Treat your customers right: here are some ideas they will love about your small business
Small businesses face the unique challenge of having few resources and a big need to get their message out to their audience. This can be overwhelming for small business owners, who sometimes opt to forgo marketing entirely.
However, small business marketing doesn’t need to be a brainbuster. Here are four small business marketing ideas your customers will love.
Partner with Other Local Businesses
One of the best ways to boost your notoriety in the community and stand out against the competition is to work with other local businesses. Look at complementary businesses that add value to your offering without being a form of competition.
For example, a local insurance provider can sponsor a dollar coffee day at the local cafe, in return for the cafe using custom coffee sleeves advertising the insurance business. A fitness center can partner with a local farmers market or fruit stand to offer an affordable, convenient post-workout snack that will pad the farmers market’s sales while creating a unique offering.
Look to your local Chamber of Commerce and make a list of businesses you could reach out to for a partnership. Think of a way that your businesses can help one another out and set up a pitch meeting.
Add a Personal Touch to Your Social Media
It’s important to have a social media presence to connect with your audience. However, the last thing the modern consumer wants is another business pushing product all the time or canned, robotic responses.
Use your social media to create a human-centric platform to create or curate content that gets through the noise online. The person in charge of your social media should be personable and funny while remaining professional. Their voice should fit the brand.
If you own a small car parts retail store in a small town, having someone you’d expect to find hanging out in the garage on the weekend is the ideal voice, as unconventional as it may seem. If you own a coffee shop that has a large millennial customer base, sharing memes and adding humor to your responses will improve your reach.
Create Videos
Creating videos is not only a free and easy way to reach customers, but they also tend to rank higher in social media algorithms. Videos are a great way to connect with your customers quickly and share information that is both valuable to them, and easy for you to put together.
For example, a small cafe might do a demonstration on how to make the perfect cup of coffee, showcasing their pour-over technique. A local gym might show how to execute a deadlift with proper form. An insurance company might share the answer to a frequently asked question and end it with a call-to-action that encourages people to come in for a conversation.
Lunch and Learn
Take your show on the road by pitching businesses to host a lunch-and-learn event for their employees. Lunch and learns benefit employers, as they act as an employee engagement activity. Lunch and learns benefit you because they give you the undivided attention of an audience who could become customers.
This form of marketing works really well for some types of small businesses, like financial advisors, for example. You may have to get creative in your presentation ideas if you have an unconventional business. If you own a restaurant, show your audience how to make a delicious, gourmet salad-dressing or share a seasoning mix. These can also be takeaways with printed labels – an advertisement that will sit in a potential customer’s home.
When you’re trying to stand out from the competition, look at what everyone else is doing and draw from it. Put together some of your favorite ideas and create something that’s totally unique and new. Trial and error a few ideas until you find something that fits.
