You can get overwhelmed as a small business owner in a world full of startups and the constantly rising bar of creative marketing, but that doesn’t mean you should throw the towel in just yet. Allow us to help you out. Here at Nomadic Advertising, we know there are still many plans and strategies you can implement to make your brand stand out. Since you are a small business, we’ll try to keep things simple yet effective. Once you have gained some experience you’ll be able to graduate to a well-curated SEO strategy that thrives on extensive keyword research and then learn all bout pay-per-click advertising, but those are some advanced concepts you might not yet be ready for. Let’s start with the basics, the ideas that are fool-proof and bound to make your entrance into the online marketing world worthy.
So, here are 15 creative marketing ideas for all the small businesses to hit the ground running:
1. Social media is a great way to build your audience
Mobile devices make up most of the audience, which means creating brand awareness on all your related socials is a great marketing strategy: it works as social proof that you’re a real person with a real business. Through your social media platforms, you express your brand’s personality right in front of your target audience and are able to continuously interact with them. In turn, they will start to trust your brand and become potential clients. There are multiple ways you can utilize your social media channels. Here are a few:
- Promote your blog posts (in case you’ve started one)
- Create digestible, short versions of your blog content to post on all social platforms, provide extra value to your audience, and redirect them to your blog content.
- Tag other businesses or brands within your niche with relatable social media posts to maximize exposure.
- Take feedback from your audience with polls and forms.
- Utilize hashtags. Location-based tags or trendy hashtags can help you stay ahead of the curve.
- Reach a wider audience by collaborating with influencers or work with an influencer management agency to expand your reach
Thanks to our years of experience, we know this list is definitely going to make a difference in your online presence. Our social media strategy is based on these principles, that’s how effective we know they are.
Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash
2. Email newsletters are still effective
To think that email is dead just because we now have more communication options is crazy. Even in 2022, email marketing is going strong. It’s a viable method of gaining new customers, along with maintaining a good relationship with existing ones. And the best part of it all? The process of collecting email addresses and mailing them is free. So if you think your email marketing efforts won’t improve your chances, it’s time to set that idea aside. Also, if you’re feeling your email campaigns are not good enough, there is nothing to fear. Even the simplest email marketing plan can get you results if executed right.
3. Local SEO works like a charm
We are not going to lie to you, creating an effective SEO strategy can take some time and could potentially be pricey, depending on what company you work with, but there is no denying that local SEO is worth every penny you spend. Google’s algorithm will shine a spotlight on anyone who’s doing SEO the right way, and your website is no exception, even if it’s relatively smaller or newer. Local SEO can help Google bring your site up for more relative queries, and the benefits can build up over time. Here are a couple of ways to make the most out of your local SEO efforts:
- List your business with GMB, and make sure to get listed on other online directories as well.
- Publish content that caters to a more localized customer base, usually within the serving area of your business.
- When posting localized content, use long-term keywords that are location-based. Using location-based keywords helps Google to bring your site up for more searches within that area.
4. Earn business award badges to decorate your site
You can win many business awards with an online badge that you can showcase on your website. When you compete for and win a couple of badges make sure to display them on your site, that will help your credibility which will then increase your sales. If you can’t find any awards like these for your industry, you can always host your own. You can’t award yourself with a badge, but you can gain attention from other businesses within the same industry. This will help you build more connections within the industry and collaborations in the future with other companies through which you can bring exciting offers and events.
5. Create an informative blog
If you’re a small business planning to make your mark in the industry, starting a blog is a great way to do so. With an established blog site that has enough content, you get to increase your online visibility. Blog posts are a simple way to convey information to your audience or user base, which provides value. This strategy can be free or paid, depending on whether you plan to write your content or outsource it. If you’re nervous that you’ll be unable to create a good blog post, here is a simple trick to help you get started: write like you’re explaining a particular topic to your friend. It might sound too easy, but that doesn’t make it any more effective. Trust us, we know how to create valuable and high-quality content, if you don’t believe us, you can check out our client’s reviews and see for yourself.
6. Make your content stand out
This is not just about content marketing, it’s also about making the content worthy of marketing. When creating content, the primary goal should always be to provide value through information. The information in question should always be conveyed through simple terms and phrases that make it easy to understand for anyone who’s not even in the industry. When you answer people’s questions in a simple yet informative manner, Google admires your effort and rewards you with higher visibility for searches, bringing you organic traffic. Another way to bring traffic through content is to create guest posts on other websites within your industry that have higher authority. A good content marketing strategy is always worth the time and effort spent, which can give your blog site a competitive edge. Trust us, we are experts on this matter.
7. Create video content for your business
You could always create small but catchy videos regarding the different services or facilities you provide, and there is no need for any professional tools or fancy editing, either. A smartphone with a decent camera, simple edits, and social media apps should be more than enough. With videos, you can provide more information within a shorter amount of time. Also, sometimes it helps greatly when the audience can associate a face with the persona they see online. With every relevant video content, you can provide a strong CTA (call to action) to your audience, bringing you added traffic and sales. These videos are also a great opportunity to promote your services in a more catchy and friendly matter that is more likely to stick to potential customers.
8. Infographics are visual eye candy
If you have design skills, infographics can be a powerful marketing tool. Infographics are great for getting referral traffics and link building since anyone would share a good infographic. Even if you don’t have the budget for professional designers, you can use free tools like Canva to get started with a basic yet eye-catching infographic that you can host on your website and share on your social media platforms. If you don’t have original data, you can use pre-existing data to create an infographic that presents said information in a new light.
9. Your employees can double as brand ambassadors
For local businesses, word of mouth is one of the best methods to bring in more clients and improve sales, given that those types of referrals are more likely to convince someone to purchase a product or service. Encouraging your employees to tackle these word-of-mouth recommendations would turn them into brand ambassadors, and that would be a very smart business decision, since they are genuinely interested and invested in your business. When your employees work as your brand ambassadors, you instantly gain access to a vast new potential network and the probability of reaching a larger, better audience.
10. One-to-one marketing can do wonders
This is more of a personalized approach to your customer. Although we are aware that might be a time-consuming formula we can assure you it will also be worthwhile for retaining long-term loyal customers. When you’re making a thoughtful, personalized approach to each of your customers, they take you as a person who greatly values their professional relationship, and it improves your brand image. You get loyal customers by investing your time and next to zero money, making it a great return on your marketing investment.
11. Arrange webinars to reach a bigger audience
Don’t think reaching a single person is a great marketing tactic and a good investment of your time? You can always try to reach a bigger audience by hosting a webinar. It’s free, it provides value, and you get to connect to a bigger audience. What’s not to love? There are webinar platforms that allow you to broadcast your webinar. You can share links to your webinar on all your social media platforms and send out emails before the event takes place to make sure you have maximum attendance from your audience.
Photo by Malte Helmhold on Unsplash
12. Arrange social media contests and giveaways
The biggest investment you’ll have to make here is the grand prize of the giveaway. Depending on what you chose for a prize this idea could be costly, but it is still a great marketing tactic since you get a high return value with new connections and potential leads. You can arrange a contest even with simpler prizes, which helps a lot when you’re a local small business with a smaller budget. Your main goal is to get people interacting with your business and generate word-of-mouth publicity. You can also request the registrants of your contests to follow and tag your business. On that same line, you can tag other similar businesses or individuals on your contest posts to ensure more people are getting the word out there.
13. Use customer referrals for word-of-mouth publicity
You generate word-of-mouth publicity when you’re rewarding your customers with gifts such as free products, free service, or both. This can be referred to as a Customer Loyalty Program. When people are rewarded for sticking with your business, they are incentivized to continue purchasing what you’re offering, along with recommending others to do the same.
14. Use customer satisfaction surveys to connect to your customers
Customer satisfaction surveys give you an insight into the mind of your customers. When a customer completes a survey, you understand what they want and how you can improve your services to supply the demand. Also, customers feel appreciated when you consider their opinions. This is a net positive for your business, as you retain loyal customers.
15. Get a business card
We know this might look old school, people might showcase business cards in museums within a few years. I mean, how many are still carrying business cards nowadays? But hear us out: every confident handshake you make should accompany a business card that reflects your business. If you’re a local business, that could favor your authority-building efforts. People take an interest in businesses with an interesting visiting card, even when they aren’t interested in the industry. This is a simple yet great trick to increase brand awareness and pull in new customers simultaneously.
There are tons of different approaches you can take toward marketing your business, but keep in mind that the same thing won’t work for everybody. The only logical solution for that is to apply all the tricks you can, and watch your business skyrocket in no time! If these tips sound exactly like what you were looking for, it seems we might have a lot in common. In that case, you should contact us to learn more about everything we can do for your business. We know starting the journey of digital marketing can be challenging, but that doesn’t mean it should be impossible, right? We have different strategies and packages that could fit both your budget and your needs. Take a look at our website and book your free 30-minute strategy session where we will dig deep into every way in which we can help you, you can also give us a call at 647-955-4279 and learn more. Or simply follow us on social media, where we continually share our expert advice! Follow our lead and you’ll be the next big online business in no time.
Key takeaways
- Your target audience can get to know your brand’s personality through social media. Use it to interact with them through blogs, relatable social media posts, polls and forms, and more!
- Email newsletters are still an effective (and free!) marketing resource. Don’t forget to add them to your arsenal.
- Local SEO is one of the best tools at your disposal: use GMB and its listings to your advantage, cater your content to your target audience and keep it as local as possible, add location-based keywords to your localized content to boost your searches in your area.
- Showcase your business award badges on your website, this will help you get established within your industry and inspire confidence among potential clients.
- A well-written blog will help you increase your online visibility.
- Ensure your content is always valuable and informative: answer FAQ and make use of guest posts. Google will reward you with higher visibility for searches and more organic traffic.
- Create short and catchy videos that are relevant to your audience and include CTAs. Use them to promote your services and brand’s personality.
- A good infographic is the easiest way to get referral traffic and link building: people love to share this eye-candy content.
- Happy employers are likely to become brand ambassadors. Don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth referrals.
- A personalized approach to your customers through one-on-one marketing is a great way to get loyal customers.
- Sharing your webinar is a perfect (and free!) resource to reach a much broader audience.
- Social media contests and giveaways can help you boost your online presence, gain followers, new connections and potential leads.
- Encourage customer referrals (word-of-mouth publicity) through customer loyalty programs. People will be motivated to keep buying what you are offering and recommend others to do the same.
- Customer satisfaction surveys are a great tool to get to know your customers.
- Get a couple of business cards with your social media handles and business information on them. It’s an old-school trick that could help set you apart and favor your local authority-building efforts.
