The best marketing strategies for small businesses tend to be those that give the brand a strong online presence. Now, more than ever, businesses are investigating who to trade with, whether they're in the same state or on a different continent.
According to the SEO Court, 67,000 searches are performed every second on Google. With so much traffic coming online, your business has plenty of opportunities to get noticed. But that doesn't mean that a great website is all it takes to increase sales.
There are more small business owners relying on social media than ever before. According to one survey, almost 90% of marketers responded that social marketing efforts led to increased company exposure, and 50% reported an improvement in sales.
But to increase your online presence, you first need to understand your audience. To do that, start by creating detailed buyer personas.
Buyer personas are basically semi-fictional expressions of customers based on data and research. It's the preferences and behaviors of people who buy your products and services. With this information, companies can target prospects, improve or develop services to meet target customer needs, and adjust business practices.
A deep understanding of buyer personas is paramount in leveraging social media platforms and incorporating qualified prospects into everything related to customer acquisition and retention, such as pipelines and content production.
Why are buyer personas important to your business? By fully understanding your customers, you'll be able to develop business personas and tailor your message, content, services, and product development to their specific needs.
You can gather powerful buyer personas through insights such as market research, questionnaires, and interviews. If you're a small business, you can start by developing one or two personas on a small scale, and then create as many personas as needed. Quality is more important than quantity.
As a marketing strategy, this allows you to target different segments of the audience. For example, instead of sending the same email to everyone in the database, you can customize emails for different buyer persona segments.
Unfortunately, we don't have a list of the different types of buyer personas. Every business is unique. In other words, every B2B company has a unique buyer persona. That's why creating a buyer persona requires a great strategy.
In today's interconnected world, leveraging social media platforms to build connections with customers and prospects is essential. This might seem like a good fit for retail stores and other B2C businesses, but according to statistics, 83% of B2B marketers practice social advertising, ranking second only to search engines in terms of success rate.
Connecting with customers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram is no longer an option; it's now a must. It's an essential way to acquire brand followers and loyal customers who buy your services and products and act as brand ambassadors for your company.
However, you shouldn't necessarily think of social media platforms as a means to focus on sales; rather, you should think of them as top-tier marketing channels. This is the first step in the buyer journey and should focus on building brand awareness, education, and trust and trust.
Here's how businesses can use social media to achieve their goals.
With so many small businesses competing on social media, this is where you need to separate your organization from the competition. Let the world know the differences between your services and products and how you can benefit from them.
Education is critical, especially for B2B buyers. Most companies conduct independent research to ensure that the companies they help are trustworthy and reliable. Social media is a great channel where you can prove your credibility by posting how-to videos and practical content. For social publishing, I recommend that clients use the golden ratio, a concept that shows value and helps keep viewers engaged. The Golden Ratio basically recommends publishing 30% of owned content at a ratio of 60% of curated content and 10% of owned promotional content.
This is a great opportunity to prove your worth by posting your own accomplishments, positive feedback, and customer testimonials. This not only builds trust and trust, but also differentiates you from your competitors. Again, as mentioned above, I recommend doing this within the context of the golden ratio.
Today, people don't respond to random flyers or generic ads created to reach large audiences. People want something customized to their needs and desires. With so much personal data out there, it's easier than ever to deliver personalized content that fits those needs and desires.
In fact, according to Experian Marketing Services' email marketing research, personalized emails have 6x higher transaction rates. However, in this survey, it was also pointed out that most brands don't know how to use it or don't use it.
Here are a few ways to personalize automated marketing follow-ups.
When creating content that engages viewers, the first thing to do is understand where and how viewers are consuming content. HubSpot recently discovered that while long-written content tends to be skimmed through, videos, images, and other visual elements tend to be completely consumed.
Here are the types of content HubSpot surveyors would like to see more of in the future:
As you can see, there is no media that clearly dominates this field. That's why a diversified approach to content has proven to be the key to successful digital marketing campaigns.
These sales and marketing strategy ideas are a great way to connect your company's value to the right customer base, but there isn't one magical strategy. Marketing strategies can change based on factors such as demographics, customer locations, and collaborators.
However, it's a good place to start with these strategies. If they've worked for hundreds of thousands of other companies, they can work for yours too.