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10 Effective Marketing Strategies for Your Small Business

Posted by Early Growth

April 7, 2015    |     3-minute read (492 words)

Have you ever wished you knew which marketing efforts yield the biggest payoffs? That way you could better focus your limited resources on avenues most likely to deliver positive returns. Actually you can.

A recent survey from Infusionsoft found the following marketing strategies to be the most effective:

  • Word-of-mouth (62%)
  • Email marketing (34%)
  • Social media (23%)

The least effective strategies were:



  • Print ads (8%)
  • Pay-per-click ads (8%)
  • TV/radio ads (2%)

Let’s look at good ways to use the most effective marketing strategies:



Word-of-mouth marketing



Encourage online reviews and testimonials.



Then share all the positive remarks on social media, on your website as well as in your marketing emails and newsletters.

Build relationships with influential bloggers and journalists.



Influencers typically generate three times more word-of-mouth messages; and each message has four times more impact on a recipient’s purchasing decision.

Highlight your customers.



Encourage your clients to talk about you with their friends and family by interviewing them for your blog, featuring them on social media as “customer of the month,” asking them to submit photos and videos of their experience with your brand, etc.

Email marketing



Write attention-grabbing subject lines. Email marketing only works if the recipients open the email, so entice your readers with a fascinating tidbit (like a mind-blowing statistic), a question, or a bold statement. Focus on piquing curiosity.

Only share valuable, relevant information.



Far too many emails and newsletters are all about the small business rather than the customer. Only share the information that is most valuable to your customers, like upcoming events, special discounts, insider tips, new products or services, etc.

Segment your lists for personalization.



You serve different markets with different challenges and needs, so personalizing a newsletter for each market (segment) is a must if you want to send them relevant information (and you do!).

Social media



Share visual content.



People like visual content! We find it engaging, and we comment on, like, share, and otherwise interact with it. Start prioritizing visual content — it will make a huge difference to your engagement levels.

Focus on the networks your customers and target markets actively use.



By spending your time, money, and effort on the networks they use, you will see increased engagement. If you are unsure where your customers spend their time, ask them!

Provide customer service.



People will complain to you on social media, and no matter how wrong they might be, always take the high road. Respond quickly, apologize for their experience, and offer a resolution.

Monika Jansen is a Copywriter and Editor who is happiest pounding out blog posts, website content, and other marketing materials for her clients, mostly startups and professional service providers. She is a blogger for GrouponWorks Merchant Blog GrowSmartBiz and the Managing Editor of UberStories. You can follow her on Twitter or find her on LinkedIn.

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