Effective Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

For small businesses, especially those just starting out, one of the biggest challenges is gaining new customers, after all, most of your business partners still don't know that your company is on the market.

A great ally for discovering and interacting with these potential customers is the internet. Through it you can advertise your products or services to a wide audience, which would be practically impossible through traditional advertising media – generally reserved for companies with a large budget for this type of campaign.

And on the internet, there are countless Digital Marketing strategies available, from the simplest and most practical to more complex campaigns that involve a large number of adjustments. Fortunately, these types of strategies are within the reach of companies of any size and anyone can create an online presence.

Below we will list some extremely effective practices for your company to establish a presence on the internet. Let's get to know them:

Define your goals

Before starting any action on the internet, it is important for the company to define its objectives. Choose clear goals that can be measured. For example, if your goal is to bring more users to the company's website, determine a number of visits, but if your goal is to obtain more ways to contact your potential customer, then the goal may be to acquire qualified leads.

Once you define these goals, it becomes easier not only to create the marketing campaigns necessary to achieve them, but also to make the necessary adjustments if they are not performing optimally.

Create a Responsive Website

While creating a business page on a social network has long solved the problem of a company's online presence, today it is practically impossible to do business on the internet without your own quality website.

There are countless reasons why you should create a website for your company, but the main one is data control. Social media pages can give you important data about your followers and page movements, but nothing prevents a change in their policies from causing this information to disappear.

Furthermore, as social networks have their own guidelines, suspensions or bans can happen from one day to the next, not to mention that they can simply lose relevance after a certain period of time.

Therefore, have a modern website that is easy to navigate and, above all, optimized for mobile devices. The number of users who browse the internet using smartphones, tablets and other devices is growing more and more, therefore, being adapted to these devices is essential.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

One of the ways to attract users is through search on search engines, such as Google, for example. Therefore, the better the position of a page in the results of these searches, the greater the number of clicks it will receive.

To achieve this result, it is necessary to carry out SEO, or search engine optimization. This is a set of improvements that range from the use of business keywords in strategic points on the website (such as titles and URLs, for example) to the loading speed of a page.

Content Marketing

One of the strategies that uses SEO – and therefore brings new users through the position of a page in a search result – is the use of a corporate blog with topics relevant to the type of business and consequently to future customers.

This is an example of content marketing, that is, when the company offers valuable and interesting information to attract the user to its business website. But the blog is not the only way to attract new visitors, other forms of content distribution can also help with this work, such as creating guides, info graphics and tutorials, anything that is relevant, useful and of quality and that can attract and engage your target audience

Social media

Although they do not serve as the only strategy when talking about Digital Marketing, social media is extremely important when promoting your product, service or brand. First, however, it is necessary to evaluate which media best suit your target audience and would bring better results.

After this definition, it is necessary to create a content sharing routine, this regularity will allow the algorithms of these networks to deliver your content in the best possible way. Finally, be sure to interact with your followers, respond to comments, and clarify any doubts that may arise about your business.

Online Ads

Sometimes your content and posts need a little push. Online ads are a very interesting way to promote your company in a practical and cost-effective way, especially in campaigns that use cost per click (cpc)

Here the important thing is to define what type of advertisement and platform best suits your target audience and each case is different. Try to carry out a detailed study of the best place to place your ads and then monitor the results.

Google My Business

A great tool for promoting your business online is Google My Business, the best part is it's free. With GMN you can be found by people who are looking for companies in your niche nearby, all you need to do is complete a simple registration on the platform.

However, for Google My Business to be better used, it is necessary to take advantage of its tools: make a complete registration, address, opening hours, contact methods. Take care with photos of the location and ask customers to leave a review on Google, all of these actions will help your profile stand out.

Reviews and Testimonials

For a small company, especially if it is starting out, one of the biggest challenges is demonstrating the quality of its service and product, and one of the best ways to show this is through customer reviews.

Therefore, encourage your audience to leave positive reviews, both on Google and on social media, as they can influence new potential customers. This type of social proof is one of the best tools for positioning yourself in a competitive market.

Analytics and Monitoring

Finally, all these actions will only have effects if they can be evaluated. One of the great strengths of Digital Marketing is the possibility of analyzing and monitoring the performance of your campaigns in real time.

To do this, use tools like Google Analytics to monitor the performance of your strategies and adjust them to achieve the goals defined at the beginning of the project.