In this article, you are going to learn everything you always wondered about small business marketing like how to do marketing on a small budget, which digital channels are worth important, how to grow fast, and whether to outsource your marketing work to a digital marketing agency or keep everything in-house.
What do you need to know about small business marketing (post pandemic)
1. What Do You Need To Know About
Small Business Marketing? (Post-
Pandemic)
In this article, you are going to learn everything you always wondered about
small business marketing like how to do marketing on a small budget,
which digital channels are worth important, how to grow fast, and whether
to outsource your marketing work to a digital marketing agency or keep
everything in-house.
Content [ hide ]
1 Understanding Small Business Marketing
1.1 Small Business Marketing Before The Internet
1.2 Small Business Marketing After Internet
2 Small Business Marketing Problems
2.1 Problem 1) Limited Budget
2.2 Problem 2) No Marketing Team
3 Tips for Small Business Marketing
3.1 Don’t Target Every Channel
3.2 Don’t Ignore Brand Building
3.3 Time Versus Cost Tradeoff
3.4 Start With a Channel That Can Increase Your Revenue in Less Time
3.5 Don’t Fall for Spammers
3.5.1 What’s the price of that website to that entrepreneur?
3.5.2 Was that small website development worth it? No!
3.6 Consider Marketing as an Investment
3.7 Little Marketing is Better Than No Marketing
Menu
2. Understanding Small Business Marketing
Small Business Marketing Before The Internet
Before the internet became so popular, small businesses weren’t so
obsessed with marketing. Traditional marketing is quite expensive and
generally doesn’t suit the pockets of many small business owners.
In those days, word-of-mouth was the form of marketing every small
business owner relied on.
Word-of-mouth marketing still remains crucial for business growth.
But when your customers stop visiting you in-store and you don’t get a
chance to charm them with your hospitality, the environment of your
store, or the touch and feel of your products, you need to start
exploring some other options.
Another form of marketing that remained widely popular among small
business owners as direct mails. Surprisingly, many non-tech-savvy
businesses are still relying on it.
Do people still read their direct promotional emails when they are
bombarded with ads left, right, and center? I doubt! All the direct mails
I receive directly end in my trash bin.
3. Also, who sends direct mails in times of emails?
Adding to the marketing strategies employed by small businesses,
we have a distribution of brochures, pamphlets, and 몭yers. If you’re
choosing direct mail in the digital age, you’re trying to reach the
Maldives on your horse rather than taking a 몭ight.
I don’t even remember the last time I paid attention to any brochure. In
addition, let’s not forget that we can’t reach a lot of people by
distributing brochures.
There were other forms of advertising prevalent in those days as well
like billboard ads, radio ads, and TV ads but unfortunately they needed
big investment.
Small Business Marketing After Internet
As soon as the internet became popular for marketing, it has opened
many doors for everyone including small business owners. Now, they
were not dependent on just expensive forms of advertising to reach
their audience. Surprisingly they can reach their audience with a $200
Facebook ad.
The ad budget can’t get lower than that. It’s unbelievable compared to
what businesses spend on TV, radio, and print advertising so far.
I know what you all must be thinking now. “That $200 is nothing. I
can start advertising right now.”
Unfortunately, when things get cheaper, the competition gets tougher.
Earlier, you might be the only one in your neighborhood selling home
decoration products. Now, there are many more. Many don’t even have
a physical store but have a virtual store or a website. While many others
are not in your city, they can be anywhere on this earth. And they can
still lure your customer away by shipping their products internationally.
Not to mention, that the internet and globalization go hand in hand.
4. Now, I can order beautiful artwork from China without ever leaving my
apartment in New York City.
When the competition gets tough, $200 doesn’t remain $200. So
many factors start deciding whether or not your $200 is going to
bring you a customer or not.
It is because of all these complexities that before you start working on
your small business marketing plan, you need to understand the
prevalent industry issues and how you can 몭nd your way around them.
Small Business Marketing Problems
Problem 1) Limited Budget
Unlike medium to large businesses that have a dedicated budget for
their marketing needs, small businesses 몭nd themselves struggling
with marketing budgets all the time.
Not just they need marketing, but they need it within their budget.
A low budget comes with its own kinds of problems. Many marketing
strategies become out of their scopes like a good video ad, PR, and
5. even effective social media advertising.
I have got calls from many business owners who wanted to implement
so many marketing strategies but their budget only permitted them
Amazon ads or Google ads.
Problem 2) No Marketing Team
Running a small business means that you won’t be spending your
money and energy on building your marketing team. Building a
marketing team isn’t that easy. Furthermore, it’s very expensive.
You will need a marketing manager, a marketing assistant, a content
writer, a copywriter, a social media manager, a graphic designer, a web
designer, a data analyst, an email campaign manager, and many more.
The more quali몭ed professionals you try to hire for your business, the
more you will be required to pay them. If you can’t do that, then you
will be required to adjust to mediocracy.
Add salaries and other expenses of having so many employees like
health insurances, laptops, a bigger of몭ce. Don’t forget the downtime
in the forms of sick leaves and vacation days. You will be spending a
minimum of $500,000 a year to build a basic marketing team.
Having not enough budget, it will be a great idea to partner with a
marketing agency rather than building a team as you will be able to
achieve mind-blowing results in just 1/6 of that cost.
Tips For Small Business Marketing
6. Keeping the limitations a small business faces in mind, here’s what you
have to do:
Don’t Target Every Channel
You want to do email marketing, content marketing, Google
advertising, Amazon advertising, Facebook marketing, and
advertising, Twitter advertising, Instagram video ad campaigning,
display advertising, YouTube advertising, Podcast advertising, and
what not.
I know the temptation to be on every channel (as every channel helps a
business in one way or another) is enormous. But you also need to be
realistic.
If your budget allows you only Amazon and Facebook ads at the
moment, then start with that. Don’t try to decrease their effectiveness
by diluting your budget on other channels or working with a non-
expert marketing agency. You can always add more channels later.
There are a few marketing agencies who will promise you everything in
a cheaper package but you will not get the same results that you could
have got by working with an expert agency on just one channel.
And how could you? Imagine a doctor who can straighten your teeth,
몭x your decaying teeth, help you with your muscle problems, can even
perform heart surgeries when needed, and even plastic surgery. To
your disappointment, there are no such doctors. Maybe quacks. As
7. everybody area needs specialized knowledge and experience.
It’s the same for a marketing agency as well. A good
marketing agency will provide you specialized care in
every 몭eld – email marketing, content marketing,
advertising and more. But specialized work comes with a
price but the effectiveness is always guaranteed.
So, it’s better to start work on one marketing channel but the work
needs to be effective. You don’t have to be on Facebook, just because
everyone is there. You have to spend your time there if you can use it in
the right way to promote your business. Otherwise, you will just 몭nd
yourself wasting your time and energy without anything in return.
Don’t Ignore Brand Building
Whenever we think of branding, we think of big brands like Tesla,
Apple, Nike. We never imagine small businesses working on their
branding.
What we forget is that these huge brands aren’t built overnight. We
didn’t wake up one day and realized that an unknown car company has
transformed into Tesla. It’s a long work of branding which started a
long time ago but is showing spectacular results now.
You’re not a brand now. But you should aim to be one someday. Time
plays an important role in brand building as it is a long process. So, why
not start the process no?.
Now comes the talk of how to afford it. I am not saying that you have to
get expensive branding services. I know you’re not there yet. But why
not take care of small things like your website branding, social media
branding, etc..Something which is more affordable and is in your
control.
For that, you can even take consulting help from a marketing agency.
You will be able to get a direction from them.
8. Bizadmark provides branding consultancy to small businesses and
entrepreneurs, so they can one day see themselves as a well-known
and extremely-loved brand. We guide businesses about their brand
identity, brand story and a lot more than that.
Time Versus Cost Tradeoff
Time versus cost tradeoff is something very important that every
small business owner needs to understand.
Let me explain a little more. This tradeoff means that you have to
sacri몭ce one or the other thing. It can be delaying your business
growth and holding on to your money right now, or investing your
hard-earned money to see the business grow sooner
You can grow faster with a bigger marketing budget or you can opt for
slow growth with a limited budget.
When I say time versus money tradeoff, I mean how much time will it
take to see results and how much money you will be required to spend
for that, provided the marketing strategies implemented are effective.
You can either run a multi-million dollar TV ad campaign and generate
tons of brand awareness in a day or you can run $100 Facebook ad
campaigns for 몭ve to ten years.
Who do you think will generate more fame in a shorter amount of time
– a fruit drink company running a Super Bowl ad or a fruit drink
running a small budget Facebook ad?
So, it’s good to set your expectations straight before you work on your
marketing plan. You won’t be able to become a million-dollar company
with just a few hundreds of dollars spent on your marketing strategies
every month.
It’s good to start even on foot rather than
to wait, but it’s also smart to remember
9. Start With A Channel That Can Increase Your Revenue In
Less Time
Working with a limited budget means that there won’t
be enough cash lying there all the time. To keep the cash
to wait, but it’s also smart to remember
that you won’t be able to cover the same
distance in the same amount of time if
you were driving a car. Setting realistic
goals will increase the… CLICK TO TWEET
10. 몭owing, you have to make sure that you start with a
marketing channel that can start bringing you money in
the shortest amount of time.
I generally suggest my small business clients start their marketing
journey with Amazon ads, Google ads, or Bing ads (whatever applies
to their business needs.)
These are the marketing channels where customers go with the intent
of making a purchase. So, chances of making a sale get higher. Rest all
the other channels are effective but not as fast as these three.
If your budget permits even more, then you can add other strategies
like running Facebook ads, Instagram ads, or something else. But
remember to include the money-making strategies 몭rst.
Don’t Fall For Spammers
When the budget is low, you will favor more towards working with a
digital agency that can offer you the cheapest package. Let your
budget constraints don’t show you a myopic view.
Many agencies can promise you results with their cheaper packages
but what’s the catch there? Have you wondered about that? The
Internet is not a palace where everyone is who they claim to be. There
are scammers, cheaters, manipulators and we still end up falling for
them sometimes because they offer us the lowest prices.
I’m not implying that they all are wrong but what I’m saying is that
make sure you’re talking to a real person who you can trust. Start by
checking out their social media pages, LinkedIn pro몭le, and internet
reputation by doing a quick Google search.
I get emails from various companies all the time and many times when
I match their email addresses or their email signatures with their social
media pro몭les, something seems missing.
People can attract you with lower prices but remember that prices can
11. be low but the 몭nal cost can be high. This is something that you have
to always analyze.
Let me tell you more about it.
One of my clients once hired a web development agency for his
website. He wanted to launch the website 몭ve years ago. The launch
date was decided which was coinciding with a big event, so it can
create the much-needed buzz in the smallest budget.
That web agency offered the lowest quote, so they were offered the
project. They were supposed to 몭nish the project in two weeks but they
were working on the project for almost three years.
Finally, frustrated with that, the project was handed over to another
web development agency. This time the quote was almost double the
previous company’s quote. Unfortunately, this time also, the website
work was stretched for another year. The project remained incomplete.
What’s The Price Of That Website To That Entrepreneur?
What he paid to the 몭rst company plus the time that was wasted plus
the energy lost plus the loss of an exciting opportunity to launch plus
the frustration of working with unreliable companies like those plus
the loss of motivation to work on the project. Now double that number
as the second company also was not what they claimed to be.
Was That Small Website Development Worth It? No!
At last, the website was offered to Bizadmark. We 몭nished it in two
weeks as we promised. We didn’t charge as little as those two agencies
did as we pride ourselves on our expertise and experience but we gave
what the client needed the most – peace of mind and trustworthy
partnership with a marketing agency.
Consider Marketing As An Investment
12. Sometimes to save our money, we take the wrong decision like
skipping marketing completely. Various harmful thoughts start
haunting us like why to even spend money on marketing as the results
are not so fast and it just feels like an added expense?
Marketing is not an expense. If you want to have a
successful business, remember that marketing is always
an investment and never an expense. Investments take
time to show results but they work and that’s why we
still continue to invest our money rather than hiding it in
our closets.
So, become more patient with your marketing strategies.
Treat those just like a stock market investment. You will be surprised to
see when your returns will just multiply all of a sudden, just because
you once invested in good marketing.
Little Marketing Is Better Than No Marketing
Marketing is an ongoing process. So, don’t think you’re going to do
marketing for just a month and if you won’t see any results, you will
stop. Then maybe think about it next year.
A little marketing every month is way better than no marketing at all.
13. A little marketing every month is way better than no marketing at all.
Imagine marketing as working out in the gym. If you do a few ab
exercises today and then do your next set of exercise next year, then
you can’t expect to have a beach body in a few years. You need to work
on your abs more often. Similarly, you have to do marketing more often.
Small business marketing is very crucial but it needs to be effective.
Now, you’re better prepared to work on your marketing plan and how
to target various digital channels within your limited resources.
In case, you need expert small business marketing consulting services,
reach out to us and we will guide you through the entire process.
Go Organic And GMO Free!
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