7 Marketing Strategies Small Businesses Should Consider To Ensure Its Effective Management

Small businesses are the key to local development.

According to statistics, small businesses made up 99.9 percent of all businesses in the United States and accounted for 1.6 million new jobs in 2020.

Also, small and medium-sized businesses generate more than 60 percent of new private-sector jobs, even though many have fewer than 20 employees.

There are currently around 3 million small businesses in Spain, being one of the sectors that promote development, mainly in the autonomous communities of the country.

And each month, approximately half a million local businesses that value the environment and give back to their community open their doors. In addition, they operate resources sustainably.

However, statistics also indicate that more than 30 percent of small businesses have ceased operations since the COVID-19 crisis and only around 50 percent survive after 5 years.

The main problems that force the closure of these businesses include low sales and the negative organization of marketing strategies.

Small business owners know that managing Local Marketing or Micromarketing strategies can be difficult. It is difficult to attract customers and create a competitive advantage that makes a difference, especially in the case of SMEs with limited budgets.

But, we must know that it is ESSENTIAL for a small company to invest in marketing, because:

• We gain visibility and attract potential customers
• We set goals to interact with users so that they get to know us and get to know them too
• We study the needs to which we wish to respond with our offer and its market
• We learn more about how customers see our products and brand, and we can transform based on it
• We add value to the community and get our contacts involved
• We gain new skills and make necessary contacts to grow the customer base and increase sales

As we can see, it is a priority for a small business to develop an effective marketing strategy, to attract customers and make a difference.

Referral Marketing is one of the modern trends that will allow us to guide a Micromarketing strategy, focused on local business development without considering high expenses outside our budget.

Through recommendations of close contacts and rewards, we will retain the audience and turn our customers into brand promoters, thus reaching more users.

We share 7 tips to promote an effective marketing strategy in a small business:

1- Study the Audience
For a small business, targeting the right audience is essential. By developing a strategy that focuses on your ideal customer, you will be able to reach more people and study new markets.

To address the audience effectively we must:

• Know the target market
• Define our action niche
• Research the competition
• Analyze data related to our customers
• Segment the audience
• Adapt the message to our ideal client

2- Make the company reknown
There are several digital strategies to publicize our business, always seeking to reach our close contacts to maintain a loyal audience.

One of the marketing tactics is email marketing, through reminders, invitations, offers, discounts, etc.

Also, social media marketing through the use of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can promote the business.

Let's not forget search engine optimization (SEO) to improve the website and the use of online marketing tools like Google AdWords or Facebook Ads to target specific audiences.

3- Reach agreements with influential people in the community or Influencers
The power of influencers, whose profiles are loaded with online followers and can influence their opinions, is essential to promoting our product or service.

Associations of companies and influencers are common within Referral marketing, so we must take it into account in our strategy.

4- Use customer retention strategies such as rewards, incentives, and discounts
Rewards are one of the elements that distinguish Referral Marketing. When the user is rewarded for attracting his contacts, he also becomes loyal and stays with our company.

That is why we must establish customer retention strategies such as discount offers on products or services or a free item with the purchase.

Also within loyalty programs, we must devise rewards and incentives that are valuable to our users and do not harm the budget.

5- Empower customers
Empowering customers is key to an effective Referral Marketing program. Empowering them to actively participate in our company's decisions will help us direct the strategy according to their tastes and preferences.

To achieve this, we must interact and connect with customers and share information about the business.

We can do this by blogging about the latest trends, news, and events related to the business, developing a newsletter, or using social media and storytelling to inspire the community with stories.

6- Measure and track marketing tactics
Measuring the success of the campaign will help us know if we are on the right track and better understand our business, customers, and what works in the company.

There are several platforms for measuring social media metrics with free and paid plans. The best known are Hootsuite, Buffer, and Zoho.

But the most popular social networks already have their built-in metrics, which allow us to track interaction, involvement, and other aspects related to our clients.

Let's not forget to follow the web statistics analytics to track incoming links, unique visitors for various pages, and the breakdown of visitors by location.

7- Automate and use CRM software to optimize Marketing
An automated CRM system can manage mailings, and track metrics, among many other things that will help us save time to spend on other tasks and will also guarantee an additional return on investment.