18 Great Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

Capturing Customers Attention

Establishing a business is an important first step – but much more important is selling it to potential customers. You won’t make money if no one hears about your products or services.

These days, both experienced business owners and newcomers alike are discovering that it’s getting harder and harder to get customer attention. Big brands with huge marketing budgets are driving up advertising costs, and social media platforms are constantly evolving.

To succeed, you need to find a way to stand out from the many ads that customers see every day on their Facebook wall or online in Google search. Fortunately, we are here to help and have many new and different marketing ideas to market your business. In this article, we will present many creative ideas to effectively market your business without spending a lot of money – from creating an online catalog to hosting a webinar.

Best Marketing Ideas For Small Businesses

Simplify Your Branding

Marketing must not overwhelm the customer. Start by simplifying the visual features of your brand, such as your image, color choices, fonts, and overall look. Think about your logo and whether it conveys what your company is all about. Think in terms of available marketing channels – will your logo be visible in the footer if you’re focusing on email marketing?

Choose a design that is simple, clean, and fits your company’s style. If you make it easy for existing customers to understand and remember your image, it will be easier for them to recognize and remember your company.

For example, if you run a small jewelry store known for its simple, delicate designs, use these characteristics in your branding. Use a simple, beautiful name with a color scheme that matches the jewelry you sell. Play up the colors and shapes in the design of your website, and social media channels, so that you keep the look simple. This simplicity will not only make it easy for customers to recognize your brand but also make them feel sophisticated!

Start an E-mail Newsletter

An email newsletter is an effective way to promote your business. It allows you to keep your customers informed about your latest projects, sales, and future events. Start by creating an email design that is interesting and fits your brand.

Large companies can use newsletters to inform their existing customers about new offers, but small business owners can afford to get in touch. You can offer useful information, like practical tips and special offers, to get people to open and read your emails. Customers will be more likely to buy from your online store again if you regularly send them high-quality, relevant newsletters.

Optimize Your Website

One great free marketing idea is to optimize your website. Doing so will make it appear higher in search results and provide a great user experience. Part of search engine optimization is improving your keywords to include search terms that people use to find things related to your niche. Use these terms in your site’s content, such as in product listings, blog posts, and metatags.

For example, if your home jewelry store focuses on gemstone rings, use keywords such as “handmade gemstone rings,” “unique gemstone jewelry” and “custom gemstone rings” in your blog and product categories. Also make sure your site works well on mobile devices, as a lot of online traffic comes from them.

Create Lead Magnets

Lead magnets are useful tools or rewards that you give to prospective customers in exchange for their contact information. For example, in an online store selling handmade jewelry, you can offer free e-books with jewelry-making courses, accessorizing tips, or special offers. As you see, your lead magnets should fit your target audience and show off your skills and what sets you apart. You can promote these lead magnets on your website, via email marketing, on your social media accounts, and through targeted online advertising.

When people give you their contact information to get a lead magnet, you can add them to your mailing list and apply personalized marketing efforts to maintain the relationship. Thanks to this free marketing tactic you can build better recognizability and stand out from the crowd.

Take Care of Customer Service

Customer service is very important if you want people to trust and return to your business. Make sure that your customers experience only positive vibes from the moment they enter your site until long after they purchase something from you. Stay in touch with your customer. Address any concerns or problems with understanding and quickly find answers that everyone is happy with.

For example, if a customer receives a broken piece of jewelry, make it easy for them to return or exchange it. Include a handmade thank you note or small gift with each order to show that you appreciate their support. By providing excellent customer service, not only will you retain current customers, but customers will recommend you through word-of-mouth marketing, which can have a big impact on your business growth.

Publish Your Reviews

Reviews are what make people decide what to buy online. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on your website, social media, and review sites. Place these reviews prominently on your website and use them to make sales and in your marketing materials. If you have a blog or podcast, it’s worth promoting your content and encouraging sharing – add interesting content and people will share it.

Make a Referral Program

With referrals, you can take advantage of the power of whisper marketing. This marketing strategy allows you to create bonuses or rewards for your existing customers who tell friends, family, or co-workers about your company. This can take the form of discounts, points that you can redeem for purchases, special access to limited edition items, or loyalty points.

For example, you can give your users a code that they can share with friends. When this code is used to make a purchase, both the person who gave it and the person who used it receive a discount on the next sale. This will give your customers a reason to tell their friends about your store, which will attract new customers and increase sales.

Create an Online Product Catalog

An online product catalog serves as a virtual showroom for product offers. You can showcase your products and your offer for a specific season or occasion. Make sure to optimize each product page with compelling descriptions, multiple product images, and customer reviews to entice potential buyers.

To create a visually appealing product catalog, you can use our catalog maker. It will showcase your products and services with high-quality images, interactive videos, animated GIFs, and detailed descriptions. Thanks to our unique hotspot feature, you can allow the viewers to navigate with ease and visit each product page, as in the example below:

Publuu’s online product catalog example



View more online product catalog examples

CREATE YOUR OWN ONLINE PRODUCT CATALOG HERE

Offer Free Samples

Offering free samples is a good way to get people interested in your offerings and increase sales. Choose a few of your most popular or newest items and give them away for free to people who might buy from you. Show up at conventions, trade shows, and meetings – and give them away physically, or create a promotion online.

For example, you can run a limited-time offer where customers who spend a certain amount will receive a free sample of the product. You can also partner with celebrities or bloggers to hold contests. The more people mention your offer, the more profits you’ll make from whisper marketing.

Create a Contest with Your Product

Hold events to get people interested and get them talking about your store. For example, you can hold a social media contest where people have to share a photo of them wearing or styling your jewelry and tag your brand in the post. An item from your collection will go to the author of the post who gets the most likes or has the best comments. Such contests not only make your brand more visible but also make it easier for users to create content and give your brand a sense of community.

Automate Anything You Can

Automation can help you save time and money and improve the efficiency of your marketing efforts. Marketing automation tools and platforms will allow you to set up email campaigns, publish social media posts, and contact customers.

With tools like MailChimp, you can welcome new users, and contact prospective customers or people who haven’t visited your site in a while. Many free tools can help you with automation or a similar content marketing strategy. For example, you can use social media management tools to schedule and post changes ahead of time. By automating these tasks, you can work on other parts of your business while maintaining a solid marketing plan.

Host A Webinar

Hosting workshops is a good way to show your audience that you are an expert in your industry. Choose a topic that fits your brand and is of interest to the people you want to reach, such as how to style jewelry, how to learn about gemstones, or the history of jewelry. With the internet, you can arrange a live video broadcast where you show how to make handmade jewelry and talk about how you come up with ideas.

Start a Knowledge Base Blog

Set up a knowledge base blog on your website to share useful and interesting information. This way, the chance that someone will read your content increases. Write about what you know about. If you sell jewelry, as in our example, write how to take care of it, what are the latest fashion trends or what is the history of your unique designs. This makes you look like an expert in the field and provides free traffic to your site.

Optimize your blog posts for search engines, using relevant keywords and high-quality images to make it easier for readers to read. Add calls to action to your blog posts to encourage people to look at your products or sign up for your email address.

Network With Other Businesses

You need to make sure to build relationships and agreements with companies in your industry and related ones. For example, if you have a jewelry store, you could partner with a fashion blogger to showcase your jewelry in her styling videos or blog posts. Work with fashion stores or costume stores on mutual promotions, joint events, or product partnerships to reach more people and find new customers. In this way, you will leverage each other’s customers and build marketing opportunities that are good for both parties.

Conduct Social Media Campaign

Social networking is a great way to inform potential customers. Plan and run social media activities that fit your business and get the attention of the people you want to reach. With profiling, you can tailor your campaign to a targeted segment of the population. Social media platforms these days can cover most of your potential customers, so you need to specialize to utilize these marketing ideas. You can read more on how to create social media content ideas in our guide.

Collaborate with Influencers

Influencer marketing is a great way to get the word out about your company. It’s not hard to find celebrities whose beliefs match your brand and who have many followers. Contact various social media influencers and suggest working together on paid posts, reviews of their products, or prizes.

Send merchandise to people who have many followers so that they can show it off on their social media or YouTube channels. This will help their audience learn about your brand and use their power to generate interest and trust in your products.

Become a Sponsor

Look for events, group events, or local show events, which are important to your business and that you can support. This way you can show off your offerings, increase social media engagement with your brand and meet potential customers in a useful way. If you want, you can offer prizes, and free courses, or donate a portion of your sales to charity. Make sure the support matches what your brand represents and appeals to the people you want to reach.

Attend Industry Conferences

Trade shows and industry workshops are great places to meet new people and learn about the latest trends and developments in the industry. It’s a great opportunity to meet professionals, get knowledge from experts and show off your samples. Every visitor to these fairs will be your potential customer, so make sure your booth looks its best!

Summary

Small businesses face unique challenges when it comes to marketing on a limited budget. However, by implementing the marketing ideas listed above, you will be able to effectively promote your products without breaking the bank.

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