With so many businesses propping up each day, and large corporations getting even larger, promoting a small business can seem like an impossible battle.
Online marketing did level the playing field for a while, but that’s not the case anymore. At least, not for the average small business.
Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve already spotted the opportunity here. Online marketing can and still does wonders for small businesses. Just not the average ones.
To raise your online marketing strategy above the average, take these 3 budget-friendly ideas to the heart and see what happens.
1. Know Your Audience
Ask a small business owner who their target audience is, and you’ll most likely get a list of everyone who’s ever bought anything from them.
That’s not a target audience. Neither is a specific gender, age group, or a location. You need to go deeper than that. Way deeper.
The true value of knowing your audience comes from understanding their behaviors, their motivations, and their fears. What’s their lifestyle like? Do they value quantity or quantity? What’s driving them to buy a product or service in the first place?
The easiest way to persuade someone is to prove that you get them, and that’s what audience research is all about.
2. Produce Quality Content
The internet is drowning in Facebook posts, Instagram stories, blog posts, and countless other pieces of content. But for some reason, many businesses continue shoveling piles upon piles of mediocre content out there.
The reasoning goes like this. If one post gets 5 likes, then publishing a 100 posts should get 100 times the exposure. But that’s not how it works.
What ends up happening is their engagement rate keeps dropping until the only likes they get is from the new intern they just hired.
So does that mean content marketing is dead? Not at all. What’s changed is that with so much content out there, people are way pickier about what they’ll spend their time on.
Luckily, you’ve already uncovered half the formula for producing quality content. Once you know your target audience, like really know them, you can talk about the things they truly care for. All it takes now is some research and planning.
3. Get Some Eyeballs on Your Content
You can have the greatest piece of content in the world, and it won’t make an ounce of difference if no one sees it. Just like a musician won’t gain any fans by playing in an empty auditorium.
How can you get some eyeballs on your content? Posting on your social media accounts and messaging your email list subscribers are both fine options. But unless you already have a following, these won’t do much.
That’s why we recommend giving Facebook Ads a shot. Yes, we know we said budget-friendly ideas, and Facebook ads can eat as much budget as you can throw at them. The key is to have a strategy for it.
As you already know your target audience deeply and have some amazing content to share with them, you’ve already got the strategy down. Target people on Facebook that match your target audience, select your best pieces of content, and then run some ads with a small budget of $5/day for a week or two.
Some of your ads will naturally generate a lot more likes, comments, and visitors than others. These are your golden nuggets for profitable Facebook advertising. So double down on them.
There are a million and more ways to promote your small business online. But by using just the 3 ideas outlined in this post, you’ll lay a solid foundation that will drive growth and profits for years to come.