10 Powerful Marketing Strategies to Strengthen your Small Business
Entrepreneurs and small business owners are smart and resourceful people. As all people do, they have their strengths and weaknesses. We tend to work in the areas where we excel (our genius zones) and try to ignore the areas where we frankly aren’t very good.
Marketing is crucial for your business. People spend years learning and training to be really good at marketing like you did in your field. Neglecting this part of your business spells disaster.
Instead of ignoring what you don’t know about marketing, let's do something about it. Presented here are strategies that lead to intentional plans, growth, and confidence. We’ll discuss why you ignore it and what you should do instead.
Let’s dive into the 10 powerful marketing strategies that will strengthen your small business.
1 - Consistency in Lead Generation
Why you ignore it: You don’t have a solid system that brings you new leads regularly. Generating leads without a system is hit-or-miss and hard work. Plus, you are likely tied up managing other parts of your business.
What you should do: Let us help you build a repeatable system that effortlessly brings you qualified new leads. The second part of this system allows you to engage with existing customers and subscribers.
This works because we identify your most valued customers and most profitable products or services. The plan also includes building a "Freebie" or Lead Magnet. This is a piece of valuable content, like a cheat sheet or guide, that a potential new client will gladly exchange for her email address.
Tip: Make your freebie or lead magnet REALLY GOOD. So good that if you were selling it your audience would buy it!
2- Great Copywriting and Messaging
Why you ignore it: Copywriting is a skill that takes a long time to develop and refine. It’s a specific type of writing meant to persuade potential clients to work with you. It makes your customer the main focus. It’s not only about being grammatically correct.
What should you do: Focus on creating effective messaging that connects with the right people. Take the time to learn. Download some templates, attend a training, or read resources on copywriting.
Copywriting will be part of your business as long as it’s open.
If you are not good at writing, if it takes you forever, or if you are just unsure, hire a copywriter. Marketing needs great copy to work. That's why copywriting comes before design with Elephant Mountain Creative. Investing in good copywriting will repay you time and time again. Plus it dramatically increases your return on investment and engagement in campaigns.
3 - Developing an Effective Website
Why you ignore it: Websites are often looked at as an expense. Building a website yourself is time-consuming and tedious. A DIY website doesn’t usually end up meeting the needs of your business.
There has been an explosion of tools and platforms over the last few years. All those choices have overcomplicated the decision.
Do I hire someone?
Do I build it myself?
Which platform do I use?
What should it say?
What should it look like?
How should it function?
What should you do:
Treat your website as your best salesperson and advocate.
It’s on the clock 24 hours a day. Your website is one of the first interactions a potential client has with your company.
People make a judgment call about your business in fractions of a second. You need to make a great first impression.
Let us help you to identify the goal of your website and the goal of each of your pages. Then we’ll make it look stunning, say all the right things and direct the customer to take action.
Your website should be a living part of your business. It changes, grows, and evolves which is why it’s important to start with the right foundation.
Read our checklist for What an effective website should do!
4 - Professional Graphic Design
Why you ignore it: Let’s face it, not everyone can be good at designing. Like copywriting, it’s a skill you learn over time.
It requires you to be creative and artistic while accomplishing a specific goal. You need to have the right tools and programs because Microsoft Paint and Canva can only take you so far.
Even having the right programs will not magically make great design spill out of your computer.
What should you do instead: Invest in great design for the critical parts of your business and your marketing.
You’ll save valuable time, frustration, and money by hiring a professional graphic designer.
Elephant Mountain Creative works with you to create designs that are unique and custom to your business. We focus on making the content flow, being consistent with your brand, and the overall look.
If you are still wondering if the design is really that important consider this, 94% of consumers will leave a website with poor graphic design according to Finance Online.
5 - Create an Authentic Brand
Why you ignore it: You may be unclear about what a “brand” actually is or why it is important.
You think your business is too small, too new, or too… It’s easy to ignore this powerful tool if you don't understand it.
What should you do instead: Take a moment to realize that everyone that comes in contact with your business will have opinions and observations.
Every part of your business is a representation of your brand. This includes you, your employees' attitudes, your products/services, the language you use to describe your business, the way your marketing looks and the list goes on.
I often simplify the definition of a Brand to one word: PERCEPTION.
According to Seth Godin, an author, business executive, and marketing genius, “A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer's decision to choose one product or service over another.”
With that in mind, what if you could control those opinions and observations? Would you do it? Of course! That’s why you need to build your authentic brand.
Elephant Mountain Creative takes all the guesswork out of the process of branding. We ask all about your best customers, their desires, their motivation, their pains, and more. The deeper you know your best customers the more effective all of your marketing becomes.
Armed with knowledge, we create the visual representation of your brand (the logo, colors, fonts) as well as the tone and style of key messaging. This authentic brand tells your story and distinguishes your business from its competitors.
6 - Clearly Identifying your Ideal Customers
Why you ignore it: You don’t want to say no to any potential customers. You think that everyone could enjoy or utilize your services or products.
What should you do instead: Get crystal clear on the characteristics, fears, emotions, hopes, motivations, and goals of your best customers. The better you know them the more trust you build. Your goal is to create natural communication.
Open and clear communication creates more sales.
Talk to them. Imagine you are them. Put yourself in the mindset of the customer. This makes it easier to bridge the gap between their problem and the solution. To make this discovery fun and rewarding, we've developed a foolproof process.
7 - Research Your Competitors
Why you ignore it: It takes time to get to know your competitors. It’s not always super exciting to see them excelling if you are not. Or maybe you have a very unique product with very few or no direct competitors.
What should you do instead: Focus on what problem you solve and look for competitors both direct and indirect that compete in the same arena. The more you know about your competition the better you can differentiate your solution from theirs.
Customers are not buying products/services.
Customers buy the result or transformation they get because of your solution.
8 - Having a Strategic Marketing Plan
Why you ignore it: Building a successful marketing plan is not for the faint of heart. It’s not rocket science but building one all on your own with no expertise is difficult. Plus, you have plenty of other business matters to grab your attention.
What should you do instead: The success of your business depends on you getting paying customers. Instead of the “hope & pray” method, start small by identifying your goals.
One big goal and a couple of secondary goals are great for motivation. These include monetary goals and other goals like growing my email list or going to “x number” of trade shows.
At Elephant Mountain Creative, we help you to identify your goals, “your finish line”. Then we reverse engineer the plan you’ll need to get you there and outline all the marketing tactics you’ll need.
9 - An Execution Plan for Your Marketing
Why you ignore it: Some people are great planners but terrible with implementation. There are lots of distractions as an entrepreneur. Plans have to change sometimes, so why even make a plan?
What should you do instead: Commit. Simple right? Marketing only works if it’s executed!
GET IT DONE. DELEGATE. HIRE.
If your time commitments in other places change, then delegate another task to regain that time or hand off marketing tasks to other people.
If you or your team can not execute your marketing well or in a timely manner then don’t do it. Hire Elephant Mountain Creative. We are a creative marketing agency focused on small businesses and entrepreneurs. Our job is to set you up for success.
10 - Evaluating your Marketing & Knowing What Works
Why you ignore it: The top reason small businesses do not evaluate their marketing is that they don’t know what numbers are important. Business owners also have to know where to get the raw data. Even if you can get the numbers, how do you translate the raw numbers into meaningful information?
What should you do instead: At first, keep it simple. Ask people how they discovered you or ask why did they decide to shop with you. This information can help you create a better return on your marketing efforts.
What you evaluate and track gets your attention and IMproved!
If your website is a primary driver of your sales, then you need to know what your website analytics say. This is where it can become more complex. The best option is to have a monthly report and summary sent to you. We offer monthly update and reporting packages starting at $1500 for Squarespace websites. Elephant Mountain Creative always train our clients on how to check their website analytics and a cheatsheet as part of our website development package. We can also help you to review marketing campaigns even if someone else built them.
How many of these marketing tactics are not reflected in your strategy?
Most, some, a few? These strategies should be foundational parts of the marketing plan for your business. If not, you are leaving money on the table. Before getting overwhelmed, remember your marketing strategy will always evolve and change.
Start with a few! Take steps towards progress in Your Marketing Strategy.
The fastest way to solve a problem is to consult an expert. Educating yourself through quality resources, books, and professional seminars is another way. Most importantly, start.
Knowing what you're good at and what you're not good at is a great skill to have. Don’t be afraid to hire people to help you grow your business, bring you leads and make you look professional. Before thinking you can’t afford it consider how much your time and energy are worth.
Marketing is not an expense. Treat it as another part of your business. Make sure each marketing campaign can give you a return on your investment. When it’s done well, it is one of the best investments a small business can make.
Do you want to discuss marketing strategies that will work for your business?
Let’s discuss your goals and how we can help you reach them together.
Written by: Heather Marine
Heather Marine is a professionally trained graphic designer and the owner of Elephant Mountain Creative, a marketing agency focused on small businesses and entrepreneurs. She has supported small businesses for over 17 years with strategy, branding, website development, and design.