{"id":45487,"date":"2020-10-14T20:34:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T13:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/act.com\/marketing-techniques\/"},"modified":"2023-03-21T10:50:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T17:50:34","slug":"marketing-techniques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/products.act.com\/en-gb\/marketing-techniques\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Marketing Techniques Every Small Business Should Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In the early stages of a business, choosing a viable\u00a0marketing strategy<\/a> can be a challenge. More often than not, you are working on a tight budget, which basically means that you can\u2019t risk making the wrong decision. Moreover, there is such an abundance of marketing-related information on the internet, that it can become hard to know where to start. Should you create a sales funnel that funnels leads from your social media to a landing page, or should you conduct market research and try to build a buyer persona first? How to know what would work best for your business?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that your business has a unique business model and a niche target market. It would be natural to assume that what worked for say company A (from industry X) might not work for you. However, there are some effective, universal marketing techniques that any business can benefit from, regardless of what it sells. In the following sections, we will talk about some of those marketing techniques for small businesses:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t neglect SEO<\/h2>\n

As a customer, what\u2019s the first thing you do when you want to purchase a product or a service? You search for it on Google, of course. What\u2019s the next thing you do? You go through the results on the first page and look for a suitable match. You rarely go to the second page (if at all), right? After all, why would you? You trust Google enough to know that it displayed the best results for you, first. As a business owner, you must strive to make your website rank as high in these search engine results as possible. You can do this by improving your website\u2019s\u00a0search engine optimisation (SEO).<\/em><\/p>\n

Google, and other search engines, have a huge list of websites to search from. Using\u00a0SEO<\/a>, you can make your website easy to find and thus rank higher in the results. So how do you get started? First, you begin with an SEO audit. Websites like SEMrush<\/a>\u00a0offer great insight regarding your website\u2019s SEO status. You can know your website\u2019s strengths and weaknesses, along with the organic keywords that lead visitors to your website. From there, you can identify areas of improvement. As a first step, revamp your website\u2019s content to incorporate relevant keywords more appropriately. Then, focus on other avenues of SEO building like\u00a0backlinking and social signals etc.\u00a0<\/a>We’ve put together a list of free SEO tools\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0that can help you implement an effective SEO strategy.<\/p>\n

Advertise on Facebook<\/h2>\n

More than\u00a02 million<\/a> businesses are advertising on Facebook, and there are good reasons why. No matter what age, demographic, or location your target market might have, they can be reached via Facebook. To say that it\u2019s one of the most effective ways to market in the modern world, won\u2019t be an overstatement.<\/p>\n

The best part about\u00a0Facebook ads<\/a>\u00a0is that they are immensely targeted. You can choose an audience on the basis of gender, location, online behaviour, occupation, age, and many other factors. Creating an ad on Facebook is also fairly straightforward. All you need is a catchy headline, a succinct description, an image, and a link. You can manage your ads and track their progress easily using the Facebook ad manager.<\/p>\n

Content Marketing<\/h2>\n

Content marketing<\/a> involves posting relevant, informative content on a regular basis, to attract and retain visitors to your website. Content marketing might not yield tangible benefits immediately (like paid advertising), but it\u2019s a very effective long-term strategy. If you are able to identify the needs, pain points, and challenges of your target audience, then you can post content on your website that relates to them on an emotional level, opening numerous possibilities for profitable customer actions. The content you create must be:<\/p>\n