Grow Your Small Business Fast With These 5 Marketing Essentials
Running a small business comes with unique challenges—limited budget, time constraints, and technical know-how beyond your core expertise. Yet, amidst the digital noise, it’s crucial for your target audience to recognize your presence. So, how can small business owners navigate this landscape efficiently, focusing on what truly matters? What are the essentials versus the nice-to-haves? And most importantly, how do you execute a savvy marketing strategy? If you’ve found yourself pondering these questions, you’re in the right place.
In our latest episode of Small Talk: The Show About the Big Goals of Small Business, we had the honor of hosting two highly respected marketing experts, Caleb Rule, CMO and Founder at Rule Marketing Group, and Melissa Haran, Director of Franchise Development at The Scout Guide. Their extensive experience and deep understanding of the industry allowed them to share invaluable insights into the Five Marketing Essentials every small business owner should grasp. Follow along as we outline a clear roadmap to elevate your marketing game, regardless of your resources.
1. Understanding Your Ideal Buyer
LinkedIn’s Director of Market Engagement introduced a game-changing concept from a joint study with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute—the 95-5 Rule. Even as a B2B-focused study, it brings forth some intriguing concepts worth considering for anyone thinking about marketing:
Most of your target audience and ideal buyers need to be in a position to buy what you offer right now. So, how do you position your business to appeal to those looking to buy now … and those who may buy 6-12 months from now but may not have heard of you yet?
Consider crafting your marketing strategy by asking the following questions:
- How do you present your business?
- What makes you truly different from other options?
- What vibe does your business emanate?
- Which channels best reach your audience?
To pinpoint your potential customers, delve into what triggers them to choose your business, what they seek, and how they gather information.
2. Crafting Core Messaging
Your messaging is not just a collection of words—it’s the essence of your brand, the powerful tool that forges a connection with your audience. It’s more than just conveying information; it’s about evoking emotion, addressing pain points, and fulfilling desires. Understanding and mastering your core messaging is critical to successful marketing.
In a world inundated with messages vying for attention, cutting through the noise and making a lasting impression is imperative. Melissa’s insights illuminate the path to crafting messaging that speaks directly to your audience, capturing their attention and earning their trust. By tapping into their pain points and desires, you capture their attention and forge a meaningful connection that fosters loyalty and engagement.
As you embark on your journey to refine your core messaging, remember: it’s not just about what you say but how you say it. Make every word count, and watch as your messaging transforms from mere communication to a compelling narrative that resonates deeply with your audience.
3. Optimizing Your Website
Your website serves as your digital storefront. Caleb shares expert tips for optimizing it to enhance user experience and drive conversions:
Test it on your phone. Does everything work as it should? Can someone call you or quickly fill out a form?
What happens if someone fills out your contact form? Does it go to an email you or someone on your staff regularly check, or does it route to spam … or nowhere at all?
Look at the competition. Does your homepage look/feel the same as theirs? How can you emphasize and communicate what makes you different in 5-10 seconds?
Repurpose social proof. Great reviews from across the web – Google, Meta, Yelp, etc. – can be re-used on your website. Use that to your advantage and build credibility with your audience!
Bookmark a few of our favorite essential MarTech tools to use in the future:
- Also Asked: Understand your website traffic with live “people also asked” data and intent clustering by Google.
- Google Business Profile: List your business on Google with a free business profile (formerly Google My Business) and convert traffic from search and maps into new customers.
- SEMrush SEO Checklist: SEO checklist to help you increase your site’s organic traffic and boost your rankings, including 41 best practices and tasks to navigate the process
- SparkToro: Easily discover the websites, blogs, podcasts, social accounts, and publications you should use to reach your target audience best.
- Whitespark: Builds tools and provides services that help businesses and agencies with local search marketing.
4. Leveraging Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If you remember only one word about SEO, it’s this: Relevancy.
Sure, there are lots of terms and small things to do. But ultimately, your goal is to give someone visiting your website helpful, easy-to-understand information. What are they looking for when viewing a specific page? Answering that should drive the content you put on the site.
In addition, prioritize local SEO by ensuring consistency across web listings, optimizing your Google My Business profile, nurturing customer reviews, including language on your site about your local market(s), and developing dedicated pages for products or services.
- Consistency: Maintain uniformity in your business’s name, address, and phone number across various web listings such as Facebook, Bing, Apple Maps, etc.
- Optimization: Google Business Profile offers comprehensive traffic analytics and is indispensable for businesses with an online presence, owing to its user-friendly interface.
- Reviews: Customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials significantly influence search results and convey brand reliability and credibility.
- Offerings: Cultivate dedicated website pages for each service, offering, or product to enhance user experience and facilitate easy navigation.
5. Mastering Paid Advertising
Now that you have the building blocks, leverage them in paid advertising, too!
What makes you unique/different? Great customer testimonials make for excellent ad headlines and graphics and stand out from much of what we all get in inboxes and mailboxes, simply saying, “Hey, buy this product we offer,” without convincing us why.
In addition, understand where your audience spends their time. Information from the Pew Research Center and advertising platforms should also be helpful in the process. Key platforms to leverage include:
- TikTok
- X (Twitter)
And the possibilities are endless!
Take the First Step Toward Digital Marketing Success
Don’t let uncertainty hold you back any longer—listen to the Small Talk episode for more actionable steps to streamline your strategy and drive tangible business results. With the guidance of Caleb Rule and Melissa Haran, you’ll be well-equipped to conquer the marketing maze and achieve your business goals. Rest assured, these strategies have proven to work for businesses of all sizes!
