Small Business Marketing Growth Strategies for 2017
Any keen marketer knows how to keep up to date with the latest and emerging marketing trends.
It is important to bring innovative ideas to deliver your brand values amongst potential and existing customers.
Especially for entrepreneurs and startups, it is mandatory for them to implement the right small business marketing strategies at the right time.
As these small businesses have limited resources and smaller budgets than big organisations, they have to be more concerned about picking which plans are worth investing in.
Just like 2016, 2017 has also been a fantastic year for small business marketers as innovative strategies are coming such as mobile development and big data options, which allows these small businesses to scale the heights of larger organisations.
According to a survey conducted by Business Insider 2016–17, around 96% of small scale businesses have used social media in their business marketing strategy.
32% of small businesses start investing in social media marketing. 25% of them spend on online marketing, 17% in SEO and 26% in email marketing.
Here, in this small business marketing blog, we will discuss some trending and successful growth oriented marketing strategies which will help you in driving your business towards success in 2017 and beyond.
Marketing Growth Strategies for Small Businesses
1 — Email Marketing
Email marketing is not a new marketing trend and is often described as an old school tactic, not suitable for the long run.
However, these are misguided opinions as the data reveals exactly opposite to what has been said.
On average, automated emails have more than a 70% higher open rate and around 150% greater CTR than other approaches.
60% of respondents choose email as the preferred communication platform for receiving regular updates regarding promotions from companies with whom they like to do business.
The stats mentioned above indicate that email marketing is one of the most result oriented strategies today.
This approach is suitable for providing relevant, helpful and valuable information to the target audience and convert them into leads.
2 — Blogging
Blogging has now become one of the biggest sources of traffic online.
You can see that most major businesses have paid much more attention to their blogging elements in marketing.
As a small company, regular publishing and updating of blogs are not enough; you also have to maintain the quality of the blog content as well.
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High-quality content matters a lot.
Google tends to rank your web page higher if your content is original and meet their quality standards.
Therefore, never compromise on the quality of your blog’s content.
Also, make sure that your content is highly informative and excites the reader.
Otherwise, they will move on to a competitor’s blog.
One more thing to remember is, keep your web content up to date.
If you do not keep updating with fresh content, your competitors will easily surpass you in just a few months.
You can either write these blog posts on your own or hire a freelancer or agency to update your publications.
3 — Social Media Presence
Look at these stats, on average; a person spends more than 20% of their time on Facebook.
At the moment, there are more than 2 billion active social media accounts and every day around 1 million new people are added to these networks.
Around 80% people expect an instant reply to their query asked via Twitter.
These exponential figures are enough to tell you that social media usage is growing at a rapid speed.
People are quickly turning to social media for customer support.
That means social media is a certainly the best way to reach the maximum targeted audience directly.
These social media platforms are giving you a roadmap to manage your business more efficiently and provide much better customer experience.
Therefore, you should actively use social media for promoting your business.
4 — Video Content
Most experts agree that understanding content through visual terms is far more effective than just reading it.
People also love to watch videos, as approximately more than 60% of people prefer watching content than reading.
You can easily understand the power of video marketing.
According to HubSpot:
90% of online marketers prefer to use video content.
Around 98% B2B business organisations use video in their marketing campaigns, out of which more than 70% receive positive results in their ROI.
If you are using video content in your landing pages, it can increase your conversion rate to 80%.
More than 65% of users are likely to purchase your product online after watching a video.
Videos are more of an attention seeker than an image or a post.
They are more engaging and entertaining.
One more thing to be added here is that videos do not need to advertise their services directly.
Therefore, you should include video content in your plans when making your small business marketing strategy in 2017.
5 — Mobile Marketing
As far as digital marketing goes, mobile marketing is the real future.
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For the past few years, smartphones have taken over desktops and laptops.
Almost all the activities from online searches, payment services, banking, and shopping now appear to be done on mobile devices.
Small businesses have to make sure that their web pages are mobile friendly when people use to find you on their device.
This would be your first step towards mobile marketing.
Here, I am mentioning some essential mobile technologies which should be implemented by small businesses:
Mobile Applications: Today, mobile apps have become popular amongst mobile users.
Every business, regardless of its industry, is now coming up with their mobile app to target more people.
If you still do not have a mobile app, get one now.
Although, you can say that app development is quite expensive.
However, there are lots of economical yet efficient apps that are coming to transform your business into a mobile-centric one in 2017.
Mobile Only Applications: This is also a new trend followed by so many business services and companies.
Many of the mobile apps are only known to be ‘mobile-only’ apps.
It means they are not available on desktop versions, just like Twitter or Facebook.
Mobile Payment Services: For the past year or so, people have been increasing to opt for mobile payment services such as Paytm, Oxygen Wallet, Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
With these mobile friendly apps, users can quickly pay their bills through their mobile.
It also motivates cashless transactions among customers.
Therefore, as a small business, you should not only provide this service to your consumers but promote it as well.
6 — Video Advertising
Video advertising has rapidly gained attention in 2017.
These days, you often see Facebook video ads or Instagram video advertising.
This trend will continue for longer and would be more associated with social media.
Small businesses especially need to focus on video advertising, specifically focusing on social media videos.
I would suggest you go with Facebook video ads, which will give you quick results in your small business marketing.
7 — Live Streaming Videos
Apart from traditional video ads, one more business trend that will grow in 2017 is known as live streaming videos.
In 2016, Instagram was the first to introduce this live trend into our lives.
Live video is quite different from standard videos.
It allows people to view more ‘exclusively’.
Live videos are amazing and certainly the best way to promote your business, allowing your customer to be aware that you have kept up with trends and ready to live up to their expectation.
It takes your marketing strategy to a new level.
You can add interviews and Q&A sessions related to your business in these live videos.
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Another advantage that you will get with live streaming videos are the moment you uploaded on social media; you will get an immediate response from viewers.
8 — Facebook Ads
Facebook has recently announced that its audience network has reached to 1 billion per month.
Having such a large group means small business marketers can target demographics with greater precision than CPC and Adwords.
It may be difficult for small firms to afford and implement Facebook ads, but after this kind of impact, you can increase your advertisement viewership by around 20%.
9 — Get More Personal
Getting more personal with your audience has become more accessible, and some businesses have been using this as a vital part of their digital marketing strategy.
In this competitive environment, where consumers have so many options, it is tough for small businesses to get steady clientele.
Especially when bigger companies are investing such large amounts on their marketing front.
Therefore, what small businesses can do is to get closer and deepen their relationship with the customers.
This includes an increase in the number of interactions you have with consumers.
You can ask your client about their experience with your products or services.
Alternatively, you can add live chat options to your website so that your customers can directly ask queries in real time with a client representative.
Customers do not always expect this kind of interaction from your side, and they will undoubtedly positively support you.
Final Words
Our above tips show everything is becoming mobile oriented.
This is the real trend for small business marketing in 2017.
Everything that is passing over mobile is just icing on the cake for small businesses.
If you are operating a small business and are not satisfied with the results, just follow the above with immediate effect and you will see dramatic changes in your ROI.
It might take some time but will come up with positive results.
If you wish to discuss how we can develop your brand or provide graphic design for your product or business, email us: hello@inkbotdesign.com
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