Effective marketing strategies can significantly promote the growth and success of your small business. While word of mouth can help boost short-term sales, you’ll need to set a marketing budget and develop a strategy to promote sustainable growth. If you’re just starting out, here are some simple and affordable tips to market your business on a shoestring budget.
Practice Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Today, the average business devotes approximately half of their marketing budget to online marketing. Online marketing strategies like search engine optimization (SEO) promote growth by boosting organic traffic and helping small businesses reach their target demographic.
To practice SEO, start by perfecting your brand. As a small business, your brand should give potential customers an idea of what to expect from your products and services. Creating a strong brand will also distinguish your business from competitors. Additionally, create social media accounts for your brand. Posting content across your social media accounts on a consistent basis can promote your business and drive potential customers. To drive organic traffic, consider writing blog posts that specifically target your desired audience.
Because search engines like Google and Bing tend to index user-friendly websites more efficiently, optimizing your website can help your business rank higher in search engine results. Potential customers should be able to access information on your website with ease. To make your website more SEO-friendly, place keywords throughout your website and integrate a mobile-friendly design.
Prioritize Customer Service
Providing an exceptional customer experience can give small businesses an advantage over the competition. To improve customer satisfaction rates, start by reducing response times. According to a study by Nielsen, 33 percent of customers would recommend a brand that was quick to reply, even if the response was incomplete. In comparison, only 17 percent of customers would recommend a brand who was slow to respond but provided a comprehensive response.
Although it’s not possible to solve every issue quickly, customers appreciate receiving a prompt response. Call center software reduces caller queues and call wait times, allowing customers to receive a quick response to their issues. Interactive voice response systems (IVRs) create personalized customer experiences by routing customers to the agents best-suited to solve their issues. To find out more about flexible call center software pricing, check out Bright Pattern.
Self-service options are also becoming increasingly popular among today’s customers. Integrating self-service options including an online library of tutorials, virtual agents, and troubleshooting information can further boost customer satisfaction. Self-service options enable customers to solve their issues without the help of an agent.
Start A Rewards Program
For small businesses, starting a customer rewards program is an affordable way to grow a loyal customer base. According to a recent report by Motista, customers with an emotional connection to a brand have a lifetime value four times higher than the average customer. Additionally, research has shown that over half of customers will join a customer loyalty program if given the option.
Consider creating a customer rewards program that incentivizes online reviews and ratings, as well as friends and family referrals. Your business will enjoy trustworthy and authentic reviews, which will drive organic traffic and encourage potential customers to purchase your products and services. Friends and family referrals are also a trusted form of advertising and often result in customers that are virtually free of cost to your business.
For small businesses, finding the money for marketing can be challenging. Golookup, an online resource database, can help small businesses find missing money, or uncollected property or unclaimed funds waiting to be collected, to fund their marketing budget. All in all, following these tips can help promote the success and growth of your small business regardless of your current marketing budget.
