not always considered old-fashioned, because as long as they can still bring in prospects, of course they can be an advantage for your business.
5 effective strategies of small business branding
Although implementing some of the above methods is difficult and requires trial and errors, you need to do it step by step to ensure your business stays on top. Choose the steps that you can do best by considering the available budget, plus evaluate with the team after you do it. Keep using the methods that produce results, try other methods or fix the results of your evaluation for better results. Marketing strategies will always be needed from small to large business scales, ensuring your business continues to advance, faces any challenges, and is ready to face any competitors.
