With the end of the COVID pandemic in site and much of the COVID-19 financial stimulus finished in March, there is no better time to boost your sales and get that forward momentum happening for your business with some small business marketing.

So what can you do to boost your revenue without boosting your costs as well?

Here is a list of small business marketing tips you can implement now so your business can jump right into growth.

#1. Learn From Your Competitors

You should put aside a few hours every month to keep up to date with your competitors and what they are doing. On your list of businesses to keep an eye on should be businesses that you perceive are more successful than your own as well as the ones on par. Even a business or two outside of your location but in a similar demographic area can provide you with some great ideas.

The trick is not to copy them but to get inspiration from what they do and don’t do. To find your points of difference.

A lot of the research can be conducted online. You can tell a lot about a business’ marketing efforts just by looking through their website, their social media and Google. Below is a list of what to look for;

• Look at how strong their branding is through their website – what colours, themes, taglines and logos. Are they consistent? Are they effective? Do they often update their site?
• Check out the content on their social media channels, how often they post, what they post, how many followers they have, how fast they are growing and how effective is their engagement i.e. how many reactions to each post. You should be able to gauge the reach of their post by looking at the likes and comments. You can learn pretty much all their marketing efforts simply by following their social media as this is the place where all the marketing activity will be published.
• Sign up to their newsletter if they have one – this way you can see how they communicate with their customers.
• Check out their online collateral – look for blog pages, e-brochures to see how effective they are with their content strategies.
• Research the effectiveness of their SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) through a Google search of your industry in your city, suburb or town as well as “near me” to see where they are ranked organically and whether they are paying for google search ads.
• Search their name to see what comes up and go through to their website to see whether you are served ads from them at a later date.

There are also online tools that can help you save time with your competitor analysis, after all, you don’t want to be spending all your time watching your competitors business instead of building your own. Here is a list of on-line tools you can use to analysis your competitor activites.

If you’re a location based business, you can visit other stores to see what they have, how they present their products, what promotions they are running and how they manage their loyal customers. Through this you can judge quality, service, aesthetics and other factors that may help you understand how to differentiate your business.

Make sure you document your findings to ensure you can see the evolution of their marketing plan. You can create a chart of your strengths and weaknesses in relation to your competitors. For example, you might find that you are the only cafe in your area that is not offering a loyalty program and therefore may decide that its time to join the fray. Just make sure you do it better!

By tracking your competitors, you will learn to understand the do’s and the don’ts of your small business marketing strategy

#2. Learn From Your Customers

Having worked in the customer service industry for many years, the number one lesson I learned, above all others, was to listen to your customers. They are the best ones to tell you whether they like your marketing initiatives, your products and services, your online presence and they will also be the ones to spot potential issues like errors on marketing material, potentially offensive or inappropriate content and poorly worded promotions. Whether positive or negative, all feedback is relevant and useful.

Make sure you read comments on your online channels and ask your shopfront customers for feedback. The negative comments should be seriously considered to see what you can do to reduce their dissatisfaction to ensure they will shop with you again. The positive comments should always be appreciated and shared. If someone has made a positive comment about your products or your service, ask them to share this comment through Google reviews and ask them whether they are O.K. with you adding them to your testimonial page. This not only helps improve you image, it will also improve your SEO. Crucially, all comments should be acknowledged when its appropriate to do so. By responding to your customers you are letting them know that you are listening to them and this will encourage them to continue to provide you feedback, and keep them returning to your store.

#3. Build a Strong Online Presence

Once you understand what your competitors are doing and what your customer want in the online space, you now have an indication of where you should be in terms of your online presence.

Your online presence is one of the most important parts of marketing today. Any business, no matter what you do, will benefit from being online. Whether its Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or even You Tube, Clubhouse or Tik Tok, you will be able to attract new customers in your area and beyond by being present online. If that isn’t enough to convince you, let me give you a few statistics that might.

A word of warning! If you decide to get your online presence up and running, make sure you do it right!

Nothing screams “bad for business” quite like a unanswered message, an out of date website or an unused social media channel.

Only set up a Facebook page if you have the time and the inclination to post at least a couple of times per week. Sign up to Instagram only if you can produce decent images of your products or your business. Make sure your webpage content is updated often and relevant to your customers, and that it contains, not just information about your business, but also information your customers will find interesting and engaging.

#4. Collect Reviews & Testimonials

A crucial piece of your online presences is online reviews, not only does it help with your SEO and Google ranking, it will also ensure new customers will be more comfortable purchasing from you, especially from an online store. Research shows that 94% of consumers say that reading a positive review makes them more likely to use a business. If you think about your own purchasing behaviours, how many of you seek out a business based on the advice of a friend or colleague? Professional organisations like lawyers, accountants, doctors, dentists all rely on word of mouth and reputation to bring in clientele.

Having positive reviews of your business is an incredibly strong tool, so make sure part of your marketing strategy is to collect reviews from your current customers. Pick one or a few platforms to direct people to e.g. (Yelp, Google my Business, Tripadvisor, Facebook). As people often need a little nudge to share their opinion, make sure you make it as easy a possible to do so. Provide the link in an email. Tell them it will only take a moment of their time and make sure you get permission to also use their review as a testimonial on your website.

But don’t get them all at once!

The aim of getting reviews is not to ask for them all at once and then do nothing more. You need to dripfeed these reviews so that they are regular and consistent. That way you will ensure your reputation in Google is optimised which will in turn, will optimise your SEO rankings.

#5. Get Press Coverage

Yes folks, that’s right – traditional media is not dead! And depending on your target audience, it can be a very useful marketing tool.

I’m not talking the big media giants like The Financial Review, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian or any of the free-to-air television networks. Whether you are in the city or the country, pretty much every local area will have a local paper and a local TV news. These media channels are looking to cover local news and want to support local business, after all, the newspapers are most likely one themselves.

Many businesses have heartfelt origin stories; you’re taking over a business that’s been around for over 50 years, you lived elsewhere and decided that you loved this town/suburb and thought you could make a positive contribution to the community. You were over “working for the man” and decided you were capable and brave enough to branch out on your own. Providing the narrative is crafted correctly, and is of interest or relevance to locals, the local paper may just think it’s interesting enough to print. Even the local TV news might consider a really interesting origin story.

If you think you have something of interest to share, contact different media outlets and see if they are interested. At a minimum they’ll say no, but if they say yes then you could be providing your business with some cheap publicity. Be prepared for a little quid pro quo, spending a little money on advertising will help get your article published.

Do the work for them

Make sure its as easy as possible for them to say yes, if you are approaching a newspaper, prepare your story yourself and provide them with amazing visuals (professional photos will help). Think about what could possibly be of interest to the local readers and read a few issues of the papers you are approaching to see what kind of articles they will be looking for. They will appreciate the work you have done for them and you will make it much easier to get your article published quickly.

#6. Make Your Customers Say WOW

If you’re anything like me, you are great at promoting other businesses but not so hot on promoting yourself. But don’t despair! Over 90% of consumers trust family and friends’ suggestions more than advertising. So why not tap into this and turn your best customers into brand advocates who will market your business for you. Here are a few ways you can effectively generate word-of-mount marketing (WOMM) for your business.

• Exceeding your customer expectations.

Nothing generates more good will in a customer than giving them more than they expect. Whether its adding a free product, providing them with an additional service, a life long warranty or even knowing them by name, people will generally leave feeling good about their purchase if they feel they have received more than they expected. This will, in turn, make them more open to helping you promote your business. As the saying goes, one good turn deserves another.

• User generated content.

Encouraging people to add comments on social media can be a great way to get people talking about your business. Add a short, sharp hashtag and word your post in such a way that generates mostly positive comments. for example, what’s your favourite new feature? or how has our product helped you? You could even add a little promo where they can win a prize if they tag their friend and tell you why they like your product or service. Make sure you follow the competition laws of your state or territory and make sure you respond to any comments, whether positive or negative to ensure your customers can see you are paying attention. Using your customers comments in your feed can also encourage your followers to exercise their brand loyalty in hopes of getting a shout out.

• Use influencers to promote your product or service.

Now I’m not suggesting you contact Chris Hemsworth or Selena Gomez (Although you are certainly welcome to try!) An influencer, by definition, is a person or thing that influences another. This can include people or businesses that have a high profile, are thought leaders or have a large social media following within your community. Have a think about the people you know and the customers you already have. Are any of them a person of influence within your community, do any own businesses that complement your own, and have a bigger social media following than yourself? If you know they like your products, don’t be afraid to ask them to give you a shout out. Many of them will understand why you would like it and be willing to do what they can to help.

#7. Build an Email List

80% of small to medium business (SME) retail professionals report that email marketing is the best marketing tactic for driving customer acquisition and retention. And 87% of business to business (B2B) marketers and 77% of business to consumer (B2C) marketers use it to nurture their audience.

Emailing your customer can be a great way to build a lasting relationship with your customers. You do, however, need to build a substantial list first. You can do this by adding a loyalty program to your business. You can also gather emails addresses by providing tempting offers that give consumers something of value in exchange for their contact information i.e. offering a newsletter containing content of interest to your audience, industry related news, a special discount or pre-sale offer opening your sale to your subscribers before the general public.

Once you have an email list, you can create an email marketing communication strategy. This will help guide you in deciding what types of emails you would like to send out and when, and will also help determine the goal you want to achieve, such as improving brand recognition, increasing customer retention, or boosting sales.

There are many different email tools you can use to produce quality email content, most are relatively easy to use. However, before you send anything to your customers, I would always advise to send the email to yourself and a few trust colleagues or friends first to check it before your send it out to a wider audience. Social Sprout has a free email tools guide to help you on your way.

#8. Add an App to Your Portfolio

An app is a powerful marketing tool if used the right way. You can use an app to draw new customers in by offering mobile ordering or a loyalty program. You can re-engage existing customers by sending out messages with promotions and news about your business. You can set up a lead capture form within the app to start building out your email list (see #7). In addition, an app can also help you collect reviews (see #4), as it enables you to prompt customers to share their opinion on social media, produce online reviews, or send a referral.

If you want to get even more creative, you can pull out all the stops with an app launch party. This will, in turn, trigger word-of-mouth (see #6) and draw more people to your business.

#9 Make Videos

One of the outcomes of COVID-19 was a change in peoples perspectives. As a result, some marketing trends that sprung up as a result of social distancing and social isolation are here to stay. One of these is video production where content value beats production quality. This means that content with lower production quality can still be engaging if it provides value and is great news to the small business owners of the world that cannot afford big video production budgets. Authenticity is king and that means small budgets can be just as effective if you come across as genuine and your content is of interest to your audience. Use the feedback you receive from your customers to determine the subject. It could be how the tie a scarf or how to accessorise the latest fashion trend. How to make an appropriate potting mix for you indoor plants or how to get a larger tax refund. Use what you think will appeal to your target audience and make sure you take note of any feedback you receive so you know what works and what doesn’t.

With the fastest growing social media platforms containing video only content (Tik Tok) and other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram jumping on board, video content is a growing trend that is only going to grow more popular and is fast becoming an essential part of your marketing mix. Here are some other reasons why you should consider video.

#10 Be Passionate in Everything You Do

Last but not least, you need to be passionate in what you do.

Owning a small business can be tough. You wear many hats and the burden of responsibility to your family and your employees is big. Making money is not always easy, and selling yourself can be jarring to many business owners. However, believing in what you do and being passionate about your products or services goes a long way toward giving you the purpose and the motivation to drive your business forward. This drive will ensure you enjoy what you do and make your business journey worth travelling. As long as you stay true to yourself and stay passionate about what you are doing, the rest will come.