Develop an SME Marketing Strategy in 5 Steps (+ 5 Free Online Marketing Tools)
For a lot of small business owners, marketing is the elephant in the room.
It’s a topic they either feel too busy or not skilled enough to discuss. So, they don’t bother at all. The trouble is – ignoring the elephant doesn’t make it go away.
At Ebony & Salt, we’re all about making marketing simpler for SME’s. In just five steps, we can help you design a small business marketing strategy that really works. Plus, we’re sharing five free online marketing tools that we love.
Why do we bother with marketing?
There are lots of good reasons that SME’s should jump on the marketing train, such as:
It helps build awareness for your business – bringing new leads in.
It helps build trust in your business – creating repeat customers.
It helps your business grow – bringing in revenue that you can reinvest.
But, there’s more to marketing than printing off a flyer or running a social media ad. Launching a campaign without a clear marketing strategy to back it up is why so many efforts fall flat. These scatter gun approaches can easily throw your time and money away.
A proper marketing strategy will be defined and purposeful. It will help you create steady growth in your business by refining your business offering, identifying your target audience and communicating with them on all the right channels. Here are five steps to building a strategic marketing plan.
Step 1: Identify your four P’s
Before you even think about how to market your business, you need to get clear on what you’re marketing.
The four P’s, also known as the marketing mix, is an easy way for small businesses to break down their offering. The four P’s are: product, place, price and promotion. Using these categories helps clearly define what you plan to sell, where you’ll sell it, how much it will cost and finally, how you’ll entice people to buy it. Read our previous blog for a detailed overview of the four P’s.
Step 2: Set some short-term goals
The long-term goal for any marketing strategy is to bring new customers into the business, and in that case – boost profits. But there are some other short-term goals you can use to check if you’re on track. Building awareness and increasing trust are two of the most common short-term goals.
Building awareness is all about increasing the number of people who have heard of your business. You could do this through sponsoring an event, launching a print ad or online using social media and SEO. Measuring awareness comes down to reach. Even if you didn’t make much money from this campaign, it is considered successful if it reached more people.
Building trust is all about connecting with your audience. You could run an event or webinar, ask for their feedback or write articles that answer their common questions and pain points. Measuring trust comes down to how engaged your audience is with your business. Do they attend your events? Do they answer your survey’s? Do they read your articles? When you have their attention, you have a much higher chance of nurturing them into a purchase.
With short-term goals, you want to check in on their progress and refine them often. When you feel like you’ve reached your goal, it’s time to set a new one.
Step 3: Get your brand under control
A lot of small businesses assume that brands are only for the big players. Maybe that was true when there was only one shop on the local street to choose from. But now, with endless options for every customer, your brand is the reason they choose you over someone else.
We shared more on the eight elements of building a brand in our previous blog. These are:
Logo
Colours
Fonts
Shapes
Imagery
Tone of Voice
Slogans
Personality
If you don’t have each of these defined, it’s worth spending some time building out your brand. You may not need every element as a small business, but you do need more than just a logo.
Speaking of your online brand – you might want to consider some brand protection. It’s rare, but possible, that someone will pick up your brand name online if you haven’t already. Purchasing your website domain and registering for social media handles is one way to ensure you have ownership of your brand voice online.
Step 4: Choose your marketing channels
Now that your business has a solid marketing foundation, it’s time to decide where you’ll spread the word. There are lots of marketing channels available to a business – from traditional options like radio or print ads to 100% online marketing. Choosing your channels is a mix of what’s most cost-effective and where your audience want to hear from you.
One channel we recommend to every SME is a website. You can’t be available to customers 24/7, but your website can. It means that at any time of day or night – people can learn more about who you are, what you do and if you have a shop setup, they can purchase online.
Step 5: Build & launch
The final step is the exciting one – launching your marketing strategy! You’ve put in all the hard work and planning, now it’s time to let it loose. You can use the free online marketing tools that we have shared below to help you build professional campaigns on a budget.
After you launch your marketing, remember to check on progress every month or so. Common things to review include:
Top-performing campaigns
Best times of day or days of the week to share your marketing
Which channels are working well
Which channels, if any, are not up to scratch
Reporting and refining is another time investment that many SME’s prefer to outsource. Not only because they gain the expertise of a marketing professional, but also because finding the time each month is harder than it sounds.
Let’s talk small business budgets
If we’re being honest, budget is a major barrier to SME’s getting their marketing off the ground. Some marketing services will tell you it takes money to make money. They’re not wrong, but they are being generic. Strategic marketing does come with a monetary investment, but a trustworthy marketing expert will help you tailor your marketing to your budget.
Our biggest tip for small business budgets is to start by marketing to your existing customers. They already know and (hopefully) like your business. This makes them a pot of gold. Find ways to incentivise a re-purchase, upsell or cross-sell your products. A simple example is a company that performs maintenance. Setting up reminder emails and text messages is a great way to keep customers loyal to your brand.
What if you have a once-off product or service? Remember that word of mouth is the original marketing technique. Ask your customers for a testimonial or a review to build social proof. This helps your brand stand out in a competitive market. You can also check for user-generated content on social media. If you find some, ask to share it on your own page.
The ultimate question: do you DIY or outsource?
This question comes up a lot for SME’s and it doesn’t have a simple answer. At the end of the day, it’s a personal choice. Some people love learning new skills or already have marketing expertise. Others prefer to stay in their lane and trust an expert with their marketing.
We shared our thoughts on the benefits of outsourcing your marketing in a previous blog. These included:
Saving time
Tapping into years of experience
Access to the latest tech
Ability to scale your marketing
Keeping up with trends
If we had one piece of advice, it’s to realise that both options require an investment. Outsourced marketing usually requires a bigger budget than running it yourself, but it saves time. On the other hand, DIY is a time investment that saves money. The answer for you will be what investment you’re prepared to make.
5 free tools for small business marketing
If you do choose to DIY your marketing efforts, these five free online marketing tools are great for a small business.
Hootsuite for Social Media Management
Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay. If you’re using socials as part of your marketing strategy – you can get great insights with Hootsuite. The platform allows you to schedule your posts in advance, so you can plan upfront for a month’s worth of content. Plus, it has a reporting dashboard that helps you keep track of the best times to post and your best-performing content. Note, however that Hootsuite is only free for 30 days. After your free trial you will need to move to a paid account.
Unsplash & Pexels for Stock Photos
As the saying goes, an image speaks a thousand words. Finding the right image every time is easier with royalty-free stock sites like Unsplash and Pexels. They offer professional quality photography that you can use in all your marketing communications.
Hubspot for Email Marketing
Hubspot is a really powerful CRM that helps you keep track of your customers. For a small business, the free plan is more than enough. We think the best feature is the email marketing which has space for up to 2,000 customer contacts.
Canva for Graphic Design
Not many people realise that Canva first started to help teachers design better yearbooks. The Australian company is now the go-to for graphic design newbies. You can create social posts, website banners, email templates, invitations and so much more.
However, we do want to be clear that we are firmly in the camp that for some design requirements and collateral, nothing can beat the skill and expertise of a qualified graphic designer. Their creativity, experience and efficiency is often the best solution to get the design elements you need.
Google tools for SEO
Even though SEO is a skilled marketing area, Google has spent a lot of time making it accessible to all. They have some great free tools and articles to help you understand the basics. The Google for Small Business hub is the best place to start. A Google My Business profile is also free and easy to use.
Marketing feels simpler with Ebony & Salt
With the skills and experience of an in-house marketing department, Ebony & Salt provide a single touchpoint for small business marketing strategies. As a marketing agency for SME’s, it’s our goal to make marketing simpler for business owners like you.
No matter what stage your business is at – we’re here to help. Get in touch to start planning a marketing strategy.