Marketing ideas for small businesses
Posted on 1st February 2021
We hope you’re ready to make the most of all the opportunities this year brings.
We thought we would share some simple suggestions to help you make a good start with your marketing plans this year.
Set some marketing milestones
Now is the perfect time to set some goals for you and your business and work out what you must do to achieve them. Then you can start to plan how effective marketing can help. Don’t forget to include some measurements along the way to make sure you’re staying on track.
Update your GMB profile
When you claim and fill in all the details in your Google My Business profile you will have more than a free business listing. You will also appear on Google maps and in local search results to help people discover you online.
You can add photos, posts, and links to your website. Even better, Google has a tool to create a link that will help people leave those valuable five-star reviews for you. You can share it in your emails, newsletters and on your website to give your profile a boost.
Make the most of every month
Whether you have a waste collection business or catering company, you can still tell people how many Christmas trees you recycled in January or how many deliveries you made to vulnerable people during our down-sized celebrations last year.
Alternatively, you can give advice on how to fit as much of the packaging from your online New Year Sales purchases into your household recycling bin or share recipes for doughy delights for Real Bread Week.
Every month provides opportunities to share some themed ideas from Easter to autumn leaves and you’ll benefit from all the other hashtags and online conversations too.
Announce special offers and promotions
Making an offer that’s difficult to refuse is a good way to get peoples’ attention. Think of things that are relevant to your market, like discounted cleaning products ready for the big Spring Clean or special gift suggestions for Valentine’s Day.
You can create a plan of offers and events for the whole year and keep people interested in-between with tips and advice. Each offer will provide a good reason to contact the people on your marketing list.
Create a referral programme
Find more people like your favourite customers by asking them to make referrals. You will know your customer’s buying history, so you can thank them for any new business they help to create with one of their favourite products or services.
In many cases this can be an effective way to generate genuine new leads. If you make new contacts thanks to a generous recommendation from an existing happy customer you are much more likely to make a sale and enjoy doing business with them in the longer term.
Check what worked in 2020
Look at how well your marketing activities worked last year. Return on investment is important, but it’s also worth looking at response rates and the conversations you had as a result.
Look at traffic to your website, responses on social media and which emails were opened. Then you can start to build on real information to improve your performance this year.
See what’s predicted for 2021
Plenty of well-informed people will be publishing their ideas about trends and changes for the coming year.
They can be a good source of information that can give you useful ideas, alongside your tried and tested approaches. Look at your own market sector and what people think will be popular more widely in the coming months.
Look out for special events
Every year there are special events that you can use to support your marketing. For example, it’s Chinese New Year in February, ideal for restaurants and firework displays. If your brand colour is yellow then St David’s Day on 1 March could be a good opportunity for some customer engagement and fundraising.
Share the good news
Whatever you’re planning to market your business this year, we’ll be happy to discuss how Pulse magazine can help you share your great ideas.
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