11 Best Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses in 2023

It's not simple to market a tiny firm. It's rather difficult. “Marketing Strategies”

This is why, no matter what techniques they employ, most individuals struggle to reach the correct audience.

If this describes you, you've come to the correct spot.

However, this article does not include every marketing tactic known to man. Instead, it concentrates on tried-and-true methods. Marketing Strategies for increasing shop traffic and income for your small business.

What's the best part? Many of these tactics may be implemented right now and yield immediate effects. This post will lead you through the most effective marketing tactics and examples to date, as well as recommendations on how to put them into practice.

11 best digital marketing strategies

Explore the top types of marketing strategies listed below:

SMS Marketing

One of the quickest methods to contact customers and generate sales is through SMS marketing. Text messages are opened and read 90% of the time (compared to 20%–30% of emails). Setting up a campaign takes only five minutes. It's also a cost-effective approach to communicating with your customers, costing around.01 cents for every message delivered.

SMS is a privately held marketing channel that allows you to send one-to-many messages to your consumers, similar to email marketing. They can be one-time promotions, such as a flash sale, or they can be part of a drip campaign, such as a welcome series or a multi-day challenge.

A well-thought-out SMS marketing strategy will increase brand recognition, increase revenue, and transform your clients into your greatest fans. Begin by signing up for an SMS service provider or browsing the Shopify App store's increasing range of SMS apps. To begin developing your subscriber list, add opt-in forms to your website, landing pages, and social network accounts immediately.

SEO

Search engines like Google will drive the majority of your store's web traffic. According to Wolfgang Digital, search engine results pages should account for 35% of overall traffic and 33% of income for online enterprises. Although this marketing method takes time, it will eventually become less expensive to recruit clients through search than through paid advertising, bringing the prices closer to parity.

You may obtain more everyday visitors by ranking high in search engines. Take, for example, Gymshark. The shop is ranked fourth for the search term “exercise clothing,” which receives over 90,500 monthly searches. 4.87 % is the average click-through rate for URLs in position four.

According to our calculations, Gymshark should receive roughly 4,400 visitors per month from this single term, which is a significant number of prospective clients.

While optimizing your business for search may appear to be a difficult undertaking, with a little know-how and marketing data, it's a lot easier than you think. That's why we've put up a few tutorials below that delve further into search engine optimization and will help you boost your exposure and enhance your online sales.

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Email marketing

Email marketing is the practice of delivering promotional communications to potential and present consumers via email to sell, educate, and cultivate loyalty. You control the content and delivery of email because it is an owned marketing channel.

With an average return of $42 for every dollar invested, it's become one of the most cost-effective and conversion-rich Marketing strategies to promote an e-commerce company today.

What's the best part? To interact with consumers and keep them coming back, you may design automated email marketing campaigns like:

Transactional emails, emailed to you throughout the checkout process or other purchase actions These are mostly utilitarian, but they are critical for communicating vital shipping and order information to consumers.

Promotional emails aimed to raise the notice of new items or special offers. You might, for example, create a Black Friday Cyber Monday email sequence to send out limited-time offers throughout the shopping holiday.

Lifecycle emails, or “triggered” emails, are sent in response to a client's activities and where they are in the customer lifecycle. A cart abandonment email, for example, is sent only when a buyer abandons a product.

Keeping in touch with consumers and providing engaging messages is made easier by building an email list and sending captivating communications. If your company hasn't begun using email marketing yet, you're wasting money. Fortunately, setting up a free email account, starting to develop your email list, and driving money for your business is simple.

Influencer Marketing

One of the most effective methods to sell your company and raise awareness online is through influencer marketing. It entails collaborating with creators who share your brand's message and marketing items through their platforms. Nine out of ten marketers believe influencer marketing is effective, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

Influencers produce more user engagement than branded content for a reason. Influencers have a 5.7 percent average engagement rate, which is nearly 2X greater than what companies post on Instagram. Furthermore, for every dollar invested in influencer marketing, firms make $18.

The top five influencer marketing channels, according to MediaKix's latest Influencer Marketing Survey, are:

• Instagram
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Blogs
• Twitter

Influencer marketing provides limitless options for businesses like yours. Finding an influencer may appear time-consuming, but several influencer marketing tools can assist you in finding creators, launching your campaign, and tracking KPIs. We recommend reading this beginner's guide to Instagram influencer marketing to understand more about this marketing technique.

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Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a kind of advertising in which a company pays another company or individual, known as an affiliate, to create leads and sales. Affiliates are frequently compensated in the form of commissions to encourage them to promote the firm and its products. Affiliate marketing accounts for roughly 15% of all income in the digital media business, making it a quick way to contact target customers and close deals.

Affiliates, like influencers, will promote your items by posting them on their blogs, social media platforms, and websites. When someone uses their unique link to make a purchase or join up for anything, the affiliate receives money. When done correctly, both sides benefit: your company gets more money, and the affiliate receives a good profit from their marketing efforts.

With 81 % of companies running affiliate marketing programs, it's evident that this is a marketing technique worth pursuing.

Google Ads

The most misunderstood avenue for marketing internet business is Google Ads. For the convenience of use, many businesses stick to Facebook or Instagram advertisements, but they miss out on reaching clients on the world's two major search engines: Google and YouTube.

Budgets as little as $5 can be configured as flexible budgets. You just have to pay if someone clicks on your ad. Specific audiences might be targeted based on their prior habits and actions. But it's the different ad formats you can employ to target clients that makes Google Ads so appealing.

Consider the case when you're selling vegan protein powder. Every month, over 110,000 individuals look for the word. Because it is strongly tied to your product, it is a specialized phrase that is likely to convert.

You might use text advertising that appears as a blue link with a green URL. An Ad tag distinguishes them from organic results. You may also utilize Google Shopping Ads, which display a product carousel with a variety of items, prices, and average customer ratings. In the top left corner of the carousel, there is a faint Ads tag.

It's a little difficult to set up Google Ads. However, if you're ready to learn how to use it to promote, you may reach a large target group with high buying intent, execute retargeting ads, and generate more sales and traffic, all while saving time.

Podcasts

Every week, more people are listening to podcasts. According to Edison Research, the number of individuals listening to podcasts in the United States has climbed 175 % in the previous five years, with approximately 90 million people listening to one each month.

There are two methods to use podcasts to promote a new business:

1. Start your podcast
2. Become a guest on someone else’s podcast

Running a podcast can help you reach a wider audience and grow your business. You don't need to be a techie to make one, and it doesn't require a large upfront cost. However, gaining traction might take time.

Podcast hosts, such as Resilient Retail's Kristen LaFrance, are always on the lookout for interesting individuals to interview.

You have a chance to be a guest on any podcast if you have an intriguing story, industry experience, or useful information to contribute.

Social media marketing

One of the most effective marketing tactics for small businesses is social media marketing. It entails promoting and selling your products, services, and brand using social media. To enhance online sales and build exposure, brands can employ both unpaid (organic) and sponsored social media marketing methods.

There are well-known social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, but there are also lesser-known social media platforms that businesses may use. What you're offering, your consumer demographics, and your overall marketing goals all play a role in determining the best social media platform for your business.

Popular social media platforms:

• TikTok
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Snapchat
• Reddit
• WeChat
• Twitter

Curating content, scheduling product-related posts, and automating what you can are all important aspects of social media marketing. But getting the most out of social media marketing requires more than just broadcasting your brand—it requires knowing, interacting, and reacting to your audience and the environment in which they live.

Because, in a world where so many businesses use social media as a platform to sell their wares, it pays to be one of the few who can make a genuine connection with their audience and bring a little joy into their life.

Content marketing

The value of having a good internet presence is well understood by business owners. To attract clients, they construct fantastic online stores, spend on advertisements, and design email sequences. However, if you look at their content strategy, you'll realize that the majority of them have none.

This is a squandered opportunity for online businesses, particularly in specialized industries with poorly written and optimized material.

Brands who are becoming creators and producers and discovering innovative ways to approach content and connect with their audience are standing out today.

Content types a brand can create include:

• Blogging
• Webinars
• Newsletters
• Videos
• Audio
• Infographics
• TikTok videos
• White papers
• Contests and giveaways
• Forums
• Guest podcasting
• Live streams

The list could go on and on. The sorts of content you publish will be determined by who your target audience is and where they spend their time online. Given that inbound content creates more than three times as many leads as outbound marketing methods while costing 62% less, it's a lucrative marketing approach to implement in your company right now.

Video marketing

People love video content, whether it's a movie, a TikTok, a YouTube video, or anything else. According to Wyzowl's latest research, 92 % of companies consider video content to be critical to their entire marketing strategy.

Video marketing should be a part of your digital marketing plan to ensure you're interacting with your target audience. However, to stay on top of the current trends, you'll need to know what kinds of video content marketers are producing.

The top video trends include:

• Explainer videos (which 72% of marketers create)
• Presentation videos (48%)
• Sales videos (42%)
• Video ads (42%)

Short-form videos (think TikTok) and live streaming are two more trends that are here to stay. Ecommerce businesses may profit from the videos by selling things straight through them.

User-generated product reviews are another method for marketers to leverage video. Reeview is an app that searches, verifies, and displays your product video review from YouTube to buyers on your website.

“On average, 15 % of customers spend 2.5 minutes watching videos on product pages,” adds Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré, Reeview's CMO.

“Because we track orders done shortly after videos are seen, our customers enjoy a 100x ROI. Reeview adds hundreds of extra hours to the time spent on the product pages in terms of time spent on the site.”

In the previous seven days, Headphone Zone, for example, has added 91 hours and 11 minutes to its on-site staff. After video reviews were included, customers spent nearly four more days on their product sites.”

Reeview makes tracking ROI and conversion simple so you can understand how video reviews affect your bottom line. It may help you stay ahead of the competition and flourish at one of the most powerful marketing methods to date if done correctly.

It's available for free on the Shopify App Store and can be set up in minutes.

Referral programs

Word-of-mouth advertising isn't a new concept. It's a marketing approach that encourages existing consumers to suggest new customers to your company, resulting in over $6 trillion in yearly consumer expenditure. Referrals can happen spontaneously, but businesses can enhance exposure and revenue by using a specialized referral system.

Consumers look to their peers for credible information about companies and services, therefore referral programs succeed. Friends and family recommendations have greater power than celebrity endorsements, according to research, proving that word of mouth is still important in today's world, with firms attempting to become “talkworthy“.

Referral programs don't have to be difficult to implement. Take, for example, Blume body care line. To attract new clients, it employs a simple “Give $10, receive $10” strategy.

Simply refer a friend to Blume, and both parties will receive a $10 discount when the buddy makes a purchase. It's both simple and effective.

If you wish to start a referral program, the Shopify App Store has several referral applications to assist you to get started. All you have to do now is download the app, choose your rewards, set up your campaign, and advertise your new program.

Improving your online marketing techniques

It isn't difficult to market your company. The tactics outlined above may be used by any small or local business. To see results, all you need is a little know-how and execution.

It's fine if some tactics work better than others. It's up to you to put them to the test and find which one works best for you. You'll be able to put more money into the proper techniques and advertise your company with less effort.

Do you have any more marketing ideas for small businesses that we didn't cover? Leave a message in the comments section.

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