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An organized small business person understands the importance of harnessing effective advertising practices for online promotions. Below we have listed several small business advertising ideas designed specifically for online promotion and marketing. I’ve pulled these tips from the Break Through Advertising by Eugene Schwartz.
Video Marketing
From instructional videos and how-to content to demonstrations of products and services, video marketing provides a world of opportunity. In the current business setup, there are a number of different methods to carry out video marketing. Before moving forward, it’s important to mention how video marketing can be used for all types of businesses. Many of my clients use video marketing for their blog, e-commerce product videos, and content marketing strategies.
Starting a YouTube channel to outreach using video content works in a similar way to other social media platforms. It also helps with Google sourcing video. Unlike videos posted on other social media platforms, Google does not source that material. For this reason alone, taking advantage of two most used search engines (Google and YouTube) is beneficial.
Facebook video popularity exponentially grows in each year. The social media giant promotes uploaded Facebook videos more than YouTube videos. Facebook wants users to remain within its ecosystem as it profits more from advertising) Plus, videos posted to Facebook are easily shared on Instagram.
Blogging
While it does take time to create a well-crafted post, blogging is one of the best ways a small business can open itself up to the outside while also improve its standing on search engines.
Once on the search engine, blogging provides an additional way for search engine visitors to discover the business website. The blog post also keeps search engines crawling the website, which in itself helps improve search engine optimization.
Beyond providing helpful information to users, possibly drawing them back to the business for further (and future) insights, blogs can be shared on varying social media platforms. A single blog link can be shared on Facebook, linked on Twitter, uploaded to LinkedIn, shared on Reddit, referenced on Instagram and sourced from a number of other different outlets.
Email Marketing
One of the most effective small business advertising ideas for online marketing is also one of the oldest. Email marketing offers an inexpensive method for not just staying connected with current customers but to extend information, sales, and information to potential customers.
A number of different email marketing techniques are available. A drip marketing campaign provides varying messages to email recipients depending on how they react to a previous message. Smart implementations of follow-up emails, surveys, abandoned cart emails and so much more can increase or maintain stable income for any business.
Offering an email newsletter keeps recipients abreast of the latest changes, updates, and services from a company as well. There are a number of ways to build an email list. Some methods include simply saving an email address at the point of purchase and providing special offers and services to website visitors. Companies such as Dollar Shave Club have built email lists of hundreds of thousands of subscribers in a short period of time by offering a quality service, product or experience in return.
Hashtags
A hashtag, when used properly, opens up a number of powerful networking tools. It’s more than creating a business related hashtag. Beyond this, a company needs to use current hashtags to both grow influence, connect with other small businesses and build a following.
A number of small business based hashtags exist. This can include everything from “#startups” to
“#marketing,” “#entrepreneurs,” to “#smallbiz” and so on. When typing in these hashtags into a social media platform built to accept and easily connect users using the hashtag (such as Twitter or Instagram), the service will recommend additional hashtags. It is important to avoid overpopulating a message with hashtags. However, it does allow for easier connectivity on the social platforms and even establishes important networking opportunities, all with the help of a properly used hashtag.
Visual Marketing
As cliche as it sounds – a picture can say a thousand words. However, the only way a visual has this kind of power is if a target demographic actually sees the visual. One of the best ways to do this is to market your product on visual-based social media platforms.
Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest are a few of the biggest visual-based social media services on the Internet. Each provides a unique opportunity to both connect with a target audience and create marketing material. Unlike Facebook, which has multiple columns of information and a number of potential attention disruptions, Instagram is a single column and designed for mobile viewing.
An easy way to create beautiful visuals is to harness the power of Canva.com.
Use Social Media Influencers
The amount of money it takes to advertise on social media to reach hundreds of thousands of individuals within a key demographic may be far out of the advertising budget of a small business. However, there are other ways to reach this number of prospective customers: use social media influencer.
A social media influencer is someone who has amassed a large following on a particular platform (usually on multiple platforms). This may be someone who posts about fashion content or another who reviews dog treats or music. There are social media influencers in every industry and niche. Followers of this influencer share a similar interest, which means just about everyone who subscribes to the particular individual will see a post he or she makes.
By connecting with a social media influencer, a business can pay the individual to post, comment, and
review or demonstrate the company’s products and services on their social media platform. In a way, it works like a celebrity endorsement, only at a smaller scale.
In Conclusion
By taking advantage of these small business advertising ideas for online promotion and marketing, any company, regardless of industry or size, has the ability to thrive. Continual monitoring of the analytical data does prove necessary to identify progress and ways to improve the advertising approach, but each of these ideas offers a starting point for small businesses. It’s up to a company to take these ideas and make each work for its individual needs.
