Marketing is a massively important part of running a business – you can’t ignore it, even if that’s what you’d love to do – but it doesn’t have to be as stressful as you might think it will be. True, it’s important, and yes, you need to get it right, but there are so many tools out there to help you that it’s easier than you might think to do it and do it well. These are tools that you might not have thought about before, but that can make a huge impact on your business, and all without breaking the bank. 

With that in mind, here are some of those important and useful tools that every small business should think about adding to their marketing arsenal – read through this blog and get an idea of what’s available so you can determine just what it is you need for your business. 

Customer Testimonials And Reviews

You might think that all you need to do is make a great product or offer fantastic services, but you’re forgetting one major thing: social proof. People trust people, plain and simple, and it’s not something you should forget when you’re marketing your business. After all, you’ll be the same when you go shopping – you want to know that you’re buying the right thing and not wasting your money, and if other people tell you you’re making a good choice, you feel better about things. The fact is that a glowing review on your website or a testimonial from a satisfied customer can have a huge impact on your business’s reputation and growth.

It’s often overlooked, but testimonials are a goldmine for small businesses, so they should definitely be part of your marketing plan. They’re not just for your website either; you can share them on social media, in your email newsletters, or even on flyers and brochures. Ask your loyal customers for feedback, and make sure to highlight their positive experiences – send out surveys or ask directly and see who is willing to give you a good review (it could make a massive difference). 

But, don’t just stop at the written word – video testimonials are even more powerful. Ask customers if they’d be willing to share a quick video about their experience with your business. You’ll be amazed at how this builds trust and credibility, especially in the eyes of potential customers, plus you can use it in a lot of your other marketing, making it truly cost-effective. 

Print Marketing 

When it comes to marketing, the first thing you’ll think about doing is likely going digital – and that definitely makes sense because there are so many digital options, that’s more than likely where your target market is spending its time (online). But that’s not going to be true for everyone, and sometimes old-school methods are actually the best – that’s why you need to consider print marketing to run alongside your digital efforts, as that way you’ve got everything covered. The fact is that a well-designed flyer, poster, or brochure can have more impact than an email that gets buried in someone’s inbox.

If you’re going to go down the print marketing route, you’ll need a variety of different things to help you, from flyers to brochures or even business cards, so it’s wise to find a good online print shop to help you get everything you need for your print marketing ideas. That way, you’ll have all your bases covered, and you can design some fantastic and eye-catching flyers to hand out at local events, postcards to put in the mail to give people a surprise about a special offer, or a lovely brochure – yes, you could do all that online, but there’s something special about holding a brochure in your hands and leafing through it that could make all the difference – just because times have changed, that doesn’t mean the old ideas won’t work anymore. 

Interactive Content 

The last thing you want to do is to produce boring content that no one’s really interested in – what’s that actually going to achieve? It will take the same amount of time and effort to create, but it won’t give you the good results you want because no one will be interested. That’s why it’s far better to come up with some interactive content that will be fun and engaging – it’ll do the job you need it to do, plus it won’t harm your reputation either, so it’s well worth considering. 

What do we mean by interactive content? Well, just a few examples are quizzes, polls, interactive infographics, or perhaps even competitions – it all counts as long as your customers and potential customers are engaging with your content and your business. The point is, whatever you do you need to make sure your customers are actively engaging with what you’re doing because when they do that, they’ll feel more connected to your brand, and that’s definitely a good thing. 

Not only does all of this make people feel a lot more connected and happy to use your business, but it can help you as well. If you make a quiz about your products or send out a poll asking for feedback about your business, the answers you get will help you improve things – you can make changes that people comment on, and that’s really going to help. It improves your business, and at the same time, it shows your customers that you’re listening and that you want to do the best for them, and who’s going to dislike that? In fact, it might make people choose your business over and above even the biggest chain brand just because they know you’re listening and doing what you can to help. 

Local SEO

SEO – search engine optimization – is a brilliant tool for getting noticed online, and if you’ve got a website, even if it’s not an eCommerce site, you’ve got to get your SEO right if you want to come up high enough in search engine results to be spotted and ensure customers click through to your site (until they do that, you’re not going to grow or be successful). 

However, although SEO, in general, is a crucial part of running an online business, it can also be hugely useful and beneficial if you’ve got a physical location as well – it’s called local SEO, and it ensures you can grow whether you’re online or offline, so it’s clearly something you need to incorporate into your advertising and marketing campaigns. 

With local SEO, you can show up in results pages when people search for whatever it is you sell or do in your specific area, ensuring you definitely get noticed, in the end, a good SEO strategy will help the people in your community find your business, and that’s vital, especially if you want to have a good reputation. Start by ensuring your Google business profile is up to date and correct – it’s a free tool that puts you in Google Maps and local searches, so it’s priceless. Fill in all the right details about opening times and contact details, and encourage people to leave reviews because that all counts, as we’ve said above. It can also be useful to hire an SEO company to check your website and help with future blog posts and content to make sure you’re getting your SEO tactics (local and otherwise) right. If not, you’re losing out on a lot of potential business. 

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