5 Forgotten, But Effective Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses

In business, marketing strategies equals customers, customers equals money, and money equals profit. To reach your business goals, it’s necessary to be smart and intentional with your marketing approach. It’s not the easiest thing to do. There are a few things to be considered and key among them is detailed market research, identifying your target audience, the marketing budget, the penetration strategies, and after sales strategies.

The success rate of your business is likely to increase when you approach marketing in a more strategic data driven way rather than following just your gut. It’s the very reason you will see marketing strategies that do wonders for some other businesses but once you try to implement them, it turns into a loss instead.

There are a few  marketing strategies that work across most industries no matter what business you do, whether it is a service or product, and are very practical considering the current times we live in. Here are 5 practical marketing strategies that will make a difference in your marketing approach.

1. WhatsApp status and broadcast messages:

 A lot of people, especially the younger generation are plugged into WhatsApp which is a free space that reaches a lot of people. As a business, when you share one image to your friend or to a group you are in, it reaches 100s who you don’t know for free. Try it out. Like I said, whether you are a service or product, just get a nice short message and one or two clear pictures strictly.

Do not clutter your potential customers with too much. It’s likely to lead to negative feedback. Make sure to include your number and Instagram or Facebook handles, and location. Feel free to ask them to forward the message and pictures or post as well. You would be surprised who will text or call that they saw your product or service.

2. Endorsements: 

Product endorsement by customers and even family and friends has quickly gained traction. A good marketing strategy to build trust in the quality of your product is to have small versions of your service or available for selected people to have a feel or a taste of what you offer. Though this appears to be a slow process, it is a guaranteed way of building trust that your customers will get what they sampled. This method generates more referrals and recommendations and those lead to more customers.

3. Make it a family thing:

The other marketing strategies that are sometimes overlooked is using your spouse and siblings to sell you in their workplaces and your kids to advertise in their schools. If for example you have a son or daughter in SHS or JHS or University, they can share what you sell with their friends and those friends can let their parents know and patronize. Allow your kids to be ambassadors for your business. If you are one of our cherished millennial entrepreneurs, use your siblings or your friends to be ambassadors for you in their school and offices and such.

4. Offer It Up:

Once in a while you have to give some to gain some. There are quite a number of events springing up. Along with those events is the opportunity for you to market what you have. From personal experience, I have become a patron of a yoghurt brand because she brought samples to an event I attended. When doing this, it is important to have your brand name, logo, contact and other relevant details visible.

5. Make the most of packaging:

It is not the most direct way to market but everyone of us remembers that pretty bag or wrapping or packaging from something we bought and we are eager to put it online. For my services out here, the packaging is the appearance of your staff, your location, your equipment and tools. Just make sure it is all snapchat or instagram worthy.

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