What you need to know to market your small business

What is Marketing?

The selection of available marketing tools and techniques can be intimidating. While having options is a good thing, it can lead to choice overload and, sometimes, a bad decision.

Marketing. You’re familiar with the word, you may not exactly know how to define it, and likely don’t know where to begin. You do have a hunch, though; your SMB needs it. Fear not. You’re not alone. Let’s talk about marketing your small business

The truth is marketing is defined in many ways by many different people. See, there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to marketing. Not only is each business—and the needs of the business—unique but, often, so is the target audience. If each business is different and the audiences aren’t the same, there can’t be a single method of marketing.

While that concept is easy to explain and understand, our work is only just beginning.

With the flood of marketing tactics available these days, which are the best fit for your marketing strategy?

Regardless of how the dictionary defines “marketing;” what does it mean for your business?

Let’s dive into marketing considerations and tactics for your small business.

Marketing Considerations and Tactics

Marketing is an elegant dance between art and science. There’s an art to the execution of the deliverables as our audience is emotional and human. There’s a science behind tracking which marketing methods work, and which do not. Marketing with one and not the other—art or science—will always fail. Establishing balance is key.

Looking Good

Speaking from the art side of things, your creative (both graphically and the written word) needs to connect with your audience. It needs to resonate on a logical as well as emotional level. Your potential customers need to understand why your widget is their best option, but they also need to feel compelled to hand over the money for it. By the way, these two feelings seldom occur at the same point along the buyer’s journey, but they do need to be realized before a sale is complete.

How about the overall design? Is good website design important? Yes. YES! It most certainly is. Here are 5 Reasons For Good Website Design that you need to consider when representing your brand online.

Explore the Data

While the experimentation of a marketing idea may find its genesis in an educated guess or a gut feeling, the analysis of the effort and determination of success and failure must be confirmed by the performance metrics. Setting up your campaign to collect the data necessary to define Key Performance Indicator (KPI) success should be set up at the very beginning. Understanding what success looks like (defining specific goals) and laying the groundwork to capture the data must occur before setting a campaign live.

Test, Test, Test

Whether you love receiving new emails or loathe the next piece of spam entering your inbox, there’s no denying the power of email marketing. Understanding what types of messaging resonate with your audience is vital to your email marketing success. A/B testing your email campaigns is an easy, straightforward approach to seeing what works and learning how to better communicate with your market. Read more on this topic.

Creating your Brand Strategy

A brand is a perception or feeling that a customer has about a company or product. It is not simply a logo, tagline, or color scheme. A strong brand can help a business to attract and retain customers, enter new markets, and drive growth.

This article provides an overview of a brand strategy and how to create your own.

Take a Before and After Snapshot of your Business

When trying to lose weight, it is recommended to take a “before” photo of yourself. With this picture, you can witness your transformation as you hit your goal weight. Sometimes changes are small and go unnoticed on a daily basis. In this same vein, I recommend noting how your business looks today. Review financials, website visits, social media following, or anything else you hope to improve through marketing.

While you achieve an anecdotal understanding of your progress while marketing, numbers don’t lie. Seeing your growth from the start helps you to appreciate your marketing’s power. Read more on this topic.

It’s Important to Have a Responsive Website Design

It’s no secret, mobile web usage is here and here to stay. Mobile devices like cell phones and tablets are ubiquitous and people often own more than one. The convenience of the hardware created an expectation of software convenience, and this convenience is fueled by speed and accessibility.

Responsive web design solves many of the challenges of speed and accessibility by considering the needs of the mobile community at the website’s conception.

Here are seven reasons why you need a responsive website: Read more on this topic.

Social Media for B2B Businesses

I have faced countless conversations with B2B business owners questioning whether there’s any value for B2B companies in social media. The short answer is YES there’s value!!

Here are 3 practical reasons why social media absolutely makes sense for B2B businesses.

How to start brand marketing with Pinterest

If you’re a business owner, you know that marketing is essential to your company’s success. You’ve probably also heard that social media is a great way to market your business. But what if you’re not on social media? Or what if you are, but you’re not sure how to use it effectively? Enter Pinterest. Read on!

Video Marketing For Your Business

Is video marketing right for your business?

It’s no secret that video consumption is on the rise—and has been for quite some time. Video marketing has become more popular than ever in significant part to increasing consumer demand.

With technology ranging from increased bandwidth availability to devices with faster computing power, access to video—especially streaming video—is greater than ever. In addition, with the cultural shift towards streaming services over traditional broadcast and cable television strengthened, as has the expectation of ubiquitous video accessibility.

So, if the average Joe likes video and has come to expect it, it’s a good time to decide how your business can benefit from video marketing.

This topic is multifaceted and can take days to cover in its entirety so, for now, I’m going to focus first on the top video production types available for your business. In later articles, we’ll tackle additional video marketing strategies and concepts.

Read more about Video Marketing For Your Business.

Influencer Marketing: How to Get Started

While it’s true that the more traditional methods of advertising are still relevant, there’s another way that small businesses can attract new customers: influencer marketing. This is a form of marketing where small businesses use social media personalities and industry experts to promote their products/services. In some cases, it’s simply to promote brand awareness.

Typically, social media influencers have loyal followers. This means they can pitch your small business to a much larger audience. Some of the results you may achieve through influencer marketing include…

Read more about getting started with influencer marketing.

Effective Marketing Strategies that Have a Tangible Impact in 2022

Essentially, if you want to market successfully in 2022, you have to make yourself relatable and tell a powerful story that captures your audience’s imagination. In this mini-guide, we offer relevant strategies to generate reliable results for your business.

See the strategies

Marketing is a Necessity, Not a Luxury

There is much more to marketing than simply creating and maintaining your website. For example, you may also use social media for marketing your products and services. Perhaps an email marketing campaign is appropriate.

In recent years, customers have become used to shopping online. It’s part of everyday life. Therefore, lacking e-commerce could render your business irrelevant. When it comes to ensuring the success of your business, marketing is a necessity—not a luxury.

As we have mentioned, marketing is critical for the success of your business. Unfortunately, when money gets tight, less mature companies often make marketing the first expense to get cut. Below, we will show you eight reasons to maintain your marketing budget.

See Reasons Marketing is a Necessity

Proven Branding Strategies to Elevate Your Small Business

As a small business owner, it’s essential to set yourself apart from your competitors. Branding will give your business an edge over all the other companies offering something similar. In the age of impersonal tech-based interactions, customers want to shop from companies that deliver thoughtful and personalized shopping experiences. Building your business into an engaging and relatable brand is a great way to connect with your customers more personally!

Are you ready to build a business brand that your customers won’t be able to resist? Here are some tips to help you get your branding underway!

Things To Do Before Jumping Into Paid Internet Advertising

Paid internet advertising is a great way to get your brand or product in front of potential customers, but there are a few things you should do before jumping in. Before spending money on paid internet advertising, you should do a few things to ensure you are getting the most bang for your buck. Here are a few things that you should consider before investing in internet advertising…

7 Ways to Expand Your Reach with Search Marketing

As the internet becomes increasingly saturated with content, making your voice heard above the noise can be challenging. Implementing a search marketing strategy is a great place to start if you’re looking to expand your reach and connect with more customers. Search marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on increasing visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

There are several different ways to go about search marketing, and which tactics you use will depend on your business goals and objectives. However, some general tips and best practices can help you get started…

Small Business Considerations

What is Website Hosting?

Website hosting is often misunderstood. While it’s a basic function of owning and running a website, there are a few key points that are occasionally overlooked. In this article, we discuss what web hosting is, what it is not, and why all hosts aren’t the same.

Read now to understand what is website hosting.

So, What’s the Difference Between Sales and Marketing?

As a business owner, you probably know that a strong sales technique is critical to driving revenue and growth for your business. However, if you don’t have an effective marketing strategy in place, you will not have customers to sell to. That said, you must learn to balance marketing and sales to guide leads into becoming customers.

In this article, we’re going to explore the definitions of sales and marketing, how both are required to turn potential customers into actual customers, how to combine the two, and finally, how to find balance when you don’t have the funds to cover an entire department for both. Read More

Don’t Be Afraid To Outsource

You run a business. You’re good at what you do. As a matter of fact, you’re so good at what you do that you started (or manage) a business to sell what you do. 

A business, however, always requires more than your core competencies to exist, let alone succeed. Whether it’s back-office functions like order fulfillment, accounting, inventory management, and the like or more public-facing responsibilities, like sales, PR, and marketing, there are roles your business demands that your internal human resources can’t support.

As the person responsible for the business, especially when starting out, you may feel inclined—or financially obligated—to perform these tasks yourself. 

While the idea that you can save money if you handle these efforts yourself seems logical, I would like to challenge your way of thinking. 

Check out why outsourcing likely makes sense for your business: Read more on this topic.

Who should you work with?

Now that you’re ready to start that marketing strategy conversation, where do you start? Should you reach out to some large, famous marketing agency, or would a smaller, boutique outfit better suit your needs?

Well, there are several pros and cons to both large agencies and smaller boutique organizations. Included among them are talent access, overhead costs, and red tape concerns.

CLICK HERE for some key points for each so you can make an informed decision.

Focusing on Progress Over Perfection in Your Small Business

Starting a small business or running a department within a small business can sometimes feel overwhelming. There are many moving parts and, inherent in most small businesses, you’re likely wearing multiple hats.

While the to-do list is long—seemingly without end—it’s important to realize that your goal is not perfection but, rather, progress.

Read more about why it’s important to focus on progress over perfection.

15 Tasks You Should Outsource

The prime drive of every business is to maximize profits for its proprietors or stakeholders while maintaining corporate social accountability. However, your small business might not be in a position to employ the correct number of staff to delegate all the duties appropriately. 

This will force you to outsource some services to ensure the consumers’ demands are met. Outsourcing is the act of obtaining a product from an outside provider. What are these services that you can outsource? Well, let us find out. Keep Reading

Why Professional Photography is Important

When considering your marketing budget, you may occasionally overlook professional photography as a business owner. Surely you could use stock photos or take some snapshots yourself, can’t you? After all, there are other areas where you need to spend your budget. However, this isn’t something that you should dismiss. 

No matter how capable your smartphone camera is, professional photos are a much better option. While the camera itself is an important consideration, the magic behind quality photography comes from the photographer and not the equipment. 

High-quality photos are an asset and a tool designed to increase your chances of success. Therefore, professional photography should be a budget priority—and here are a few reasons why.

Continue Growing Your Business with These Tips

What goes into running a business effectively? First, you need a solid business idea and a plan to execute it. And it would be best if you were ready to work hard, often for long hours. Nonetheless, owning a business can be profoundly fulfilling and financially rewarding as long as you have a workable plan and follow effective practices that will help you avoid common mistakes in entrepreneurship. Read on for some tips from Turn One Studio.

As you can see, we are only getting started. This blog post will continue to expand and explore more marketing tactics and considerations. Please be sure to bookmark this page and check back often.