Small Business Marketing: A Strategic Guide for Growth and Engagement

So you want to market your small business? Whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve already built a brand and want to grow, this guide is for you. 

We cover the most important marketing channels, popular growth tactics, and key metrics you can use to analyze your marketing success. Plus, we go into detail on how to choose the right channels for your business, sharing tools and resources that you can leverage to increase sales in 2024 and beyond.

Let’s explore how to unlock your business’s potential with the power of marketing! 

• Branding vs marketing
• Key elements of a marketable brand
• Top marketing channels
• Important marketing metrics
• Marketing strategy template

Branding vs marketing: What’s the difference?

Before we dive into the specifics, the best place to start thinking about marketing is your brand. What’s the difference?

What makes a brand marketable?

Think of your brand like a brick and mortar store. If people visit your store, things need to look good, feel good, and make sense..

In the context of small business, effective branding can be as simple as a powerful logo, beautiful color palette, and clean, functional UX design on your website. Your brand also includes how you speak to your customers. More subtly, your brand embodies the personality of your company, and this ultimately starts with you. 

How do you treat your customers? Are you obsessed with quality and providing a great product? Do you care what people think of your work? These are the kinds of questions that should inform your brand marketing. 

Marketing, on the other hand, includes questions like ‘how can I reach more people, and more of the right people?’, ‘where do my customers spend most of their time and attention?’ and, ‘how can I put my brand in the right place at the right time?’ 

Key elements of a marketable brand

Here’s a quick branding checklist to help you start marketing your small business on the right foot. Get these right first, and you’ll have a much easier to converting potential customers into raving fans.

Customer Experience

• Is your product good?
• Is your service good?
• Are you and your team good to deal with?
• Do you care about your customers?
• Do you care about what your customers think of you?

Company Identity

• Have you determined a good business name?
• Do you have an idea of your core values, vision, and mission?
• Do you have a custom website address?
• Have you registered your company as a sole proprietor or incorporated entity?

Visual Identity

• Do you have a memorable logo? Will it work in different places (e.g. on a website, social media channels, printed merch)
• Do you have a strong and appropriate color palette?
• Does your website looks good, and function (reasonably) well?

How to market your small business in 2024

Now that we’ve covered what makes a good brand, it’s time to think about how to promote one! When considering a small business marketing strategy, there are a number of chanels and tactics to leverage. For some small businesses, one marketing tactic might work better than others – it totally depends on your goals.

To start with, let’s look at some of the most popular marketing channels that small businesses can focus their marketing budget on.

1. Word of mouth

Without a doubt, word of mouth is one of the most proven and powerful small business marketing strategies. 

Marketing is all about building awareness and, more importantly, trust in your business. And what better way to achieve this than having people tell their friends and family about what a great job you’re doing? 

Word of mouth generally means you’re already doing something right. It’s a signal to potential customers that you’re good to deal with, have fair prices, and quality products or services. 

You can incentivize ‘word of mouth’ referrals in other ways. Social media giveaways, referral bonuses, affiliate marketing, and influencer marketing are all useful ways to expand your reach, while using the audience, authority, and engagement of other creators. Ultimately, however, doing a really great job is the best way to get natural referrals.

A Masterclass in Word of Mouth – Swish Oral Care

Ironically, one of the best word of mouth experiences I’ve ever had was my dentist. Swish Oral Care was recommended by a coworker while I was working in Calgary. After hearing only good things, I booked in for an appointment.

From the outset I was blown away by the quality of the customer experience that defined their brand. Swish has beautiful decor, friendly staff and amazing service, all underpinned by a clean and vibrant visual identity. The real eye-opener for me, however, came after my appointment. After leaving a Google review (unprompted by Swish), I was surprised to find a gift card and thank you note from the clinic in my mailbox a few days later.

I’ve since referred many other coworkers and friends and will keep going back to Swish as a result. The lesson here is that they nailed all the most important parts of their brand before they even thought about marketing. Consequently, their ‘marketing’ just felt like a natural continuation of their amazing customer service (because it was!)

2. Video marketing

Video is probably the most dominant medium of our time, and it’s a cornerstone of digital marketing. According to Sprout Social, 93% of social media marketers said video was a key part of their strategy in 2022, and the same percentage said they got at least one new customer as a result of their video marketing efforts.

Today’s most popular video platforms are social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, and Youtube. Short-form video is particularly popular for digital marketers, with an estimated 300 million people watching Facebook stories every single day, plus millions more watching TikToks, Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts daily. 

Longer videos like product reviews, how-tos, video essays, and podcasts are also amazing resources to use for your content marketing. For example, a tradesperson using YouTube to review tools and provide DIY tips, a therapist talking about different psychological topics,, a tech business owner doing product reviews, and so on. All of these might not seem like marketing, but they do a great job of bringing attention to your brand in a personalized, intimate way that shows off your knowledge.

Tips for video marketing

3. Content marketing

Content marketing is when you use content to attract and convert more customers. It relies on your ability to provide value and create interest without necessarily ‘selling’ your product directly. When done correctly, content marketing is a powerful yet indirect way to market your products while building trust and providing value to the people you reach. Hopefully, this will lead to some of them to become paying customers! 

Some common mediums used for content marketing include blog posts, social media, and short video content, but every form of content can be considered content marketing. Podcasts, longer videos, articles, and white papers are all different ways to promote your business without trying to ‘sell’ anything directly.

Tips for content marketing

4. A great website

Your website is one of the most important pieces of your marketing puzzle. Depending on your business, your website is the home address of your brand and the final destination for your customers. Think of your website as the machine that processes and converts all of your leads. If it: doesn’t work, makes no sense, or looks terrible, chances are your customers will lose trust and go elsewhere. 

Your website is an opportunity to showcase your brand identity and share key information with your customers such as your story, services, and contact information. It’s also critical for certain types of business, like eCommerce stores, or those that rely on blog-focused content marketing. 

While some local businesses do just fine from social media alone, it doesn’t hurt to create a simple, clean website – especially given how easy it is to do these days!

Tips for building a marketing website

(Last but not least, read our Comprehensive Guide to Making a Website in 2024!)

5. Email marketing

Email marketing is a common and effective way to reach individual customers at scale. According to Emma, a multi-channel marketing platform, 89% of marketers rated email as their primary marketing channel last year. But why is it so popular?

Part of the appeal of email marketing is it’s more personal than other mediums. Email marketing campaigns can be set up for any number of reasons and tailored to the needs of your users. You can also trigger emails based on where a user is at in their journey. For example,

Tips for email marketing: 

6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the silent powerhouse behind your online visibility. SEO leverages keywords, website architecture, internal and external linking, and page formatting among other things to guide potential customers to your doorstep. 

With on-site optimization, you’re ensuring your website speaks the language of search engines as fluently as it speaks to your audience. Off-site SEO, on the other hand, builds your website’s reputation and authority through quality backlinks, acting as endorsements from other websites.

The beauty of SEO is its long-term effectiveness. While it doesn’t deliver overnight success, a well-implemented SEO strategy blossoms over time, yielding sustained online visibility and credibility. Embrace SEO as your digital bedrock, a steadfast foundation supporting your online presence.

Top tools for SEO

7. Paid Ads

Paid advertising is a marketing strategy where businesses pay to display their advertisements on various platforms, reaching their target audience quickly and effectively. Unlike organic methods, paid ads offer immediate visibility and can be tailored to specific demographics, interests, and behaviors.

Written Ads

Written ads, often seen in search engine results or on websites, are text-based promotions. They are concise and designed to capture the attention and lead a potential customer to take a specific action, like visiting a website or making a purchase.

Display Ads

Display ads are visually engaging ads found on websites and social media platforms. They combine graphics, images, and text to create a visually appealing message that stands out. These ads can be targeted based on user behavior, preferences, and demographics, making them a potent tool for brand awareness and conversion.

Out of Home (OOH) Ads

Out of Home advertising extends beyond the digital realm, encompassing billboards, transit ads, and posters seen in public spaces. Despite the digital shift, OOH advertising remains effective for broadening reach and reinforcing brand messages. It’s about capturing the attention of people on the move, offering significant exposure in high-traffic areas.

By integrating these diverse paid ad strategies, businesses can create a comprehensive marketing approach that maximizes visibility and engagement across multiple touchpoints.

Leverage tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to fine-tune your campaigns, ensuring every dollar spent is a step toward your marketing goals. With the right strategy, paid advertising can be a powerful accelerator for your brand’s visibility and engagement.

Tips for paid advertising

8. Merchandise

Merchandising is an unsung hero in the world of small business marketing. It’s not just about products; it’s about turning your brand into a tangible experience. 

Take inspiration from Courage Bagels in Los Angeles, which harnessed the synergy of social media and standout merchandise to build a robust following. Your merchandise can be a conversation starter, turning people into brand ambassadors.

Employees of Courage Bagels wear a trendy bold blue colored hat which is also available to the public. You’ll see the presence of their beautiful merch throughout the Courage Bagel Instagram feed which amassed over 80k followers at the time this blog was written.

Incorporate these tangible brand extensions into your marketing mix, and watch your brand’s presence expand beyond the digital realm, into the everyday lives of your audience.

Important metrics for marketing 

1. Revenue: Revenue is crucial to measure because it indicates the financial return of your marketing efforts. You can track revenue through accounting software or a CRM system, and it’s best to review this metric monthly to gauge your marketing strategies’ financial impact.
2. Reviews: Customer reviews offer insights into satisfaction and areas for improvement, impacting potential customers’ decisions. You should monitor reviews on platforms like Google My Business and Yelp, ideally on a weekly to monthly basis, to stay informed about your brand’s public perception.
3. Backlinks (do follow): Do-follow backlinks are essential for SEO as they pass on link equity and boost your site’s authority. Tools like Ahrefs or Moz can track these backlinks, and reviewing them monthly helps you understand and enhance your website’s SEO performance.
4. Email open rate, click rate: These rates are key indicators of how engaging and effective your email marketing is. Use your email marketing platform’s analytics to track these metrics after each campaign, helping you refine your email strategy based on engagement levels.
5. Social reach & engagement metrics: Metrics like views, likes, subscribes, follows, and shares are vital for assessing your brand’s interaction on social media. Use analytics tools provided by social media platforms, checking them weekly to monthly, to measure and improve your social media presence and audience engagement.
6. Site visits: The number of site visits shows the effectiveness of your marketing in driving traffic to your website. Google Analytics is a valuable tool for tracking this metric, and regularly reviewing it helps you understand and optimize your website’s traffic.
7. Conversions: Conversion metrics track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns in prompting desired actions from users. By using tools in Google Analytics or a CRM, you can monitor conversions monthly to evaluate and enhance the ROI of your marketing plan.

Creating a marketing strategy

Now that you understand the core marketing channels, tactics, and metrics to measure it’s time to put it all together into a marketing strategy!

Every small business will have its own specific marketing needs, but we’ve gone ahead and put together a template for a small business marketing strategy that you can use at any time.

Small business marketing strategy template

1. Executive Summary
   • Brief overview of the business and marketing goals.
2. Market Analysis
   • Understanding of the target market, customer needs, and competitive landscape.
3. Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
   • Clearly define what sets the business apart from competitors.
4. Marketing Goals
   • Specific, measurable objectives that the marketing efforts aim to achieve.
5. Marketing Channels
   • Overview of the chosen marketing channels (e.g., social media, email, SEO) and rationale for selection.
6. Content Strategy
   • Outline of content types, themes, and distribution channels to engage the target audience.
7. Budget
   • Detailed marketing budget, including allocations for different channels and activities.
8. Metrics and KPIs
   • Key performance indicators to track and measure the success of marketing efforts.
9. Action Plan
   • Step-by-step plan detailing marketing initiatives, responsible parties, and timelines.
10. Review and Adaptation
    • Process for regularly reviewing and adapting the strategy based on performance data and market changes.

Trial and error in small business marketing

Small business marketing is a dynamic and multifaceted endeavor that requires a strategic approach to various tools and tactics. Remember, the key to success lies in understanding your audience, continuously adapting your strategies, and keeping pace with the ever-evolving landscape of small business marketing.