What is the best way to market your business? There are plenty of ways to promote your business, whether on social media or in the local community.
In this blog post, you will learn 20 tips on the best way to market your business which I have grouped into categories.
The Best Way to Market Your Business
The best way to market your business will vary depending on factors such as the type of business, the products or services you offer, your target market, and your budget.
However, some general tips for marketing your business effectively include developing a strong branding strategy, creating compelling marketing collateral, utilizing social media and other digital marketing channels, and building relationships with key influencers in your industry.
By taking a holistic and strategic approach to marketing, you can create a powerful marketing mix that will help you reach your business goals.
How to Promote Your Small Business on Social Media
Social media is a free way to spread the word about your business.
Using a combination of social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram is the best way to promote your business. Don’t forget to use niche-specific sites, such as Tumblr or Snapchat, to reach a wider audience.
Using social media to promote a business can be very effective, but each business is different. Here are some basic tips to get started.
1. Make Facebook a Priority
Using Facebook Ads, you can target potential customers with similar interests to yours. You can also promote your events and run Facebook Live videos.
Don’t forget about Facebook advertising!
If you’re looking to market to a specific group of people, then Facebook ads are the way to go. You can narrow down your audience based on things like their gender, age, location, and interests, so you can be sure you’re reaching the right people.
2. Connect and Contribute on LinkedIn
Joining groups on LinkedIn is a great way to connect with others in your industry, as well as potential business partners. By joining and participating in discussions, you can build relationships with others that can lead to new business opportunities.
Prospective customers can check you out before doing business to see how big your company is and who the employees are.
You can build credibility for your business by contributing to LinkedIn groups and providing valuable insights. Just be sure you’re not only posting your own content or only sharing your own links.
3. Promote Your Business With Video Marketing
Using video to market your company is a great way to reach a large audience of potential clients or customers. By posting videos on YouTube, you can show people what your brand is all about and encourage them to connect.
You can include it on your home page or in your emails to prospective clients. This is an effective strategy to give customers a preview of what your company is all about.
Posting informative, useful, and educational videos are a great way to build credibility and trust with your potential customers.
4. Advertise on YouTube
Using targeted ads and eye-catching videos, you can advertise on YouTube to a large audience at relatively low costs.
Using YouTube video advertisements can be an effective strategy if you produce video content that is related to what your audience watches. You can also target users who are searching on YouTube for relevant terms by using text-based ads that appear alongside their search results.
5. Engage Your Audience on Instagram
Despite only being launched in 2010, the social media platform Instagram is now the third most used social media network.
With its variety of post types (like stories, IGTV, and live broadcasts), there are tons of ways you can use Instagram to engage your audience and grow your business.
To engage with your Instagram audience, you can post sales and promotions with relevant, popular hashtags. You can host a contest for a free or discount product or service. Or, you can offer advice or tips that establish you as an expert in your field.
6. Share on Twitter
You can tweet about your products and services, and target 18-24-year-old users.
You can advertise your goods and services.
Or, you can simply ask your customers in the area to drop by.
7. Try Pinterest
While primarily being about sharing and pinning pictures, you can link back to your own website, giving you the chance to generate more traffic.
If your business targets women, then you should consider creating a presence on popular social media sites, such as, you guessed it, PINTEREST!
8. Explore the World of TikTok
Launched in 2016, the social media app Tik Tok has quickly grown in popularity and now has more active monthly users than Twitter, Linkedin, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
The easy-to-use video editing features of TikTok make it a great platform for any business looking to dip their toes into creating video content.
You can start promoting your new TikTok channel across other networks by creating how-to videos, tutorials, or behind-the-scenes videos. This will help you attract new viewers and followers who are interested in what you have to offer.
9. Join Online Communities
If you want to succeed in the business world, one of the best ways to do so is to help others. Get involved in LinkedIn, Facebook, and Reddit user communities, and help people out with their problems and issues.
Not only will doing this help you build up a good reputation, but it will also ensure that your business information is seen by people who are looking for it.
Helping other people out is a great strategy for getting ahead and advancing your career. What you do for another person often comes back to you.
Remember that while you may be answering one customer’s question, there are likely thousands of others watching you and what you do.
10. Look for Influencer Collaboration Opportunities
Influencers are people within your industry who have a large following and can help promote your business.
While they may not be celebrities, they are well-respected, popular, and trusted experts.
Mentions by influencers with large social media or blog followings are a great way to promote your business to a wide audience.
Influencer marketing is a careful process that, if done correctly, can pay off in a big way.
Before contacting an influencer, make sure you familiarize yourself with their social media accounts, comment on, share, and like them, and make sure you have a specific request and something of value to offer in return.
Offer them a month of your service for free if they write you a glowing review on their social media and mention it on their blogs.
Or, you can write a high-value guest post for their blog that links back to your own website.
11. Invest in Social Media Advertising
Social ads are one of the most forward-looking, highly utilized, and lucrative types of digital advertisements.
More than 3.6 billion people use Facebook, and it continues to evolve and offer users ease of use and great value for their ad dollars.
Social media ads are an effective way to reach your target audience. Some of the benefits include the ability to target users on the platforms they frequent most, cost-effectiveness, support for your content, building loyalty, and tracking analytics.
How to Promote Your Small Business in Your Community
For local businesses, their local community is critically important to their success.
Businesses that operate in the physical world, such as retailers and restaurants, understand that customers value location. Even those businesses that focus on the world as a whole still have a strong connection to the place where they operate.
Let’s discuss a few ways you can promote your local business.
12. Get Local Press
Getting your business featured in local media outlets can be intimidating, but in actuality, they are always looking for new ideas.
Consider reaching out to local news outlets and contributing a news article—it could be anything from a thought leader article to a resource list to a newsy update on your company.
If you’ve created an interesting story for your business, you may be able to get it covered by journalists or bloggers.
Getting a local writer to cover the event for you is a fantastic way to get the word out. And, it’s completely free for you!
If you have some extra money to spend, you could hire a PR firm or invest in an app that will spread the word about your business.
If the budget is tight, you can write your own press release and publish it on sites like PRWeb.
These press releases are a good way to get media coverage and links to your site.
13. Form Partnerships
Partnering with other businesses can be a great way to increase your visibility within your local market. Once you have established a working relationship, you can promote each other’s businesses through email lists, in-store promotions, or social media. Be creative in how you promote the business to maximize its benefit.
14. Expand Your Network
Attending networking events can be a good way to increase your company’s exposure in your community. This works best for businesses with a physical location.
If you want to provide services, such as consulting, to businesses or individuals, then in-person networking events will be more beneficial than if you only sell your products through an online store.
For instance, building relationships with people face-to-face can help you build more trust, which is essential for any relationship.
Every type of business network is helpful, even if it’s simply sharing ideas with other entrepreneurs.
Marketing techniques that cost little to nothing, like direct mail, can be very effective.
15. Host, Attend or Sponsor Local Events
Hosting or attending an event is a fantastic way to connect with others in your community and get the word out about your business.
Holding your own event can be a great way to meet new contacts, and you can do it at your own place. You can even host classes at local venues, such as schools, libraries, or other public locations.
Use the time you invest in creating a class by having someone else record you, then upload the video to your website and YouTube.
16. Direct Mail Is Still Alive
Despite the growing popularity of digital marketing campaigns, physical mail can still be an effective form of marketing.
One of the challenges of direct mail is that it’s hard to control who receives it. You’ll need to send out a lot of mailers to generate any responses.
The benefits of using direct-mail marketing campaigns are that it’s a very predictable process and that customers tend to respond very well to it.
Holiday gifts are a good way to show your customers that you appreciate them. They’re also a sneaky way to encourage your happy customers to promote you to their family and friends.
17. Advertise Online and Offline
Advertising through newspapers, magazines, and TV are other common ways to advertise. If you are thinking about advertising through any of these methods, make sure you track the effectiveness of your ads so you know if they are working.
Other Effective Ways of Promoting Your Small Business
These final three marketing tactics are the least important, but they’re still worth knowing about.
18. Attend Trade Shows
If you are trying to sell your product to a national retailer, then going to an industry trade show may be your best option.
Before investing in a tradeshow, it can be beneficial to attend as a visitor. This will allow you to see if a tradeshow is a good fit for your business and your goals.
If you’ve already got a good relationship with a company, you might be able to hang out with them at their booth for a portion of a trade show, where you can learn from them, and maybe even promote your own company.
19. Send Promotional Emails
Despite email marketing being around for ages, the strategy has become less effective over time. 77% of consumers prefer to opt-in to receive emails about promotions as opposed to other means of communication.
Emails are popular for both businesses and consumers.
Because people are constantly checking their inboxes, email marketing is a great way to reach your audience. You can target specific segments of your lists, and you can easily track the success of your campaigns through in-depth analytics.
20. Turn Your Employees Into Advocates
By treating employees well, they will naturally become advocates for your business. Hold brainstorming sessions with your team, encourage them to write blog posts, hold fireside chats, involve them in community events, and run family and friend promos—they will respect you and, in turn, the company.
You can then encourage social media sharing and equip them with news and tools to effortlessly spread the word about your business.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that social media is the best way to market your business. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore other means of promoting your business. Try our 20 tips if you want to take your marketing efforts to the next level.
