Small Business Marketing In 2024: The Ultimate Guide

Small business owners face the challenge of reaching out to potential customers through marketing efforts without the extensive budgets of large organizations.

Fortunately, a range of small business marketing strategies can help drive awareness of small businesses without requiring a huge budget.

In this ultimate guide to small business marketing, we’ll break down the tried-and-tested strategies you can use to reach your target audience and increase sales.

What Is Small Business Marketing?

Small business marketing is the process of using a network of business resources to build awareness and interest in a brand, increase sales, and reach more customers.

It can involve spending large sums of money on costly ad campaigns but typically works around a moderate budget and capitalizes on multiple channels.

While some traditional marketing strategies are still used, such as word of mouth and print advertising, small businesses tend to focus efforts primarily online.

This is accomplished through trial and error, measuring the performance of advertising spending and evaluating where to invest in the future.

It’s an essential practice for all small businesses, from businesses that run themselves to organizations requiring constant attention.

Why Is Small Business Marketing Important?

Whether starting a local flower business in a brick-and-mortar location or investing in a landscaping firm, engaging in marketing strategies is vital for landing customers.

In addition to reaching customers and building brand awareness, small business marketing initiatives can help give companies advantages that make the investment worthwhile.

Here are some other reasons why small business owners should engage in marketing efforts:

• Fostering customer relationships: While acquiring new customers from marketing efforts is a great result, businesses can promote healthy relationships through dialogue, creating a base of loyal customers.
• Gaining insights into consumer habits: Additional engagement with customers and the associated research needed to focus marketing efforts can yield insights into industry trends, customer motivations, and consumer trends.
• Enhancing business credibility: Small business owners can cement their reputation and build credibility in their community by delivering powerful and consistent brand messaging locally and online.

With cost-effective marketing methods for small businesses and free-to-use social media platforms available for ongoing engagement, little budget is required to deliver results.

Small Business Marketing Tools

With so many approaches to small business marketing requiring different procedures, managing everything can be a chore.

Fortunately, there are many excellent small business marketing tools that you can use to streamline your workflow and analyze campaign performance.

Let’s examine some core tools, from social media marketing to SEO and data analytics, that you can apply to your small business marketing strategy.

Social Media Marketing Tools

Your business social media accounts are central to implementing a marketing plan, driving traffic to your website, and raising awareness about your products and services.

Managing multiple social media accounts can be time-consuming, but there are several excellent tools for freelancers to help with the process.

Here’s a selection of essential social media marketing tools you can use to streamline your processes and keep on top of customer engagement:

• Hootsuite: Hootsuite can manage large volumes of social media content and schedule it over weeks or months.
• Canva: If you don’t have any graphic design skills, Canva is an excellent tool for quickly generating visual assets for marketing, such as logos and infographics.
• BuzzSumo: BuzzSumo’s impressive selection of tools allows you to explore data analytics related to social media marketing performance.
• HubSpot: A hugely popular resource for marketing professionals, HubSpot’s services and tools cover everything from inbound marketing to customer service.

You can sign up for free trials to see if these solutions are right for your business and monitor new tools adopted by marketing professionals.

SEO & Analytics Tools

Optimizing your content for search engines is another core process that helps keep your marketing efforts on track to deliver results.

It ensures your website traffic is as high as possible through optimal search results, and several tools can help you make informed decisions.

These are a few tools that can assist with your SEO strategy and data analytics to refine your strategy:

• Google Analytics: Google Analytics is the go-to SEO and keyword research platform. It is a tried-and-tested platform that delivers deep insights into the process.
• Surfer SEO: Surfer SEO can streamline the process of monitoring keywords in written content and ensuring it is fully optimized.
• Semrush: For an all-in-one SEO platform, Semrush has everything you need to deliver great results and is suitable for intermediate and advanced users.
• Moz Pro: For more advanced SEO specialists, Moz Pro includes excellent metrics, reporting tools, and an in-depth SEO tool suite.

As your marketing efforts evolve, your data analytics tools will be invaluable for assessing where to spend money on future ad campaigns and promotions.

Small Business Marketing In 2024: The Ultimate Guide

Whether you’re an established company with a base of loyal customers or a new startup without a business website, there are many options for marketing your brand.

Let’s examine how you can devise a marketing strategy that combines digital and traditional channels and matches your marketing budget.

Step 1. Research Your Competitors & Target Audience

All small businesses exist in a competitive marketplace with thousands of rival companies offering similar products or services while competing for the largest market share.

Likewise, determining who your paying customers are is vital for effectively using your marketing channels and maximizing your available budget.

Understanding how these two factors interact and developing a profile of your target audience is an essential first step in creating a marketing strategy.

Analyzing other businesses and their customers will help you determine how branding influences the demographics of a particular target market.

Here’s how researching your competitors and target audience will help prepare you to develop a focused marketing strategy that delivers results.

Competitor Research

Understanding how your competitors reach their customer base is essential for ensuring your marketing effort delivers the most significant impact.

If you’re running a self-care business or offering services in your local area, you can research other businesses that provide services similar to your company’s.

Examine how they use branding and slogans that capture the essence of their services and products, from the use of color and logos to keywords and phrases.

You can then refine your business’s marketing initiatives accordingly, creating a strong online presence that competes with your rivals.

Target Audience Research

Researching your target market is another vital aspect of the planning stage and involves assessing their demographics and what motivates their purchasing decisions.

Age, gender, income bracket, and geographical location are all valuable data points that can help with ad campaigns on social media platforms and elsewhere.

You can also read reviews of similar products or services to assess customers’ feedback and what pain points they’re looking to address.

This will give you a clear profile of your potential customers and help you effectively communicate to persuade them to invest in your business.

Step 2. Define Your Brand

Once you’ve developed a clear idea of what motivates your target audience and how competitors attract customers, you can start to define your brand.

Whether developing a brand from scratch or running an established small business, you should address your branding before initiating marketing campaigns.

Let’s examine three crucial brand elements to consider when defining your brand: purpose, identity, and voice.

Brand Purpose

The first stage in defining your business’s brand is determining the unique selling proposition that sets you apart from your competitors.

This applies to all business types, from rental businesses to online companies offering digital resources and downloadable products.

Brand purpose reflects the uniqueness of your product or service and why you’re passionate about delivering the best possible experience to customers.

Brand Identity

With your brand purpose clarified, it’s time to incorporate this into a brand identity that reflects this purpose at a glance through visual elements and wording.

Creating a compelling company slogan and accompanying this with a company logo and other design elements will help you connect with your target market.

Once you begin marketing campaigns, you can A/B test these assets to see which ones gain the most interaction with your audience.

Brand Voice

Lastly, you should pair your visual branding with a clear tone of tone of voice that captures the essence of your business’s style.

While banking businesses aim for a professional tone, small companies typically use a more casual and approachable voice that connects with customers.

Spend time investigating how your voice can work with other brand pillars to deliver a consistent experience for your audience.

Tip: Find out how to write a brand manifesto.

Step 3. Build A Website

One of the most essential features of any small business startup checklist is the website, which provides the central hub for many marketing strategies.

A business website is where your business’s brand can truly shine, presenting your core appeal and range of products and services for potential customers.

It’s also essential to content marketing and search engine optimization, placing your business prominently online.

Here’s how to build a business website with the flexibility and scope necessary to reach your target audience and drive online marketing.

Choose A Website Builder

When learning how to make a business website, choosing a website builder is vital for managing your assets and online marketing drives.

The best website builders offer easy-to-use drag-and-drop interfaces that don’t require any web development knowledge or experience.

They also allow users to manage their keyword research and SEO throughout the site to maximize their potential online reach.

Research the best business websites to see how your competitors present their brands, engage with visitors, and drive sales and promotions.

Recommended: Discover how to find out who designed a website.

Define The Structure & Pages

Once you’ve selected a website builder, the next step is to determine the site’s structure and the necessary pages to include.

A business website should begin with a visually striking home page and any other relevant content and landing pages showcasing your company.

If you’re a new business, check out the best startup websites and see what pages, media, and general information they include for visitors.

You should also ensure your business website has a press page you can use to present favorable media coverage that enhances your social proof.

Customize The Template

With your core website architecture established, it’s time to begin customizing your template and tailoring it to your business goals.

Template customization is straightforward, adding your branding elements and other information you want customers to see.

If you’re offering a service such as a food truck business or local restaurant, you should ensure your site has booking forms and clear contact points.

You can perform this customization yourself or hire a freelancer on a moderate budget to help you deliver professional results.

Check out Friday’s professional website templates.

Include An Online Store

Setting up an online store is another excellent way to maximize your revenue stream from potential customers alongside your marketing strategies.

Online stores are used by everyone from stay-at-home moms selling craft products to large-scale businesses with an international customer base.

They can be optimized for keywords to help improve your online reach and offer robust feedback features to help you engage with existing customers.

You can use your online store to sell physical or digital products, expanding your revenue stream and reaching customers outside your local area.

Test & Launch

Lastly, your business website must be tested thoroughly to ensure everything works correctly and no links are broken.

Most website builders include tools for checking site performance and security, so the process doesn’t require any technical expertise on your part.

Once it’s up and running, you can monitor performance and fix bugs or other issues as they arise to prevent visitor disruption.

Step 4. Use Content Marketing

Once you’ve made a website, you can use it as a powerful mechanism for content marketing to drive awareness of your brand online.

Content marketing covers a range of strategies based on the written materials on your website and other assets, including videos, podcasts, and downloadables.

You should approach your content marketing strategy with a long-term view, allowing time for content to reach your audience and register with search engines.

Content marketing materials can also be outsourced, with platforms such as Upwork posting freelancer positions that can help produce blogs and other content for you.

Write Blog Posts

Publishing blog posts is a standard method many small businesses use to drive website traffic and offer valuable insights to their customers.

It starts with keyword research and creating a content schedule around these words to increase the site’s reputation and reach online.

Many writers blog as a side hustle and can help with content creation, or you can write blogs yourself to bring a more personal touch to the content.

If your blog gains traction and brings in lots of readers, there are additional options for monetizing a blog you can explore to increase your revenue.

Create Videos & Podcasts

In addition to written content, you can expand your content marketing efforts by posting videos and podcasts that bring more value to your site visitors.

Start by understanding the difference between a blog and a vlog so you can adapt your marketing channels and optimize the content accordingly.

While videos and podcasts require more effort to produce, they deliver a broader level of engagement that writing alone cannot match.

Tip: Check out these inspirational podcast name ideas.

Share Free Resources

A business website is also valuable for sharing free resources that enhance a business’s value proposition and bring in loyal customers.

Free resources that can be included range from eBooks, infographics, and fact sheets to online classes and tutorials relating to the company’s products or services.

Learning how to create digital products is relatively easy, and free tools such as Canva provide design elements that can speed up the process.

These resources can then be shared through your business account on social media platforms, attracting interest in what you have to offer.

Use Affiliate Marketing

Lastly, an optimal small business marketing plan should include affiliate marketing as another cost-effective method for reaching a wider audience.

Affiliate marketing involves paying a small commission to other individuals or companies to promote their products or services to their followers.

Many excellent affiliate programs for all business types allow you to reach a network of potential customers on social media platforms and elsewhere.

These programs allow you to increase your brand awareness and credibility, reaching consumers who would otherwise be unaware of your business.

Learn more: Find out how much it costs to build a website.

Step 5. Promote On Social Media Platforms

A small business marketing strategy should include using a business website to drive awareness of your company and leveraging your social media channels.

Social media marketing strategies follow some of the same best practices as content marketing, including the necessity for regularly sharing content and engagement with the audience.

Before initiating social media marketing, you should establish the key performance indicators (KPIs) you want to meet and track these once campaigns are active.

All elements of your social media presence should be capitalized on, analyzing each platform’s performance to see where your budget works the best.

Choose Your Social Media Platforms

Maximizing your business’s social media strategy means choosing the best platforms for your target market to ensure the most expansive reach.

This means understanding the core demographics of each social media platform so you can focus your efforts on the ones that effectively reach your audience.

Platforms such as Instagram and TikTok skew toward female users, while YouTube is dominated by male viewers looking for different products or services.

As such, you should create content that appeals to your core audience and use your marketing budget to drive visitors from content on the relevant platforms.

Share Regular Content

Just as you should use your blog platform for content marketing and SEO strategy, your social media strategy should revolve around regularly sharing content.

This can be refined through A/B testing, which assesses the performance of your posts to see which images, descriptions, and other assets work best.

Avoid creating posts with excessive volumes of text that might fall under the “too long didn’t read” banner, keeping things to the point and complemented with attractive imagery.

You can also link your social media posts to your content marketing strategy and drive traffic to blogs and other landing pages on your business website.

Social media posts should also be varied and include resources, feedback forms, and other content in addition to directly promoting your business.

Read more: Learn how to start a photography business.

Partner With Influencers

With an increasing number of young Americans relying on social media influencers for their news, partnering with influencers is essential to a marketing plan.

Influencers cover all topics, from the latest fashion and healthcare trends to various hobbies and advice on professional matters.

Small businesses can seek out Instagram influencers in their field, sending them free products to review or offering other perks to save on their budget.

Like affiliate marketing, influencer partnerships are highly effective for directly reaching a target market and generating revenue.

Engage With Your Customers

Social media is about communicating ideas and engaging with followers, making it a valuable resource for launching conversations with your customers.

This begins with responding to comments in posts on Facebook, Instagram, and elsewhere to answer their queries and gather valuable feedback.

You can also use social media accounts to post surveys and other feedback mechanisms to help drive product development and refine a marketing plan.

Likewise, social media accounts can direct traffic to your business website, generating sales leads and building your site’s authority.

Learn more: Exploring the best ways to support small businesses.

Step 6. Implement Search Engine Optimization

No discussion of a small business marketing strategy would be complete without discussing the importance of solid search engine optimization across all channels.

Search engine optimization can be applied throughout a business website, covering text, metadata and descriptions, images, videos, and elsewhere.

It begins with robust and comprehensive keyword research, which can be used for blog content, page titles, and all social media posts.

To ensure your SEO processes remain optimal, you should stay current with the latest SEO trends and industry best practices used by professionals.

Here are some other methods you can use to ensure your website’s optimization for search engines is set up correctly.

On-site optimization

On-site SEO covers a website’s core architecture, ensuring that navigation, links, and URL structure meet the highest standards.

Website page speed is also addressed since this is a key element of how search engines assess a site’s performance and quality.

Duplicated content, dead links, and broken redirects are checked and repaired to ensure the highest online ranking and visibility.

On-page optimization

On-page optimization takes a similar approach to on-site optimization, checking the accuracy of meta descriptions, meta tags, and other elements.

Keyword optimization, tags in the content management system, and image file names all play roles in on-page optimization to ensure optimal performance.

External and internal links, multimedia assets, and content length are checked, with longer, well-written content performing the best.

Backlinking and link-building

Links are another vital element of search engine optimization, improving the site’s authority, particularly when those links are from high-quality sources.

Topic relevance and the level of trust in a domain significantly impact search engine ranking and form the backbone of the link-building process.

Marketing professionals frequently use guest posting, editorial content, and outreach initiatives to increase their link-building strategy.

Content optimization

We’ve explored the importance of content optimization for improving a content marketing plan, but it bears exploring in more detail in the context of SEO.

Keywords, image optimization, and metadata all play a role in delivering fully optimized media content when addressing SEO.

Google Analytics and other tools are excellent resources to improve the content optimization process and deliver results that count.

If the website has an online store, another useful strategy a small business owner can adopt is to use search engine optimization for the inventory.

The best website builders integrate comprehensive SEO tools into their online stores, allowing in-depth keyword application throughout the content.

Artificial intelligence assistant tools can help with keyword research for product titles and descriptions and ensure all metadata and page elements are fully optimized.

Create an online store with Friday’s e-commerce tools.

Step 7. Leverage Alternative Marketing Strategies

While content and social media marketing are at the forefront of most small business marketing initiatives, other strategies can also deliver impressive results.

If you’re running a worthwhile but boring business or a small B2B enterprise, these alternative and traditional strategies can reach new customers.

While the budget allocation for these strategies might be lower than for digital marketing platforms, it is worthwhile to experiment with them and assess their viability.

Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing campaigns have been widely used since the early days of the Internet and continue to be a dominant element of most marketing plans.

They can directly reach many potential customers, making them a powerful way to communicate new releases, promotions, and other brand updates.

There are plenty of excellent email marketing software choices to help manage large databases of contacts and automate newsletters and other important announcements.

It’s also possible to purchase large databases of emails for business-to-business sales and marketing or to reach out to consumers looking for what you have to offer.

Read more: Find out how to sell websites to small businesses.

Print Advertising

There can be a tendency to focus most small business marketing spending online, but traditional print advertising should not be overlooked.

This is particularly true for small local businesses in the service sector, such as bars and restaurants or companies offering trade-based services.

Print-based advertising, such as distributing flyers in shopping centers or posting ads in the local newspaper, can significantly benefit them.

Handing out flyers is exceptionally cost-effective, and there are plenty of beginner jobs for the role on Fiverr and similar platforms.

Broadcast Advertising

Like traditional print media, terrestrial broadcast services and radio stations have been losing their audience due to social media and the internet in general.

That said, television and radio advertising still have a time and place where it is practical, particularly for local businesses that want to target an older demographic.

Local stores, restaurants, and other service providers can get great returns on their investment, spending some of their budget on radio and local TV spots.

They don’t require the excessive budgets that national television adverts demand and can be tailored to hit the airwaves at peak points in a schedule.

Event Marketing

While traditional print advertising works best for service-based local businesses, event marketing is tailored toward companies in the B2B market.

Trade shows and industry-specific conventions can be ideal for setting up booths or paying to put up banners and attract attention from potential clients.

Indeed, events can be an integral component of a company’s growth marketing strategy, reliably generating networks of contacts in your industry.

Entertainment-based events and conventions also benefit businesses that sell books, movies, and merchandise to niche fan audiences.

Step 8. Use Paid Online Advertising

There are many ways small businesses can increase brand awareness and generate new customers without spending money on advertising.

However, expanding your customer base through word of mouth and engagement will only go so far, making spending on paid advertising inevitable.

Taking the time to track down the best places to advertise your business where readers are looking for your products or services will ensure that your budget is used wisely.

Here are some cost-effective and proven approaches to paid advertising you can include in your marketing plan:

• Paid search ads: Paying for search ads is one of the most common approaches to online marketing. Ads appear at the top and bottom of Google search results. They’re easy to set up and use keywords to drive traffic, offering a decent click-through rate and good value for money.
• Display ads: Like search ads, display ads are another valuable, cost-effective promotion method capable of reaching a large international audience. Although Google must approve display ads before they’re initiated, they offer great potential for building brand exposure and clicks.
• Remarketing ads: If your business website receives large traffic volumes but does not get the required engagement, you can use remarketing ads to increase conversion rates. The process requires a remarketing code from Google that can be added to a campaign and tracked for audience insights.
• Google Shopping ads: If you’re a small business owner selling products online, you can invest in Google Shopping ads to place your ads in search results relating to the product. It can directly display your prices to the audience, increasing the likelihood of clicks and purchases.
• Local service ads: Small businesses offering services in their local community can reach out to residents through local service ads. These ads are commonly used by electricians, locksmiths, and other tradespeople, and they have rolling campaigns that reflect the evergreen nature of these services.

Some or all of these paid advertising methods can be combined to determine which approaches deliver the best return on your investment in advertising spending.

Recommended: Discover the top subscription business model examples.

Step 9. Establish Business Networks

The importance of networking to a company’s success is relevant to all business owners, whether a small-scale solopreneur or an entrepreneur backed by investors.

Networking allows business owners to directly connect with other businesses that can help them improve their processes and reach potential customers in their target market.

It’s also one of the more affordable aspects of small business marketing that doesn’t necessitate an extensive budget to put into action.

Here are some networks you can access to improve your marketing strategy and build a database of valuable business associations.

Local Networking

Small businesses operating locally can increase their network of contacts by attending various local networking events in their town or city.

If you’re a member of a professional body related to your industry, you can learn about networking events through the associated website.

Many networking resources online list in-person events, particularly for those operating in major cities in the United States.

Building such networks can also be improved within your company, such as brainstorming contacts with your employees and drawing on their past work experience.

Conferences & Trade Shows

Thousands of conferences and trade shows are held annually across all business sectors, and attending these offers vast opportunities for valuable networking.

Before you attend such events, set clear goals and research the speakers and companies you’d like to connect with in advance.

Consider crafting an elevator pitch that concisely reflects your company’s unique positioning and practice delivering it persuasively.

Take the time to share contact details with those who might be able to assist your business or offer valuable insights into the industry and trends.

Online Networking

If you don’t have the means or time to attend in-person events or want to expand your options, you can engage in various online networking practices.

There are many dedicated websites for industry-specific networking, forums, and message boards where you can converse with like-minded people.

Such networks are ideal for international companies that conduct most of their business online and those starting a business with no money.

There’s no limitation on how online networking can foster professional relationships and discover deep insights into your company’s operational processes.

Step 10. Refine Your Marketing Strategy

Implementing a successful small business marketing strategy is ongoing, requiring constant refinement based on various feedback and metrics.

For this reason, a compelling and well-considered marketing plan is vital for acting on the information that becomes available once campaigns go live.

This ability to adapt quickly is essential for marketing strategies focused on scalable businesses, which require a dynamic approach to growth.

These are some ways you can refine your small business marketing strategy in the short and long term based on actionable information and precise data.

Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is received through various channels, from social media pages and website comments to direct communications and customer support.

As such, managing feedback can be overwhelming, with many small businesses turning to virtual assistants to help them manage replies and address complaints.

It does, however, bring considerable value to a company’s campaigns, including:

• Allowing the business to refine its target audience and the core demographics that must be emphasized.
• Helping business owners better understand the customer’s primary needs and how their products or services can be improved accordingly.
• Creating an environment where the customer experience can be used, such as improving the website.
• Rapidly addressing customer concerns that might impact the favorability of the brand and deter other potential customers from investing in the products or services.
• Updating the overall tone and messaging of future advertising campaigns to ensure they best reflect the brand’s core appeal.

Responding and adapting to this customer feedback is an ongoing process, with each refinement improving the results of future campaigns.

Data Analytics

With multiple data points and extensive metrics to work with, comprehensive analysis can further help optimize a small business’s marketing budget.

Here are some of the key data points that can be analyzed to improve your marketing strategies:

• Analyzing key performance indicators, including desired click-through rates, conversion rates, and customer acquisition costs.
• Checking the company website for retention and churn rates and assessing which calls-to-action deliver the best performance.
• Reviewing the performance of A/B testing for adverts to see what text descriptions and visual assets elicit the best response from the audience.
• Using data analytics tools to measure return on investment across all marketing activities to determine future spending better.

Small business marketing continues to evolve in line with emerging business intelligence and advanced analytics, so it pays to stay abreast of the latest trends.

Explore Friday’s competitive pricing.

Summary

Running small business marketing campaigns requires timely management of multiple factors and the ability to assess results and refine processes.

Following the marketing strategies outlined in this article and analyzing their impact will increase your online reach without the expense of hiring a marketing agency.

As your small business grows, you can redirect profits into additional marketing drives that raise brand awareness and attract new customers.