As a small business trying to decide on a marketing strategy, the choices can seem overwhelming. Should you invest in a new website? Social media? Retargeting campaigns? SEO? Radio? Newspaper? Billboards?
All of these have a place, some much more than others, but time and budget constraints mean sometimes you just can’t — and shouldn’t — do them all. So if you had to pick just one tool to use, what should it be?
Well, that all depends on whether your business is business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), as they both generate leads and convert customers differently.
B2B marketing strategy
These days, the best marketing strategy for small B2B business is an “inbound content marketing strategy.”
What this means is that, to help grow your business and gain new leads, you should be creating valuable and relevant content that will help your target market (other businesses) solve their problems, whatever they may be.
This content can come in the form of whitepapers, infographics, free software or applications, videos, tutorials or anything else that conveys you and/or your company as a thought leader in your industry.
The research behind content marketing is staggering, with the world’s top companies continually increasing the quality and quantity of content they produce. So pick an area you’d like to share your company’s expertise on, choose a medium and start creating some content!
B2C marketing strategy
For 2015, the best marketing strategy for a B2C business is to focus on SEO (search engine optimization).
Consumer behaviour has changed dramatically in the past few years; according to Forbes Magazine, 97 per cent of all consumers now search for local businesses online. That means that if your small business isn’t being found when someone searches for a service you offer on Google, you’d might as well not exist.
A lack of SEO strategy costs small businesses millions and millions of dollars in lost revenues each year – money that’s going directly into the pockets of competitors that understand the power of SEO.
The reason SEO is such a powerful marketing tool is that no other strategy allows you to get in front of a potential customer at the exact moment they’re looking for a service you offer. Rather than being interrupted by an ad during their favourite TV or radio program, these customers are actively searching for a solution to their problem. When you adopt an SEO strategy, your company becomes the answer to their problem. The rewards are more clicks, more calls, more customers and more revenues.
To learn more, or to start implementing these strategies in your business today, give us a call.