Let’s face it. Small businesses are at a disadvantage when it comes to marketing. Large businesses have more resources at their disposal to stay on top of current trends and to stay on top of all the different methods of marketing. But small businesses may not have a huge budget or a lot of people in their marketing department. In fact, you might have only one or two people who work on marketing. So how are you supposed to keep up? Here are some marketing tips to follow, so you can stay in the game.
Mobile marketing
With smartphones being so prevalent in our society, it is easy to directly advertise to your customers through mobile. There are also a lot of strategies through mobile that can be used. For example, you can do location-based marketing where you send ads to customers that are near your business. You can also do text marketing. Even using texting for customer service interactions is a very valuable tool.
You might want to consider creating an app if you don’t have one yet. It is a great way to give customers a portal to your business and their personal accounts with all the information they need. Along with this, In-app payment systems make it easier for customers to make purchases as well.
Social media focus
A super easy tool for small businesses to use is social media. It is a place where you can interact with your customers for free in most instances, and you only need one person to stay on top of it. It is especially easy for a small business where you are likely to have fewer social interactions to stay on top of.
You can run promotions for Facebook fans, partner up with small businesses to take advantage of their fan base, and run ads for future customers. People spend a lot of time on social media these days, and being where they are will give you an edge in reaching them.
Blogging and video content
You may already have a blog on your website and post content to it occasionally. But you need to do more than just post an article every few weeks. For SEO purposes, you should be blogging at least a couple of times a week. And articles on your site need to be valuable to the consumer. Provide them with information about your product or other things in your industry.
On the same note, videos are becoming more and more valuable to consumers who prefer to see things being done than read about it. Posting how-to videos and troubleshooting videos may seem like a lot of work, but it is worth it. It also gives you the opportunity to have more transparency, which is what customers expect.
