Creative Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

Whether you are a small business owner or a new start-up, you need to adopt smarter marketing techniques/ideas in order to improve:

• Sales

• ROI

• Business image

Here are a few smart marketing ideas:

Upload relevant content

One of the best ways to market your business is to write and upload relevant and fresh content on your website. Helpful and informative content helps to engage readers as well as attract leads.

Testimonials and reviews

Create a “testimonials page” on your website and upload the best reviews. (According to a study, 9 out of 10 people look at online product reviews, posts on social networks, and so on before making a purchasing decision.)

Write case studies

If you want to compel your customers, write case studies. (According to Content Marketing Institute, U.K. marketers use, 12 different marketing tactics on an average, with case studies being the fifth most popular.)

Benefits of using case studies:

• Peer-to-Peer Influence

• Case studies make great collateral for sales.

• Increases customer retention.

Tips:

• Put case studies on your home page.

• Include clear call-to-action.

• Write blog posts about your case studies.

Use coupons

According to Wikipedia, in marketing, a coupon is a ticket or document that can be redeemed for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product.

People always love special offers, free samples as well as discounts. Hence, for maximum output, post offers on the top coupon and deal sites as well as on your website. This will attract more and more customers.

Popular coupon websites:

• RetailMeNot

• Coupons.com

• Slickdeals.net

Use local business directories

If you want to achieve tangible results, use high quality local business directories. Use both free and paid business directories for the optimum visibility on search engines. (Local business directories – Yelp, Merchant Circle, Yellow Pages, etc.)

Tips:

• Research your online competitors.

• Check the directory’s search traffic before creating a profile on it.

• Claim your business listing.

• Optimise your business profile.

• Always choose the right category and look for activity in your category.

Educate customers

One of the keys to business’ success is to educate and inform customers. So create blogs, videos and infographics to educate people about your products and services.

Update your website regularly

To attract users as well as search engines, you need to update your websites with quality and relevant articles/images/blog posts as well as testimonials.

Add Schema.org markup

To highlight any important information, use Schema.org markup. This helps Google to show the relevant information of your website on the web.

Use PPC

If you want, you can use both SEO and PPC to gain advantages. It will not only boosts your sales, but also improves your bottom line.

The above mentioned smart marketing ideas will help your business to improve ROI and image.