Tight budgets and a lack of resources are two common problems small businesses face when trying to successfully market their products. It can be easy to get discouraged with your marketing efforts, but there are a lot of things your small businesses can do to improve your marketing. The best part is, a lot of these tactics are affordable.
In fact, a list of 24 business marketing tips was put together in the Small Business Section of foxbusiness.com. You can see the entire list here. Here is some additional information on a few of the tips they shared.
Aim for the Heart, Not the Mind
It’s important to make your marketing messages resonate emotionally with potential customers. If you can connect to potential customers’ pain points and show them that you understand their problems or frustrations, you’ll see a significant increase in quality leads. People want to do business with companies who understand them.
In an article for entrepreneur.com, Susan Gunelius wrote, “Think about how you feel when you hear marketing messages and how those feelings affect your own buying decisions. Just like you’re moved to action by an emotional response to marketing messages, so are all consumers. Your copywriting should accomplish two goals: It should make consumers feel something, and it should make them act on those feelings.”
Be Consistent
According to the Pulse Marketing Agency, 3 reasons exist to be consistent in your marketing efforts. Consistency will differentiate you from your competitors, increase customer recognition, and reinforce your identity.
McDonald’s has the arches, Geico has the gecko, and Progressive has Flo. All 3 of these marketing tools are instantly recognizable and promote familiarity with their respective companies.
For small businesses, staying consistent is imperative. You operate in a small but crowded space. Promoting the same message, logo, and taglines can do wonders to establish your brand as an authority within your niche.
Don’t Mimic Your Сompetitors
Your company is unique. You may offer a product similar to your competitors, but it’s not quite the same. Just as your product isn’t identical to your competitors’, your marketing tactics shouldn’t be either.
Your brand should be fresh, new and exciting. If you truly want to best your competitors, you shouldn’t be mimicking them—you should be striving to outdo them.
Get to the Point
A large problem marketers face these days is grabbing the attention of potential customers. Mountains of information are available at a moment’s notice, and customers are being absolutely bombarded by messages. If your marketing messages are going to stand a chance of getting noticed, they need to be succinct and valuable.
A blog post on crazyegg.com goes into great detail about grabbing the attention of potential customers. Scott Martin, the post’s author, offered up this tip that all marketers should take to heart: You don’t have to get super-creative to grab someone’s attention. Just make a point no one else is making.
While your small business might have fewer resources and less money than your competitors, you still have ample opportunity to create focused, successful marketing materials.
You can view the entire list of 24 marketing tips here.