As a small business, it’s important to utilise low-cost marketing ideas that’ll boost brand awareness and engagement without blowing your budget. Low cost doesn’t need to mean low interest. In fact, with the right strategy, you can get all eyes on your brand. It’s about being clever. So with this in mind, here are 7 marketing ideas for small businesses to help you fix up, look sharp throughout 2021 and beyond.

  1. Optimise for Local Search

Did you know that 18% of location-based mobile searches result in a sale within one day? Or that 86% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps? This makes local search optimisation important, especially for small businesses looking to target a specific region. Things you can do to brush up your local search strategy include: 

  • Creating a Google My Business (GMB) Listing

Google My Business provides you with the ability to list your business location on Google Maps and local search results. You can display important information about your company including the services you offer as well as opening/closing times and contact details. You can also provide a link to your website. Be sure to fill out your page in full and keep information consistent to all other business platforms to avoid confusing consumers.

Google will then use the Google My Business listings in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). So, if someone searches for a product or service you provide within your location, your listing should show prominently in the results. When it comes to marketing strategy ideas, this is one of the best.

  • List your Business in Other Directories

Maximising local exposure also means listing your business in other directories. This includes Yelp, FourSquare, Bing Places, HotFrog, Best of the Web, and more. Where possible, be sure to highlight your USPs and tell people what makes your business different.

  • Optimise Your Site with Local Keywords

Other local SEO guerrilla marketing ideas include optimising your site with local keywords. Your homepage and any services pages should include the local keywords you want to rank for in the headings, title tags, meta description, content body, and footer. Where possible, your keywords should also feature in the page URL.

  1. Get Included on Best ‘X’ and ‘Y’ Lists

Being included in the top ten lists or the best ‘X’ and ‘Y’ blogs will help boost your profile. If you’re a retro café in Manchester, for example, check out content listing the best cafes in Manchester. If you’re not featured, reach out to the creators to see if they’ll include you. Another thing you can do is to craft your own top ten lists, tagging the relevant business on social media. This will help to build up a rapport with other companies who are then likely to consider you for future mentions. You can strengthen this bond by tagging them and sending them an email asking them to mention you in future articles.

  1. Optimise for Featured Snippets

Position 1 in the SERPs is the ultimate goal for many businesses, but if you ignore Position you could be missing a trick. Position 0 is also known as Featured Snippets. These appear at the very top of Google’s search results. The main goal of Featured Snippets is to deliver answers to queries quickly and if you play your cards right and answer questions bang on, you can rank above top sites such as government websites and those gaining number 1 positions in Google SERPs. Content that appears at the top of Google can result in more organic content to your site. So what should you do to target this all-important Position 0?

  • Aim to answer questions that are relevant to your audience. Delve into data to see what people are searching for. You can then structure content on your website to answer questions that are likely to be asked. Be concise and don’t waffle.
  • Create unique explainer blog posts that go into detail about what your audience might ask. Divide your blogs into short punchy paragraphs with question headers to ensure Google doesn’t have to work hard to see the relevancy of your content.
  • Use the right keywords. Use Google Analytics to see what keywords people are using and form question and answer content around them.
  • Optimise for the right type of snippet. There are many types of snippets from videos and lists to paragraphs and tables. So think about the type of snippet you want to rank for. If you’re a DIY company, creating videos with answers to specific search query questions could help you take that all-important featured snippet spot.

  1. Engage Your Social Media Communities

So you don’t have loads of money in your business account for an elaborate marketing campaign. Never mind. There are many things you can do to nurture the support you already receive and to grow your fanbase. Engaging with your followers on social media and developing responsive, interactive communities is a great idea. This will strengthen the bond between business and consumer while allowing you to get creative.

Here are some community engagement ideas to set you off on the right foot.

  • Embrace Recurring Prompts

One of the best ways to get people visiting your platform/s on a habitual basis is to create recurring weekly posts. This creates a sense of consistency and reminds people to check in on you. Ideas include days of the week alliteration such as #MotivationalMonday, #ThinkOutsideTheBoxTuesday, #WinWednesday, #ThrowbackThursday or #FunFriday. 

  • Ask Your Community Questions

One of the easiest things to do is to ask your community questions. But don’t just stop there. Scroll through for the best answers and reach out to those individuals. Ask them to go a step further by creating a unique guest blog. You can then post a teaser on social media with a link through to your blog. Tag the creator to develop strong community bonds.

  • Team Up with Influencers

Believe it or not, you don’t have to team up with mega superstars to enjoy the benefits of influencer marketing. Micro-influencers relevant to your brand help to boost engagement and tend to be more responsive than the superstars with little time on their hands.

The trick is to choose an influencer that will provide content and insight for your channels that’s of interest to your followers. LadBabyOfficial teaming up with Pampers, for example, is a good match. Engage your community by encouraging influencers to ask questions. You can then share the responses to your platform with the relevant tag. It’s all about recognising contributions in order to help people feel welcome in your community.

  1. Differentiate Between Different Channels

When it comes to small business marketing, try to post different content to each of your channels. Think about it logically. If you’re rehashing the same old thing across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, then why do people need to visit each of your platforms? Instead, decide on a strategy for each platform. Perhaps use Twitter for posting business updates and charity incentives while running exclusive competitions for your Instagram followers.

Marketing for small businesses takes time and skill but it doesn’t always require a huge budget. Contact Whitefish Marketing today for all your small business marketing needs.

Avatar for Chris Surridge
About Chris Surridge

Chris is our marketing director. He comes from a split background in automotive and accountancy marketing, having worked with such brands in the past as Lookers PLC, Mercedes Benz and Vauxhall, as well as working with governing bodies such as ACCA and CIMA in the accounting world.

Marketing IdeasSmall Business marketing