You’ve developed a product, set up your business including a website – now how do you raise awareness and draw in customers?
You may have originally had a few inquiries and purchases, but to sustain business growth you need to keep generating interest and turning that to orders, while maintaining the customer base you have.
In talking to local, developing small businesses, most don’t have a large marketing budget and are reliant on social media.
Creating appropriate, regular and relevant content on social media is a skill and it takes time and familiarity with the medium.
To make effective use of social medial platforms you also need to understand how social media works and target the right platform for your audience, understanding the demographics of each. For instance, fifty percent of Tik Tok users are under 30 years of age while in New Zealand Facebook attracts an older demographic with over fifty percent of users being female. Women also account for the majority of Instagram users as they do on Pinterest.
Therefore your chosen platform should reflect your product’s target market and may require you to post content across several platforms. To gain maximum reach you also need to consider time of day and even day of the week that you post new content as these impact on a post uptake.
This recent analysis from Sprout Social gives an indication of how best to optimise your posts across different types of media.
A newly published article from NZBusiness offers A comprehensive social media marketing guide
Is it beginning to feel like this?
Social media, whilst very important in today’s world, is but one of the low cost ways you raise awareness of your brand name.
For instance, do you have a regular email newsletter set up whereby you can keep customers up to date with new product developments, reminders about order cut offs or any deals you may be offering?
If you deliver product by car – have you considered having magnetic door panels printed with your logo, name and contact details? These are relatively inexpensive to have done.
If you are visiting clients do you wear a ‘uniform’ with your business colours and logo featured? It could be as simple as having t-shirts in your main brand colour printed with your logo.
Have you tapped in to your community networks – depending on your product providing a prize for the school fair or kindy fundraiser expands your exposure to new markets.
Are you capitalising on celebration days and life events? For instance if you run a cleaning or gardening service do you promote gift vouchers for busy households or those with a new baby? If your business is making and decorating special occasion cakes do how about promoting International Cake Day with a competition/giveaway? (Yes, International Cake Day is a thing – 26 November).
For a light-hearted listing of all the days that could be celebrated check out the Days of the Year site (Please note this is an American site and it is unlikely National Grape Popsicle Day will ever take off in NZ). However if you run a petshop why not celebrate and promote World Turtle Day (23 May) or Clean Your Aquarium day (18 June)? Funny, Random and Weird Holidays and the more serious United Nations International Observances provide additional days. All you need to do is pick one or two and leverage it to promote your business or product with your own twist.
Do you have fliers up at the local supermarket or on the community noticeboard? If so, do they provide a QR code for potential customers to scan that takes them immediately to your website?
Do you network with other businesses that share your values? Networking is a good way to collaborate on a project and share a customer base. For instance, two fledgling businesses could combine to share a space at a community market or street fair, thereby halving costs.
Never underestimate the power of word of mouth advertising – do you acknowledge and share positive reviews on your website or social media?
Don’t forget the more traditional media. Have you considered radio advertising? A promotional piece and a competition in the local community newspaper?
If all this sounds like it adds to your workload consider investing in a Virtual Assistant with appropriate marketing and content creation skills. You may well find the returns outweigh the investment.
Below are some of the many resources the Wellington City Libraries collection can offer small businesses looking to extend their marketing reach.
Momentum : how to propel your marketing and transform your brand in the digital age / Hyder, Shama
“Today’s online ecosystem can be summed up in one word: overwhelming. With new social media platforms popping up all the time and new technologies disrupting even the most “reliable” marketing strategies, business and nonprofit leaders and marketers are faced with the challenge of getting ahead in an environment that makes it seem impossible to keep up.” (Catalogue)
30-minute social media marketing : step-by-step techniques to spread the word about your business fast and free / Gunelius, Susan
“Small business marketing expert Susan Gunelius guides readers through social media marketing for small business, providing measurable results in just 30 minutes a day” (Catalogue)
Also available as EBook Libby
Content chemistry : the illustrated handbook for content marketing / Crestodina, Andy
“The result of thousands of conversations about web marketing with hundreds of companies, this handbook is a compilation of the most important and effective lessons and advice about the power of search engine optimization, social media, and email marketing. The first and only comprehensive guide to content marketing, this book explains the social, analytical, and creative aspects of modern marketing that are necessary to succeed on the web. By first covering the theory behind web and content marketing and then detailing it in practice, it shows how it is not only critical to modern business but is also a lot of fun. This edition has been updated to reflect new technology and marketing trends. — Goodreads.” (Catalogue)
Social media marketing for business : scaling an integrated social media strategy across your organization / Jenkins, Andrew
“Social media has become an imperative for almost every business. Discover how to successfully implement an effective social media strategy that is supported and integrated throughout every part of your organization, with this essential handbook to enhancing your online presence and achieving the competitive edge. ... Supported by online presentation slides, content calendars, a content marketing framework and interactive tools for effective social media management, Social Media Marketing for Business is a one-stop-shop resource for developing social media marketing strategies and integrating them within your business to ensure their success”– Provided by publisher.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Make your business survive and thrive! : 100+ proven marketing methods to help you beat the odds and build a successful small or home-based enterprise / Huff, Priscilla Y
“If you are an entrepreneur, or you are just thinking of starting a business, start with this smart, practical guide to small business success. It shows you how to maintain healthy growth and profits no matter what kind of business you own and helps you get the most out of your limited resources.” (Catalogue)
How to do marketing : a comprehensive guide for small business / Hillsdon, Jane
“… Jane Hillsdon, Founder and Managing Director of boutique regional marketing agency; Dragonfly Marketing has worked with hundreds of small businesses to help them navigate the ever-changing world of marketing. In How to do Marketing, Jane provides a comprehensive and easy-to-follow guide for small business owners who want to learn brave, nimble and clever marketing solutions that leverage out-of-the-box thinking, including: – working out your marketing goals and matching them to your business goals – choosing the right media channels for your business – getting great results on a limited budget – making sure you are targeting the right people – monitoring the results of your marketing – getting help if you need it – taking advantage of the many opportunities in regional areas. In this book, she demonstrates that creative and effective marketing doesn’t have to come with a hefty price tag. In fact, she shows you that getting the greatest bang for your marketing buck is simply a matter of creating a sound marketing strategy that is based around your business objectives and focuses wholeheartedly on your customer. The marketing tactics suggested in How to do Marketing ensure that you leverage the nuances of your local community to create impact, legacy and loyalty while achieving maximum efficiencies with marketing spends.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Instagram power : build your brand and reach more customers with the power of pictures / Miles, Jason
“If you’re not using Instagram to your advantage, you have to start now. Instagram is the hottest social media site today: Two years after its launch, the number of its daily mobile users surpassed that of Twitter. Then Facebook purchased it for a billion dollars–and it took the world by storm. Instagram Power provides everything you need to grab customers on the world’s most popular photo-sharing site. This guide covers it all–from setting up an account to promoting a brand to integrating the photo-sharing app into an existing marketing strategy.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
85 inspiring ways to market your small business : inspiring, self-help marketing strategies that you can apply to your own business immediately / Jarvis, Jackie
“A handy, pocket marketing consultant for small businesses, this title not only delivers great new ideas, but also shows how to apply them.” (Catalogue)
Big business marketing for small business budgets / McMurtry, Jeanette Maw
“Does advertising have a direct impact on sales? Is your business targeting the right group of potential customers for maximum profitability? Big Business Marketing for Small Business Budgets answers these and other questions and gives entrepreneurs and small business owners the tools to develop their own marketing campaign. The key to success for the small business owner is lifetime marketing. Lifetime marketing means that businesses need to continually track their customers’ purchase readiness to identify their best customers and develop a marketing plan that incorporates the ever-changing needs of a customer throughout that customer’s lifetime. Lifetime marketing is especially well suited to small businesses because of their limited resources, smaller budgets, and ability to provide individualized attention. Big Business Marketing for Small Business Budgets is a fully integrated workbook/web site package filled with worksheets to develop a step-by-step marketing plan; sample press releases, surveys, and direct mail pieces that appeal to the customer’s needs; and a program to aid in collecting data on the best customers. This hands-on, how-to book provides the understanding an” (Catalogue)
101 ways to market your business / Griffiths, Andrew
“A collection of simple tried and tested marketing ideas that business owners can implement easily and cheaply.” (Catalogue)
Marketing with no money / Squire, Leah
“Why are some businesses more successful than others? Most business owners make the mistake of thinking they are in the business of sales, service or production but reality is that whether you like it or not, you’re in the business of marketing. In business, there is often little or nothing left in the marketing piggy bank. Marketing with No Money will provide you with strategies to get your business ‘out there’ – not only surviving, but thriving no matter what the economic climate” (Catalogue)
How to market, advertise, and promote your business or service in your own backyard / Egelhoff, Tom
“Create a successful and affordable marketing campaign for your local small business using the tips and detailed 10-point, step-by-step method in How to Market, Advertise and Promote Your Business or Service in Your Own Backyard.” (Catalogue)
The very good marketing guide : how to grow your business on a budget / Miocevich, Amy
“The Very Good Marketing Guide unpacks a 5-step framework that helps small businesses make essential, effective and business-altering decisions about marketing that help them reach their goals. It takes readers through the steps of creating, monitoring and supercharging their marketing strategy. The goal? To stop wasting money on marketing that doesn’t work, and eliminate the factors that are holding back growth.The Very Good Marketing Guide will help entrepreneurs to assess what is and isn’t working for their business right now. It will reveal problem areas that busy business owners might not even know are there-and it gives targeted solutions to overcoming those challenges”–Publisher’s description.” (Catalogue)
If you would like more information please contact the Prosearch team at the library. We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources. All enquiries are treated in confidence.
