3 Marketing Tools All Small Businesses Must Have
Let me know if this situation sounds familiar. You’re a small business owner and you know you need to generate more interest to bring more customers through the (metaphorical or actual) door. You do a quick Google search and are quickly bombarded with roughly a kajillion different options and how-to’s.
Well, that didn’t help. Information overload.
So where do you even begin when you’re trying to manage the day-to-day of your company while also getting it to grow?
Getting Started with Small Business Marketing Tools
Ok, let’s start at the beginning. Marketing your small business is a little bit like packing for a vacation. You start off with just a few essential items - 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of shorts, a dress shirt and casual shirt, - and then you have options you can build from. Same thing with marketing tools. Start simple and it lays the groundwork for things to come. The good news is that most companies already have some or all of these marketing tools. It’s just a matter of using them effectively.
#1 - An Optimized Website
I know what you’re thinking. Everyone has a website. And for the most part you are right. But many small businesses (and plenty of larger businesses for that matter) are just going through the motions. Their website is almost a vanity exercise and doesn’t serve the purpose of driving growth in their business.
What you actually need is a website that is optimized to attract visitors and then capture their attention (and maybe even contact information) once they’re there.
Lots of people talk about SEO (search engine optimization) and there have been a plenty of blogs written about it. If you’d like to read up on SEO from some trusted industry leaders, check out What is SEO? by MOZ and The Ultimate Guide to SEO in 2020 by HubSpot.
But the type of optimized website I’m talking about goes beyond SEO. It gets into the information/content you include and having your site structured in such a way as to maximize the number of conversions.
Once you have a more optimized site, you’ll start seeing a higher number of visitors and more people taking the actions you want them to take.
#2 - Email Marketing Tools
How effective is email marketing? Think about this for a minute. According to a study done by Litmus, a leader in the space, companies earn an average of $42 for every $1 they spend on email.
Every small business needs to have a platform where it can communicate effectively through email with its prospective and current customers. The good news is that small business email marketing tools are widely available and very affordable.
Here’s the challenge. In order for your email marketing efforts to be effective, you must have an email strategy. It can’t just be a blanket sales message to your entire database. You have to cultivate an audience of opt-in contacts and deliver them messages that create value for them.
#3 - Social Media Tools
Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest - and the list goes on and on. There are so many options it can make your head spin. Where do you even start?
The first thing for small business owners to consider when it comes to social media tools is your customer base. Who are they and which social media platforms are they most likely to be using to learn about the products/services you offer?
Let me give an example, if I’m the owner of a local fitness studio, I’m not going to devote any effort to building my LinkedIn presence. It doesn’t make any sense. My customers aren’t looking for me there. I’m more likely going to focus my attention on building out my Facebook, Instagram, and maybe even YouTube.
Once you have made the decision which social media outlets to use and optimized your accounts, it opens up many other doors on those platforms. That’s when you can start using advertising, retargeting, messaging, and a whole host of other tactics to drive demand for your small business.
Putting it all together
So you’ve gotten your website optimized, email marketing platform set up, and social media accounts established. Congratulations! What’s next? Now you can begin developing a plan to put each of these small business marketing tools to good use with a cohesive strategy.
