Attention Small Business Owners! You CAN Compete with the Big Fish!

With tight budgets and limited time, small businesses often struggle to stand out against the competition. But with a little innovation and elbow grease, a small business can improve their visibility and remind consumers why they should be chosen over the larger fish in the pond.  The following business marketing ideas can help make your business one to remember.

Get Involved at a Local Level

One of the best budget-conscious marketing ideas is to look at ways to increase your involvement in the community. It can be through volunteering, hosting a networking event, or sponsoring a fundraiser. This kind of community involvement proves to be invaluable for a multitude of reasons.

In addition to the obvious benefit of increased brand awareness, these activities can also produce valuable connections that might never been created. More important? More community involvement and interaction increases the likelihood of local websites and social media sites mentioning your business.  This provides Google with valuable signals to help boost your business’ appearance in the coveted Google local search results, ultimately helping you gain more potential customers.

Repurpose Your Content

Recycle and repurpose content to increase ROI. Recycle content by updating a popular post. For example, take one of your most popular posts from last year, update that article with new, relevant information and republish it.

You can also repurpose by posting the same content in different formats. For instance, take an article and create a podcast using the same information. Recycling and repurposing content stretches ROI.

Make Sure your Website is Current

Does your website look like it hasn’t received an update in decades? Make sure your site is using the most current technology.   There are many platforms available to make your website stand out and that are easy to use on the back end.  If you need help designing and providing content for your website, contact the experts at SK Consulting.  Websites don’t have to be difficult to be effective.  If you don’t have an updated website (or a website at all), people will take notice – and not in a good way.  After all, you don’t want to spend so much effort driving people to your website if it sucks.

Be Strategic, Realistic, and Consistent With Your Organic Search Marketing 

Using a blog on your website for content marketing is a cost-effective business exercise. Also, you do not have to be a magician to rank highly for keywords on Google that will deliver sales. Perform a detailed keyword analysis of your competitors and write content for long tail keywords that have less competition to start with. Even when competing with players with larger marketing budgets, it is possible to build up organic visitors to your website over time. Know your message and understand what you want to be known for.

Tell People You Can’t Help Them

Remember, not everyone is your customer.  No matter what you’re working on or offering, you can’t help everyone. No product or service is perfect for every person and every situation.

Instead of hiding flaws or issues, be open and transparent about them, so when you talk about the benefits of your business, people will believe you. And the funny side effect is that you’re likely to turn those who are not a good fit with your business into your advocates.

Write a Mini-eBook

If you have a fresh, controversial, or unique solution to a problem in your industry…write a book! Advances in digital publishing have made it possible for just about anyone to write a book. As a product or service provider, you can use your book as a key piece of your publicity strategy. Launch your book, and your brand goes with it!

Encourage Customers to Review Your Business

Increase positive customer reviews! A 2016 BrightLocal study revealed that 84 percent of consumers trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations, and 74 percent say that positive reviews make them trust a business more.

Remember, negative reviews can severely damage a brand’s reputation. Consumers are more inclined to share bad experiences than good ones. That’s why it’s important for brands to be proactive about getting positive reviews. If you provide great service, the ask shouldn’t be a hard one to make.

In fact, according to data from that same study, 7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review if asked to do so. In addition to improving your brand’s online reputation, businesses with a higher number of positive reviews may also rank higher in search results.

Find Your Niche

Focus on a specific niche within your industry. For small businesses, it can be challenging to compete with larger companies that are established and have access to more resources. One marketing strategy for differentiating your business is to carve out a small niche of customers.

Rather than market your product or service to everyone, narrow your target down to a limited segment of customers. As your business and brand grows over time, then you can look for opportunities to expand your customer base.

Re-think Mobile

Mobile is becoming more and more popular not only for searching the web, but also for making purchases. With mobile payments increasing, consider other mobile purchasing trends, like buy buttons. These tools are increasing as customers are feeling more comfortable purchasing on mobile devices. This means that purchases might be made more directly through websites and social platforms like Facebook. Utilize mobile marketing to ensure that you are giving your customers every opportunity to purchase. Adapt to their needs.

Blog with a Purpose

Show your customers that you are relevant!  Don’t just write a blog to write a blog or to sell, sell, sell.  The biggest mistake small businesses make is when they create content to try and sell instead of help. Write content that actually adds value to your readers. Don’t worry about giving away any secrets you may think you have, just focus on helping your audience. Every time you write something before publishing it just read it and ask yourself: “is this helpful?” Keep blogging.  Be consistent.  Inbound marketing is a long-term commitment with a huge payoff.

Ideas?

These are some pretty great small business marketing ideas, if we do say so ourselves. And there are plenty more.  How do you effectively and efficiently market your small business?  If you don’t, contact us today!  We’d be happy to help you take over the pond and enter the ocean! 

Putting the Personal Back into Personal Branding

There’s no denying the importance of personal branding. After all, branding is largely responsible for the message your name (and face) transmits to the world. Because of this, it’s vital that your brand is built on authenticity and engagement, rather than half-heartedness and complacency.

For many up-and-coming entrepreneurs, consciously making an effort to build a personal brand takes a backseat to other items on their never-ending to-do lists. In their minds, personal branding will take care of itself.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth.  You need to know that everything you do, both intentionally and not, contributes to the way others are perceiving your personal brand.

Whether through social media, influencer marketing or some sort of media outreach strategy, personal branding is an active endeavor. Still need some convincing? Below you’ll find four hard-hitting reasons to give your personal brand some time and attention.

1. Sales is a human-to-human endeavor.

There’s no greater tool in a salesperson’s arsenal than trust, especially if your business makes its money on the internet. How does an entrepreneur go about building that trust? Personal branding.

It’s imperative to understand that sales is a human-to-human affair. Though there are tools out there that help automate important sales processes, you must present your most genuine self to connect with people on an emotional level.

Whether you're connecting eye-to-eye, voice-to-voice or merely message-to-message, peel back the curtain ever so slightly. It might not provide an immediate marketing return, but it will get other people to help you build your brand.

2. You are the media.

Thanks to blogs, podcasts and social networks, you don’t have the option to sit idly by and wait for others to mention your brand in the media. Yes, PR still matters, but many companies today are media companies first and money-making entities second.

Branding certainly works on a macro level, but it works on a micro level, too. Your personal brand matters. To strengthen it, recognize that you -- not just that team of interns you recently hired -- must provide value as an active media member to make people remember your name.

3. There’s too much noise to be conservative.

Thanks to the internet's sheer volume of content, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. That's why you have to make a good first impression, whether trying to get an Instagram user to stop scrolling past your content or convince a search algorithm that you’re a uniquely valuable resource. 

With social media, people and businesses are constantly talking over one another.  Your potential customers have to resonate with something you post and want to learn more.  If you don’t have the right messaging, the right tactic and the right timing, your attempt to ‘jump into’ the conversation will fall on deaf ears.

4. You're always branding yourself.

In today’s day and age, you no longer have a choice about personal branding.  The world is far too connected for you not to be transmitting some kind of personal message with your actions.

If you decide not to actively participate, people will take notice, and their professional opinions of you aren’t likely to be favorable. Without control of your personal brand, your image stands on shaky ground.

Invest in your brand. That way, you not only invest in yourself, but also in the people you lead and the organization you represent.  Don’t expect business to just come to you or that people will stumble upon your website and decide to do business with you.

You are the best PR, marketing and sales person for your business.  While the digital age definitely consumes us, there is something to be said about the old-school, hand-shake, meet and greet.  Get to know your potential customers.  Let them get to know you.  If you are authentic and true to the brand that you want to promote, you will leave them wanting more.

If you or your business need help developing your personal and professional brand, contact SK Consulting today!

Quit Monkeying Around: Guerrilla Marketing Works!

The competition in the business world is fierce, and it’s hard to come by the profits you aim for. This is especially true for small businesses which don’t have huge resources to invest in marketing at their disposal. That’s why you need to get creative.

When the classic strategies aren’t delivering, you send in the guerrillas. They’re the extra-special forces – the ones that implement killer strategies to turn the tide and defeat the enemy.

Guerrilla marketing techniques involve low cost campaigns that aim at promoting products or services to a smaller demographic. But the novelty lies in the approach – they use unconventional and surprise methods to do this.

What good can it do for your business?

Enhance customer base. Guerrilla marketing aims at three things – attracting new customers, urging old customers to buy again, and making them pay money for more. But they do it in a way that surprises and delights them.

Suppose you own a café. A good strategy to attain profits will be to offer free cookies with coffee for a customer who comes in with two friends. You will earn three customers at one go, and will benefit from the deal.

Or, suppose you have a salon. To attract people, offer a free pedicure with a beauty treatment package. It will lure them in, enhance your customer base and add to the profits too. And the cost of the free item service won’t matter when you get more customers.

Create collaborations. Guerrilla marketing doesn’t always involve freebies. You can think up as many ways as you can to achieve your goals. Try to have collaboration with another business that attracts the same customers as your business does.

Suppose a florist shop is just around the corner on the same street of that of your café. Why not try to collaborate with them? Offer a discount coupon for your treats for people who buy flowers from them. And in turn, attract their customers to your café.

Competition exists. And it will always do. But if you can come up with advantageous collaborations and manage to implement your guerrilla marketing tactics to them, every participant can profit from it. Just give free reign to your creativity.

Save money! Traditional methods of marketing require a lot of money, be it a print ad or an online one. The greatest advantage of guerrilla marketing is that the methods are almost always low or even no cost. That means a serious saving.

Any business should create a Facebook page and promote products or services on it. And circulate your innovative ideas on it. It will be much easier to spread the word about your latest offer and at no additional cost.

Also, most guerrilla marketing tactic isn’t dependent on much for success. Do you really need to have huge money or resources to announce a promotion that anyone wearing pink on a particular day of the week will get a free dessert? No, you don’t!

So, where do you start? Well, do it whenever and wherever you want.

The basic idea of guerrilla marketing is to surprise the customers. And whether you dress up or ask them to dress up, whether you arrange a raffle or organize a tasting session, it won’t have too much effect on your monetary resources.

Just ask your employees to come up with marketing ideas that don’t need to spend much. Engage in brainstorming sessions. You will be surprised at the suggestions you may get. Also, take a cue from businesses that have done it with success.

Guerrilla marketing isn’t just for small businesses. Any business can use unconventional means to attract customers, new and old. If you would like to find out how guerrilla marketing can and should fit into your overall, plan contact us today!  www.stonekingconsulting.com