How to effectively market a small business

So how do you maximize what you have so that you can better gain traction for your business?

1. Pick a focus

I can’t stress this enough: it’s better to rock at a few things than just show up to a bunch. You don’t need to promote your business through endless platforms, avenues, and funnels – you just need to focus on a couple.

It’s no use becoming overwhelmed because you’ve signed up to YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, email marketing, radio marketing, print marketing…

It’s far more effective to narrow down your channels into a few that you can really build on. When you’re starting out, you won’t really have the time or resources to realistically do more. Keeping it focused will lead to less frustration and more returns!

2. Let your employees shine

Having a small business is exciting, as it’s likely that you’ll end up a close-knit team. If you discover one of your employees has a skill, talent or interest outside of work which could transfer into the workplace, allow them to do it.

For example, if one of your employees has a social media following, allow them (with guidelines!) to work on the business’s social media accounts as well. Rather than trying to accomplish everything on your own, or delegating tasks dogmatically, try to stay flexible and embrace the skillsets your employees have.

This can make marketing and promotion a lot easier, and build team morale: if employees can pour their own passions into the office, they’ll work harder, you’ll get better results, and motivation will rise.

3. Don’t be afraid to experiment

There are so many fantastic free or affordable marketing tools that are currently available. If you’re unsure of how to market your small business, don’t be too afraid to try out new methods. Posting blogs, creating podcasts, filming videos - you can try out all of these tactics.

And if they don’t work for you, you can simply shut down the channels that aren’t bringing results and focus on the ones that are.

While there’s no harm in testing out what’s available, it is important to avoid making broad or sweeping statements, or promises you might struggle to keep. If you’ve decided to try to begin a podcast to establish yourself as a leader in your field, don’t promise your customers a whole series just yet. Instead, test it out before you make any commitments you can’t keep!

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By utilizing free tools, experimenting, letting your employees embrace their talents and focusing on a few channels instead of many, you’ll see your marketing efforts improve. It’s important to keep in mind that your marketing materials should work as funnels: your goal shouldn’t be to gain endless twitter followers, for example, but to link people to your ShopFactory store so that you can ultimately make more sales.

Lena Klein