Promoting your local business can be a big challenge when you consider who you’re competing with. Not only are you going up against other small business owners, but you’re also competing with massive conglomerates, like Amazon (which spent about $20 billion on marketing alone in 2020). Fortunately, a good marketing strategy can help you stand out, despite not having as big of a budget to allocate to your marketing efforts.

8 Ways to Promote Your Small Business

As a small business, you may be wondering how you can compete with the big players in your industry – particularly when it comes to business promotion. Luckily, there are a number of ways you can promote your small business, even on a shoestring budget. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Set up a Business Website

No digital marketing strategy is complete without a business website. A website will give you a platform to showcase your products or services, display your contact information, and publish content, such as webinars, blog posts, eBooks, and more that help educates visitors about your brand.

Additionally, make sure that you properly optimize your content for SEO (search engine optimization) and that you link to any business profiles you’ve set up on social media (such as your Facebook page).

Finally, if you set up an e-commerce store to compete with Amazon, make sure your website is secure (to protect your customers from credit card fraud and identity theft) by setting up an SSL certificate.

2. Use Email Marketing

Did you know that the ROI for email marketing is around 4200 percent? As such, email marketing can be an incredibly cost-effective way to reach out to your target market and promote your business. You can build your email list by asking leads and customers to sign up for your newsletter. Then, you can use email marketing software (like MailChimp) to send out automated emails with special offers, new product announcements, or helpful tips and advice.

3. Invest in Paid Search Advertising

If you want to reach a larger audience with your marketing campaigns, paid search advertising can be an effective way to do this. Paid search ads appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), meaning they are one of the first things potential customers will see when they search for businesses or products like yours online. They’re also a great way to reach your target audience. Additionally, you can run paid search ads on social media — for example, through Facebook Ads.

4. Build Relationships With Social Media Influencers

Social media marketing in general is a cost-effective way to promote your business on various social networks. However, you can really boost brand awareness by building a relationship with various social media influencers.

Influencers are people who have a large following on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. If you can build relationships with social media influencers in your industry, you can tap into their audience and promote your business to a larger group of potential customers. You can reach out to social media influencers by sending them free products, offering them discounts, or simply engaging with their content.

5. Get Involved With Local Events and Trade Shows

Get involved with local events and trade shows. This is a great way to connect and grow a local customer base in your community and build up brand awareness. You can participate in local networking events, set up a booth at a trade show, sponsor a charity event, or join a business association. Attending local events is also a great way to spread positive word of mouth about your business.

6. Implement a Customer Referral Program

Customer referrals are one of the best ways to promote your small business. After all, if a customer is happy with your products or services, they’re likely to tell their friends and family about you. You can encourage customer referrals by setting up a referral program. This is where you offer customers a discount or other incentive for referring prospective customers to your business.

7. Use Digital Signage

Digital signage is an effective way to promote products and services or spread awareness of your brand. They are much more effective than static signs because they can be updated in real-time and have a more high-quality aesthetic. Additionally, digital signs can be used to target specific demographics or even customers in specific locations.

8. Submit Information to Online Directories

Another great way to promote your small business online is to submit your business information (such as your phone number) to online directories. This includes directories like Google My Business, Yelp, and Angie’s List. By adding your business to these directories, you can improve your visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs), making it more likely that potential customers will find you.

Despite heavy competition from small companies and big companies alike, there are plenty of ways that you can successfully promote your small business without having to break the bank. Using a combination of digital marketing and traditional marketing, you’re bound to attract new customers to your brand.