As a small business owner, you are likely looking for growth hacking strategies for your venture. Well, marketing with a limited budget requires that you get innovative and practical. You must separate what works on paper and those that work in real practice. Frankly, some marketing strategies will see fruition while others will fail to register any significant or meaningful return on investments. This now brings us to what marketing strategies actually work for small businesses. Let us decipher some of the proven hacks that will do the magic in growing your small business. Let’s get started.
- Tap into Social Media
Social media is one of the most inexpensive yet effective marketing strategies for various types of businesses, including startups. The beauty of social media is that there are plenty of social media platforms and your potential customers are there. Yes, social media is booming, and it’s just the start! No wonder every other smart business is spreading its wings online with social media these days. By focusing on target audiences on social media, you stand a chance for more leads and eventual customers. Post your products on social media platform groups, create groups and add people, and ask for referrals. You may not realize the immediate impact, but the patience will pay you eventually.
- Use Cross-Promotion
Cross-promotion and business partnerships are strategies that have been for long in marketing. They still work! You are perhaps wondering what cross-promotion partnerships are all about. Now, it is quite simple. It is a marketing approach where two or more brands come together to help expose each other’s products/brands with the aim of increasing the market and value of their products. This creates a win-win scenario for both businesses rather than competition. Cross-promotion can help your business grow, but only if you do it right.
For example, you have to find the right partners for your campaigns to deliver the ROIs you are looking for. Luckily, there are cross promotion experts that can help grow your small business on a budget. Hiring a pro will help you leverage cross-promotion without so much hiring in-house talent. They also know the right connections and match-ups that will work for your small business.
- Build a Community with Paid ads
Again, one major constraint of a small business is the slim financial muscle. Well, building a huge community might require you to fork more cash, and this may suffocate your business financially. Nevertheless, you can still reach and build a community without digging so dip into your pockets. You can use paid ads on various platforms to build your digital presence. Think about LinkedIn ads and other social platforms where you can tap the target market. There are several benefits of paid ads that are worth your budget. Another plausible way to create a community is to upload free offers and even create your own hashtags to reach more prospective customers.
- Think about Referrals
With online transactions growing, every business needs referrals. At the end of the day, a customer wants to see the value for money on the product purchased. Some products will look ideal on the online platform but then look far from ideal when delivered. Other businesses will exaggerate their product to make it eye-catchy only for customers to put thumbs down upon delivery. These situations frustrate customers, and they end up seeking referrals to credible sellers.
So, if you tap on referral-based marketing, you can easily get target customers. If they like your product, then the referral chain extends. In the end, you can convert some long-term happy customers. If people have good reviews about your product, then you would probably have more referrals. Try providing discounts, trial versions for your product, and do brand awareness to offer more flesh to your referrals-based marketing.
- Use SEO
It is also time to rank higher in search engines to get more traffic to your small business. Although Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may be the slowest digital marketing method, it is no doubt, works in the long term. Write more content on your web pages leveraging keywords and other SEO strategies. With time, your SERP rankings will improve, and you can fish more leads and customers for your product.
Final Thoughts:
As you might have noticed, there is no single stand-alone effective strategy for marketing your small business. Tap into some of these strategies and try to find the combinations that work for your venture. Try out new techniques, experiment, rinse, and repeat!