50 Small Business Marketing Tips Every Business Owner Must Know

If you’ve made it here, you must be looking for more about small business marketing. Well, you’ve come to the right place. Most business owners don’t know how to promote their business the right way. That’s why I wanted to write this for you today. Let me try and help you with your small business marketing the best I can.

Here are 50 must know tips for small business marketing:

1. Return on investment (ROI) is everything when it comes to marketing.
2. Local magazine’s that target your customer base are an easy way to pick up quality prospects.
3. Small web banner advertisements are killer when place on the right websites
4. Short cable commercials on the right channel could bring thousands of visitors to your business.
5. Cold calling sucks….but it will always work.
6. Knowing who your ideal customer is will make every marketing method return much higher profits.
7. Your direct mail pieces haven’t worked because they look like everything else people get they consider junk.
8. Make friends with your local newspaper reporters and find out what’s the hot story…throw your angle in and you could have lots of free publicity.
9. Working with local charities is an easy way to get your business name spread and also build trust from prospects.
10. People sort their mail over the trash can. Direct mail step #1 – Get them to open your letter.
11. Have you held any fun events at your store lately?
12. Create a list of related businesses that have the same type of prospect. Business to business relationships can be killer for your company.
13. The lifetime value of a customer is so much more important than the one time buy.
14. Collect your prospects and buyers email and home addresses. The money is in the list.
15. Write a book in your industry for instant credibility.
16. Stand out from the rest of the competition by letting customers know why they should buy from you instead of them.
17. Your staff needs to be trained to offer upsells, back end products, and special offers.
18. Create a blog for your business and help prospects learn more about what you can do for them.
19. Check each step of your sales funnel and make sure it’s perfected.
20. Join all your local organizations (Chamber of Commerce, BNI, etc) and meet like minded individuals. You never know who you might come across.
21. Customers love continual billing programs. Offer your services in a special monthly package when they sign up to a 12 month deal.
22. Make sure a live person is answering your phones within a couple rings.
23. Be the spotlight speaker about an issue in your industry. If only 10 people show up, you are more of an authority than you were.
24. Build a referral program that offers your customers a discount…remember, it’s all about lifetime value.
25. Don’t ever be the lowest priced company in your industry. People associate price with value.
26. Separate your database list between prospects and buyers…treat your previous buyers like gold. They deserve it.
27. Get your business listed on Google Places…its free and simple.
28. Working with other businesses and offering them their cut can increase your overall business tremendously.
29. Look into pay per click advertising for your local area. Only keep it up if it’s providing a return on your investment.
30. Keep up your unique selling proposition promise by delivering on what you say.
31. Creative headlines that get people interested are key to Direct mail step #2 – Get them to read your mail.
32. Track the results of everything you are doing to market your business.
33. You better have a website up that has a purpose. Collect their emails, promote special offers, whatever.
34. Use Meetup.com to find local meetings that could have potential clients.
35. Don’t constantly promote at organizations and meetings. Everyone there is not interested in your business…they are interested in overly promoting their own business. Listen and offer them referrals when you can. They will pay back the favor…I promise.
36. Capture your prospects email by having a web form ‘above the fold’ and offer something of value to them in exchange.
37. Yellow page ads and newspaper ads have their place, but are usually too costly for the return. Track, track, track!
38. Social media is growing to be huge in today’s market place. Remember though, they weren’t made to be promoted on. Provide quality information and the customers will come.
39. If you don’t know how to properly market or you don’t have the time to implement what you know, look into hiring a business consultant.
40. Take a survey of your best 50 customers and see why they like your business. Use that information to show prospects why you are what they need.
41. Don’t try and brand your company like McDonald’s, Starbucks, etc. They have worldwide exposure and millions of dollars to spend. You have to be more unique.
42. Creating videos that showcase your business and posting on YouTube can bring a nice amount of web traffic.
43. Successful direct mail pieces are all about being creative.
44. Focus your budget on getting previous customers back in the door instead of new customers to buy….it’s much cheaper.
45. Marketing is all about being different. Don’t just be another business.
46. Writing press releases about upcoming events or store information can help build your authority and web standings.
47. Keep your employees happy for positive exposure on social media platforms.
48. Don’t try and target everybody! Focus on those that will actually be interested in what you provide.
49. Creating a system that works for your business is key to long term success. Systems can be repeated with expected results and tweaked if necessary.
50. I don’t think I can say it enough…diversify your marketing strategy. Every method has the possibility to work.