9 Simple Small Business Marketing Strategies To Try

What is one simple marketing strategy every small business should consider trying?

To help your business with simple and consistent marketing, we asked creative business leaders and PR professionals this question for their best advice. From utilizing social media to producing relevant educational content, there are several simple marketing strategies every small business should consider trying.

Here are nine simple marketing strategies every small business should consider trying: 

• SEO For Small Businesses
• Social Media
• Join-venture Partners
• Deliver Creative And Interactive Experiences
• Capture Testimonials Over Zoom
• Reach Out To Previously Neglected Target Markets
• Produce Relevant And Educational Content
• Network On LinkedIn
• Communicate Values 

SEO For Small Businesses

There’s no better marketing strategy to try for a small business than an SEO strategy. I’m biased in my answer of running an SEO company. But, I’m also answering based on experience. Our site has been fortunate enough to rank for search terms like “digital marketing company.” As a result of a prominent search ranking, we’ve been able to sustainably and predictably grow our business. We know customers will continue to get connected to our website each month and that a certain percentage of those inquiries will result in new customers. SEO can help remove the variable of unpredictability for business owners. That alone makes SEO worth the consideration for a small business marketing strategy.  

Brett Farmiloe, Markitors

Social Media

One simple marketing strategy small businesses can use to grow their business is social media. Your customers are already there! More than two-thirds of social media users log on at least once per day, so if you can post once or twice a week, you can get your message in front of people in your area. Another great thing about social media is your customers can share photos or testimonials that you can then share to your own page. Social media can also be used to share the more human side of your business, so people can really get to know who you are and what you do.

Jennifer Klemmetson, Radiall

Join-venture Partners

Knowing other related businesses that have a similar target market as yours, then figuring out who can send you clients related to their services and who you can send clients to for related services is key. We call this an event chain. Reach out to the businesses that can send you clients and agree who they should send you and why. Do the same for the businesses that you can send clients to and why. For the businesses that send you clients, you will pay them a referral fee. The businesses that you send clients to will pay you a referral fee. Having referrals coming in and referrals going out can add revenue to your top line. This strategy does not cost anything to set up, and you will get money in for referrals and pay only a small percentage out to referrals from new sales—great way to grow.

Steve Feld, Business Breakthrough Strategist

Deliver Creative And Interactive Experiences

When starting out a company, especially with a limited budget, it’s important to weigh out the value of everything you do and calculate if it’s effective enough to warrant putting time and money into. Early on, we took on the philosophy that we wanted to deliver cool experiences to people. We’ve had a few strategies for this. One of our opening activations was to send out bartenders to make drinks in your home if you spent enough money in the app. Another one we’ve done is partnering up with an underwear brand and having underwear models deliver our products to you. It’s been all about creativity and figuring out the value in every choice you make.

Chris Vaughn, Saucey

Capture Testimonials Over Zoom

Instead of asking for a testimonial and receiving a not so helpful email response, get your superstar clients on a 5-10 minute Zoom call and talk about the engagement. What problem were they having? Why did they hire you in the first place? What was the solution? What were the results (be specific!) Edit the best parts of this interview into a 1-3 minute video and put it on your website, share it with warm prospects or post it on social media.

Patrick Frank, Edit Video Calls

Reach Out To Previously Neglected Target Markets

Marketing is all about putting a spotlight on your product’s greatest features. Showcasing our sleek styles and innovative tracking technologies for our products have been our top priority in our marketing efforts. My best tip for marketing in 2021 is to try to reach markets you might have neglected previously. Researching and analyzing your frequent buyers, your reviews and other buzz around your company can all help towards reaching and embracing new customers.

Olivier Momma, Ekster

Produce Relevant And Educational Content

Giving our company a voice was the first step to laying the foundation for our business. We wanted to create a fun, diverse brand that celebrates the fusion of health and culture. With that in mind, we built our efforts around our brand’s mission statement. Producing content that is both relevant and educational on the history of our product has been key to educating consumers on why they need our modernized and health forward drink.

Danielle Calabrese, De La Calle

Network On LinkedIn

When we look at really targeted strategies, we need to view our options through a wide-angle lens. While there is always a place for exciting, innovative ideas, that doesn’t mean that strategies that have always worked should be put aside. One such marketing strategy is networking on LinkedIn. In fact, that’s how many startups today build their initial client base and begin branding techniques. Explore every connect request that you receive, and continuously build your network. You never know when a connection may prove to be viable.

Greg Gillman, MuteSix

Communicate Values 

Businesses of every size and industry can benefit from clearly communicating their values and principles in everything they do. More than ever, customers, partners, employees and job seekers care about working with ethical organizations that foster a respectful, inclusive workplace culture. Keeping this idea at top of mind when creating any type of marketing strategy will ensure that businesses are keeping a safe and successful working environment.

Andrew Rawson, Traliant

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