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Are you implementing a SMB marketing strategy for your business?
This is a term that refers to the method by which small and medium sized companies market their products. Obviously, they try to do it using a conservative budget, and they are constantly on the lookout for low-cost ways to convert and get sales.
Here are 7 proven SMB marketing strategies that will help push your brand while you save.
7 Proven SMB Marketing Strategies That Will Work For You
1. Setting a Goal and a Budget
To market your business right, you need to set a goal. What is your vision and endgame for your business? The primary SMB marketing strategy is to set the right goal and a reasonable budget.
What do you really want to happen? Are you looking to expand your company’s reach, or do you want to strengthen your hold on the local market? Do you want people to become aware of your brand?
All these are valid goals, of course. But as you set the goal or goals that you want to accomplish, you also need to think about your budget. Your budget needs to be in sync with what your goals are. At the same time, it needs to be realistic and practical.
The thing is, your goals will not be relegated to just one or two. It is likely that you have several. To avoid confusion and to make it easier to track your growth, you have to prioritize your goals. Which goal matches your most pressing need? Identify that and focus on it first. Then you can set your sights on the long-term goals that you consider to be the most important for your business.
2. Maximize Google’s Local Offerings
You can also take advantage of Google’s local offerings. With Google being the largest search engine available, it can definitely offer a lot for small and medium-sized businesses. Having an online presence is a big boost to any SMB, which is almost always a local business. In fact, when you compare a business that is found online with one that is not, the one found online will grow 40% faster.
That makes a Google My Business account indispensable for an SMB. For a local business that targets local clients, this is a powerful tool. By having a Google My Business account, you can take charge of the information about your business. That includes address, phone number, website, and hours of operation.
Google My Business is also the best place for you to combine all your Google platforms, which include your Google reviews, Google Maps profile, and many more.
3. Choose The Top Social Media Channels To Focus On
If you are an SMB and you are a little short on personnel, then you might not be able to keep up with all your social media channels all the time. Choosing just one to three social media channels to focus on seems to be the wiser choice.
Start by analyzing your overall presence on social media. Which of the channels feature the highest number of engagements? That should be your clue about which channel you need to choose.
Once you have made your choice, then you can turn your sight to the possible tools that you can use for help. For example, you might want to have someone else take charge of scheduling your social media posts for you. Hootsuite is your best tool for that. Or maybe you want to monitor the keywords that you use. Then Mention is the tool to use.
4. Content Marketing
Content marketing is useful for getting long-term results. So if you have a long-term vision for your business, then this is the perfect SMB marketing strategy for you. You need to understand that it is a process in which you have to create content that is
Valuable
Relevant
Consistent
Once you have created great content, you need to distribute it to your target audience with the intention of it leading to sales. Please note that content marketing is not limited to written content or blog posts. It can include several different types of content, such as videos, podcasts, and many more.
Speaking of producing content, one of the best types of content that you should invest in are videos. Videos can take your content marketing to the next level.
Also, the best thing about these videos is the fact that you can share and promote them on multiple social media platforms.
5. Email Marketing
Email marketing is another great SMB marketing strategy that helps you establish a connection with your target audience. Or even beyond that connection, email marketing is best used to build loyalty. The perfect opportunity to do this is when your customers send their email addresses.
The fact that they provide their email addresses opens the door for you to send them notifications. Take note that these should be event and sale notifications. Other than notifications, you can also choose to send newsletters. Either a weekly or bi-weekly newsletter will do the job for you.
A business that takes the time and effort to connect with its customers has a better chance at building loyalty and engagement. Just a couple of reminders, though:
Make sure that your email marketing efforts are mobile-friendly. More and more people are checking their emails on their phones, so this is a good move.
6. Blogging
You can think of blogging as a creative outlet. A lot of people do it for pure fun, but it is also useful for exposing and marketing one’s brand. Start a company blog where you can show just how great your product or service is. Explain how it works and show that you are knowledgeable about your industry.
A blog is also a great place to make announcements. You can tell your audience if your company hit a milestone or is about to hit one. It is also the best place to announce future and completed projects along with your vision for the future.
Fill your blog with useful information that also catches your audience’s interest and attention. Aside from making sure that you only provide quality content, you also need to be consistent. It will help your audience if they know when they can expect a new blog post from you.
If you get a new blog post out at least once a week, then that will be a great way to keep your audience informed and connected to what you are doing.
SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization and can be a great asset to your SMB marketing strategy. SEO helps your website rank on Google for certain keywords. Keywords are the words and phrases people search on Google. For instance, if you type social media marketing company into Google, LYFE Marketing is the first organic (unpaid) result to come up.
Though SEO is a long term strategy, it’s good for SMBs who need to start establishing themselves within their industry. When someone searches something on Google that’s relevant to your product or service, you want your website to pop up!
It’s also great for SMBs with a limited advertising budget because you can out-optimize your website from big-spending competitors to still beat them in the organic rankings! Plus, consumers often trust the first few organic search engine results on Google just simply but Google ranks them first. So envision that trust automatically being associated with your brand and business!
Conclusion
You see, small and medium businesses do have it tough. They obviously face more challenges than companies that have a surplus of resources. But with the right SMB marketing strategy, you get a chance to at least be on the same level as the larger businesses.
All it takes is to make the right choice about which SMB marketing strategy to use. They are not always easy, but with all of them proven, they could just be what you need.
Source Credit: https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/smb-marketing/
