Scaling your startup is an essential step for every business. However, it's also the step that leads to the downfall of countless great business ventures due to poor planning, lack of knowledge, and the absence of a strong digital marketing strategy. Experts report that even in a normal year, eleven out of twelve startups fail.

The past eighteen months compounded this issue, stopping countless brands in their tracks and even causing the premature demise of long-standing staples in the community. It is hard enough for a startup to survive the initial scaling process, but is it possible to do so effectively even in a crisis event?

Below, we'll dive into ten of the best low-budget digital marketing tips to scale your startup in times of crisis.

1. Adjust the Way You Communicate with Your Audience

In times of crisis, consider how every individual is impacted, not just your bottom line. A greater percentage of your audience is likely to be struggling with employment issues or facing economic hardships. With that in mind, the last thing people want is to be inundated with advertisements that encourage them to spend more money on your startup business. However, going radio silent is not an option, either.

Instead, use this opportunity to adjust the way you approach your audience. Make the effort to speak about current events and remind your audience that you are there for them. This includes going out of your way to share frequent updates about how the crisis is impacting your business and its ability to interact with customers. This can include changes to business hours, changes to services, expected shipping delays, and any other information that can help the individual plan ahead.

A strong tip for any business owner, even who has just finished an MVP process, or marketer, in times of crisis or not, is to invest in the customer. Always remember that they are an individual with their own story and a problem that needs solving. Your brand offers a solution to that problem. Let them know that you will remain as reliable as always, and they will likely become more loyal to you than ever.

You can reflect these changes in communication by doubling down on your email marketing campaign efforts. You can use these to highly target specific users at various stages of the buyer's journey. Remember to adjust the way you communicate to different types of consumers to reflect the context of world events whenever possible or relevant. Remind your audience that while you may be a business, there are still people behind that business that cares.

2. SEO Remains As Vital As Always

No matter what is happening throughout the world, SEO (search engine optimization) is always going to be a primary strategy for bolstering your startup online.

Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your brand's website to ensure that you receive the maximum amount of traffic possible. Search engines determine your SEO value through several factors including the quality of content on the site, loading speeds, image and video sizes, and overall user engagement.

SEO is also extremely cost-effective, making it an essential marketing strategy regardless of your current financial situation. However, in the context of a crisis, other businesses and startups may scale back key marketing efforts like their SEO. This is a mistake.

Working to the top of the ranks through strong SEO is an ongoing battle against competitors. Brands that make it to the top of search results only stay there through relentless strategic effort. Dialing back those efforts can cause anyone to fall down the ranks in a matter of days. With this in mind, sticking to your SEO efforts in the time of a crisis may yet yield the best results for your brand.

While other companies begin to slide due to poor budget management or poor strategy decisions, you can capitalize on their mistakes and help your startup begin to scale.

3. Double Down on Content Marketing

If you spend any time at all researching marketing strategies for your startup, you will undoubtedly see the phrase Content is king. The value of a strong content marketing strategy cannot be overstated.

You can think of content marketing as the soft sell whereas a paid advertising campaign would be a hard sell. Content marketing is there to provide your audience with valuable content that keeps them engaged. This content can and should be educational, entertaining, and provide value to their everyday life. Content marketing can include articles, blog posts, video clips, podcasts, and much more.

Content can provide you with an advantage as you can naturally tailor your content to reflect real-world events and experiences. If you look at the COVID-19 epidemic as an example, you will notice that every proactive business made the effort to create content that was relevant to our rapidly changing environment. However, rather than just including the crisis for the sake of using the keyword, you should look for an opportunity to make your startup's services or products relevant to the problems people may be facing during the crisis.

A strong content calendar also feeds directly into tip number two and will continue to bolster your SEO efforts. As you continue to provide free content of value to your audience, your audience will continue to support your brand and help drive you to the top of search rankings.

4. Stay Strong on Social Media, Too

While portions of your audience may be dealing with a major crisis in their way, their online activity is certainly not impacted. Being stuck at home is significantly driving up the number of hours we spend visiting websites from laptops and desktop computers. For social media, experts suggest that we are spending as much as two additional hours per day on social media.

Social media is now a vital part of any solid digital marketing strategy. Facebook already stands as one of the most widely used paid advertising platforms online, while other platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube continue to grow. It is inherently a conversational platform and provides a great opportunity for your brand to provide instantaneous communication and build real relationships.

As technology improves, consumers are becoming savvier regarding marketing strategies every day. Rather than desperately advertising your startup to survive, make the concerted effort to prove your brand to be unique, trustworthy, and loyal. In a crisis when times are tough for everyone, consumers are eagerly looking for those who have their best interests in mind. The sales will come naturally to your startup if you provide something real to your consumers first.

5. Take Advantage of PPC Platforms

This tip may sound counterintuitive for a startup during a crisis where the budget is tight, but consider that marketing budgets are tight for everyone.

PPC campaigns generally work through a bidding system. You and your direct competitors place bids on specific keywords, and the highest bidder wins that advertising spot at the top of keywords. During times where other businesses may scale back their budget, there may be an opportunity for you to capitalize and secure premium advertising for a lower cost than you normally would.

Additionally, platforms like Google and Facebook feature built-in smart technology that automatically tracks and gathers all the valuable data you need for your campaigns. You can set your budget for the month to ensure that you never overspend. As you gather data, you can further tailor your campaigns to hyper-target customers that are ready to engage, while also looking for potential new audiences with the actionable data you gather.

This tip may not be the solution for every startup, but it is worthwhile to research and determine if the potential ROI is worthwhile. Attempting to make others' disadvantages your key to scaling your startup today.

6. Begin Looking for New Audiences

If you're considering scaling your startup, then you should already feel completely secure in your products and services and the audience consuming them. If you experience any hesitation regarding this fact, then you are running the risk of scaling your business prematurely. However, for those that are ready, it may be time to start branching out and expanding your business's reach.

Continuing from the previous point regarding paid ads, your past campaigns should feature a treasure trove of valuable information and statistics regarding your current consumer base. You can take advantage of that data and use your ad accounts to apply that data to new users. These are called lookalike audiences and these new users will feature characteristics that they have in common with those who already buy your products.

Combining these tools with the fact that more consumers are spending more time online during a time of crisis, you have a great opportunity to connect with more prospects. Additionally, when you're confident in the heart and soul of your brand, you can begin to explore how your startup can help individuals outside of your usual scope. A key part of this is learning to adapt to new digital channels that new potential customers spend their time on.

Remember the basics - stay authentic to your brand, spend more time listening to your audience and learning about their needs, and let them tell you how your brand might be able to improve their lives.

7. Reassess Your Marketing Metrics

While many of our tips encourage you to be bold during a time of crisis, you still need to remain sensible and constantly analyze all of the metrics that you receive from your marketing efforts. If a campaign is not working out, look at the data, analyze what works and what doesn't, and scrub out anything that's not getting you the profitable results you need.

You're not left to guesswork, either. Social media and paid ad platforms offer A/B testing tools, which allow you to push different versions of a single ad to your audience. Your campaign will gather data in real-time and allow you to determine what aspects of your marketing and which do not.

Your audience itself is the best form of feedback possible. With the conversational nature of social platforms, you should remain engaged and allow your audience to tell you what works and what doesn't. Digital marketing is a constant, never-ending analytical process and a rapidly changing landscape. If you find yourself standing still, you've already missed the boat for the next opportunity.

8. Adjust Your Offerings if Applicable

While countless businesses failed during the recent crisis, others were able to adapt and thrive despite the circumstances. Adaptability is one of the most powerful characteristics a startup needs to survive. However, this trait will not just help you during this initial scaling process but will benefit you throughout the lifespan of your business.

A strong example of this comes with the foodservice industry. Countless restaurants and dining facilities were able to mobilize and enact a plan to offer safe and effective take-out solutions for the community. They analyzed the situation, saw that many consumers were restricted to their homes and missing the outside world, and provided a simple solution that benefitted both parties.

In an office or school setting, teams were able to rapidly adjust with the help of technology. Employers and employees were able to function just as effectively through online communication. They could then extend their services to customers who were interested in continuing service with the company through the web.

Even if you did not originally envision your startup functioning a certain way, take a deep look at the crisis and see if your brand can offer new solutions for customers despite the circumstances. If you are unable to adapt to challenging circumstances, there will always be a competitor that is happy to step up and help your customers out instead.

9. Educate Yourself and Secure Emergency Funding

In times of crisis, your government may have a variety of solutions available to help your startup survive. It is in the best interest of the community for businesses to survive and for economic activity to continue. Therefore, as a business owner, you must educate yourself regarding solutions that may be available to you including emergency funding, tax breaks, or emergency suspensions of fees you may otherwise be responsible for.

For example, the Small Business Administration features a variety of programs that can assist with payroll, debt relief, emergency funding and grants, and much more. Accepting help where you need it is not accepting failure, but being a smart business owner that protects the best interests of yourself and your employees.

Source: Marketers Mindset Webinars

10. Be Dependable to Those Who Need You

While other businesses make the mistake of reacting poorly to a crisis, it's that lack of stability and reliability that contributes greatly to failure. Remember that even the most loyal audience does not give you their business out of charity, but out of an expected level of quality and dependence on the product or service you provide.

With that in mind, it's essential to maintain a level head, analyze the crisis, and find ways to adapt your strategies to your new circumstances. Your audience, and also your team, is already experiencing rapid change and anxiety as a result of these new experiences. That provides your brand with the opportunity to solidify itself as a dependable rock for the community.

Continue to provide valuable content and regular updates to those who interact with you online. Stay involved in the conversation on social media and be sure to remain totally aware of how your audience receives your communications. Finally, offer meaningful solutions to new problems your audience may be facing whenever possible as a result of this new crisis. Being reliable and valuable no matter what will single-handedly give you a huge advantage over competitors who cannot adapt.

As a business owner, you know that digital marketing is no longer optional in 2021. However, you can only continue your ongoing success by choosing the form of marketing that's going to get you the best return on your investment.

In this article, we will give you the inside knowledge you need to become an expert when it comes to content marketing vs paid ads. You will also learn how the two work effectively together to make a good business like yours stand out among the best.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a mostly free method of advertising your business online. The focus of content marketing is to educate and/or entertain your audience as opposed to being an explicit promotion of your brand.

This form of marketing includes anything that attracts and retains an audience including blog posts, well-researched articles, video content, social media posts, and more. You and your team can produce all of this content, and the advent of technology has made it easier than ever for anyone to produce quality content marketing.

Not only is content marketing accessible, but it is also effectively mandatory. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 91% of B2B survey respondents use some form of content marketing to drive profits.

Sources: Content Marketing Institute

The Pros and Cons of Content Marketing

The Pros

Perhaps the most attractive benefit of content marketing is its cost-effectiveness. When compared to paid advertising and other digital strategies, content marketing is a minuscule investment. It can be virtually free if you choose to create content yourself as opposed to hiring a content marketing expert.

Content marketing also comes from organic searches. Users are Google searching questions every day to become more informed about a product, service, or industry before spending their hard-earned dollars. Answering those questions is an excellent step into content marketing and attracts a better quality of lead than you would get through expensive paid advertisements.

By suggesting valuable content to your audience naturally, you get to look like the hero that provides something meaningful without asking for anything in return. The knowledge gained through your content marketing also builds your reputation and helps you stand out as an authority in your field. Over time, that organic traffic will accumulate and you will have users coming to you without needing to pay them for their time.

The Cons

The largest downside of content marketing is that it simply takes time. Creating a few videos or posting a few articles will do little in the short term to help your business turn a profit. If you are a business that lacks an online presence and needs new customers now, you'll need to look to other solutions like paid advertising to get your foot in the door. While still a very much worthwhile investment, content marketing is for the long term.

The additional con is that while anyone can create content freely, there's more to it than putting words on a page or talking into a microphone. Not only does your content need to provide legitimate value, but it also needs to work together with your overall marketing strategies including your SEO, which determines your overall search rankings online.

Fortunately, this con is mostly alleviated by the availability of knowledgeable writers that provide affordable services freelance or through digital marketing agencies.

What is Paid Advertising?

Paid advertising is a marketing strategy that involves bidding for keywords or phrases to secure premium advertising at the top of search engine results. Paid advertising is also commonly referred to as PPC or pay-per-click. You pay every time a user clicks on or engages with your paid advertisement.

Paid advertising is a commonly used, and often necessary, marketing strategy employed on websites such as Google, Bing, Facebook, and YouTube. You can differentiate paid ads versus organic results by looking for the Ad tag next to top results with true, organic results appearing below.

According to a survey conducted by Statista, brands spent 110 billion dollars on paid search in 2020, with that value expected to rise in 2021 and 2022. Paying to cut to the front of the line will always remain a valuable strategy as commercial activity transitions more and more to the digital landscape.

Sources: Statista

The Pros and Cons of Paid Advertising

The Pros

The number one pro that comes from using paid advertising is guaranteed visibility. For the right price, your brand will be the first thing users see any time they type a keyword or question into the world's most popular search engines. Seeing your brand at number one will always be valuable, and will be necessary for brands that otherwise have no foundation built online yet.

While the cost varies greatly depending upon the industry, each of these platforms offers incredible technology that can automatically adjust campaigns and regulate your budget so that you never overspend or waste time pursuing dead ends. That same technology also allows for precise targeting of individuals from varying demographics as well as those at varying stages of the buyer journey.

Paid advertising effectively offers dependable, predictable results and is one of the best ways to start building your brand online. This gets you the results you need upfront, while you cultivate long-term strategies to improve your organic rankings over time.

The Cons

The largest drawback of paid advertising is the budget required to compete with other businesses bidding for the same advertising spots. However, this is more of a warning than a guarantee, as some industries are far less competition for keywords, making PPC ads more affordable. With that said, when you stop paying, you lose your spot immediately.

Paid advertising may also prove more difficult as consumers are catching on to our marketing strategies. The truth is, we all dislike advertisements. They are everywhere we look - television, emails, online videos, search results, website browsing, and so on. Seeing the word Ad stamped next to your brand may be off-putting and make you appear less authentic or trustworthy. Additionally, more and more consumers are using ad blockers to remove your paid ad campaign from the equation altogether.

Should I Use Content Marketing or Paid Advertising?

Based upon the pros and cons of each, you can see that content marketing and paid to advertise actually complement the other's weaknesses effectively. Digital marketing experts will consistently recommend the use of both to help build your brand online and earn you results both in the short term, while you build of a stronger foundation for lasting results.

For example, Business A has no experience in digital marketing and needs to see a return on its investment immediately. They began a PPC ad campaign on Google to start getting customers into your digital storefront. In the meantime, they also begin publishing informative articles, engaging videos, and other forms of content that keep the audience engaged after the paid advertisements get them inside.

Over time, that content library begins to speak for itself, and search engines begin to trust Business A's website more, allowing them to rank higher organically. Brand reputation improves, consumer loyalty and trust improves, and your paid advertising budget goes down as you no longer need to pay for higher rankings.

Finally, consider that your paid ad campaigns also require great content to be effective. No matter what you pay, a user will ignore an ad that's bland, boring, or uninspired. Content marketing strategies work effectively in paid advertising campaigns by empowering your audience with the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions.

When considering the question of content marketing vs paid advertising, the answer is clear - use both whenever possible. Take advantage of the powerful PPC tools the industry has to offer to get immediate results, and cultivate a library of engaging content that builds your reputation, earns consumer trust, and ensures that your ROI remains consistent well into the future.

“If you deprive yourself of outsourcing and your competitors do not, you’re putting yourself out of business.” – Lee Kuan Yew, Former Prime Minister of Singapore

Are you thinking seriously about implementing social media in your marketing strategy?

Social media has emerged as one of the most potent marketing channels for businesses of all sizes in the past decade. It offers organizations a way to reach millions of potential customers easily.

But social media management is no easy task. For some, outsourcing can be the best option, and it will be inevitable in the future. However, businesses are still reluctant to outsource as they believe it involves a lot of risks.

When you allow someone to use your social handles, they become your brand voice and the face of your company. Whatever they say or do will be considered as bona fide communication from your company. A minor lapse or a casual attitude may damage your brand. That’s the reason people don’t allow someone else to handle their social media accounts.

If you have adequate time and a skilled workforce, it is best to manage the social media of your brand yourself. It will save money and a lot of hassle. However, that is not always possible.

Why Do You Need to Outsource Social Media Marketing?

Below are some reasons where outsourcing can be the best option:

1. Professional Know-How

A social media specialist is trained to reach the desired audience using the best-targeted ad strategies. They will also provide expert help and suggestions to create your social strategy. Moreover, they can utilize social media to improve your business reach.

Furthermore, if you hire the services of a white label social media agency, you get access to experienced professionals who are well-versed with marketing and public relations. You also get the benefit of working with a team of professionals who can collaborate to produce the best results.

2. Platform-Specific Knowledge

Different platforms have different focuses and user bases. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn all have different audiences, and a social media expert knows which platform/s will be the most effective to use for your business. Using the wrong platform means wasting your precious time and money only to see no concrete results.

Consistent brand messaging on the right platforms will always yield positive results.

3. Get Access to the Best Tools

Tools provide you with better insights into your clients' target audience to produce better results. You also need the best social media tools for content creation, designing, publishing, and measuring content performance. It's also applicable to measuring the performance of your social media posts and analyzing what works best for you.

However, buying subscriptions to these tools can be very expensive, especially for startups. It doesn't make sense to invest in these costly tools if you're not planning to launch a separate social media department as an agency or business.

When you outsource from a reputed white label Facebook Ads service to run your social media campaigns, you get the advantage of the best-paid tools. Your white-label online marketing teams must have access to significant premium tools needed to beat the competition. These tools will provide you the necessary insights into your social media campaigns so that you can tweak them accordingly.

If you are an agency and want to avail of white label social media services from DashClicks, you get access to a CRM Dashboard. It will help you manage tasks easily and also come in handy for your clients.

It will create a truly transformational experience for your clients, where you can access everything related to your client's campaign through one simple login.

It will automatically onboard and add clients to your white-labeled dashboard in seconds. It will also allow clients to access their intuitive reporting dashboards from a straightforward login, all under your brand. You can effortlessly build trust through our thoughtfully crafted dashboards that create trust when working with clients.

Apart from that, there are many other reasons why you need professional social media services.

1. They help you craft appealing content that comes with the right hashtags and promotional techniques.
2. They will help you figure out your content and advertising strategy better since they are more familiar with the social media landscape than you and have a better understanding of various social platforms.
3. They give you an external perspective on marketing and strategy and thus allow you to view it with fresh eyes.
4. You must have heard the slogan “The Citi Never Sleeps,” which is Citibank’s tagline. Likewise, social media also doesn’t sleep. It’s active 24*7. Your white-label outsourcing partner provides you round-the-clock coverage since they keep an eye on all the social platforms and what’s happening and trending out there. Therefore, you can invest your time and focus on your core business.

How to Outsource Social Media Management?

So, Are you ready to outsource your social media marketing operations?

We have just discovered the multiple benefits of outsourcing social media. It's the most feasible option for various businesses and agencies unless you plan to build your own social media department and invest heavily in hiring professionals and buying expensive tools. Social media outsourcing for small businesses is a growing trend simply because it's an economical and stress-free way to pick the low-hanging fruits of social media.

Here are a few things you should keep in mind while outsourcing social media services:

1. Outsource for Content Strategy an Account Setup Only

If you can manage your social media properties yourself, you can outsource these services for the short term, especially when you are in the account setup stage. Your outsourcing partner would take out the hassle by setting up your social media accounts and advising you on content strategy.

It is a viable option for many businesses with digital marketing teams to create content, promote, and publish. All they need is a roadmap, a blueprint for success, and strategy tips. They will also develop a social media calendar for you to boost engagement and create brand awareness.

Tip: Since it takes lots of expertise and time to handle social media properties, you can only consider the above option if you have a strict branding code and don't want someone else to represent you on social media.

2. Choose a Reputed Social Media Consultant or White Label Partner

There are various options for hiring social media services for your business. You can choose to work with freelancers or hire an agency. These days, most agencies that need social media services hire white label services to manage their social media marketing. These guys manage the services round the clock on behalf of those businesses with the help of tools and dedicated people for publishing content, running ads, and providing customer services.

Before you choose someone to act as your face on social media, make sure they are reliable and trustworthy.

How to Check the Trustworthiness of Third-Party Service Providers?

Researching online about the service provider is the best way to make sure that they are trustworthy. Sites like LinkedIn can provide some basic information about their services. Google reviews are also a good indicator of someone's reputation. The website's testimonial section is also an excellent place to know what their customers say about their services.

However, do not rely on testimonials alone as often businesses are selective about testimonials and post only positive ones. Checking with your industry peers and colleagues for referrals is also a good idea to find a trustworthy service.

3. Work Closely When You Hire Them Full-Time

Initially, you will have to work closely and spend more time with your outsourcing partner to educate them and ensure that they're doing it right. First, let them understand your branding. It will also help them to represent your business the way you want. Your consultant must be fully aware of the do's and don'ts while managing your social media properties.

4. Keep Up With Your Consultant's Work

Regardless of your consultant's experience, reputation, and efficiency, it might take up to a few months to understand your business culture, speed, audience, and social media requirements. Check the posts created by them; maybe they aren't in sync with your brand statement. There may be some factual errors in the content they've posted. For example, you might not be providing a particular service that they mentioned in their posts. Or, they might not follow your brand color palette in the graphics.

Therefore, it becomes crucial that you keep yourself updated on your consultant's work. You can't afford to rely on them blindly, especially when your core business needs and branding are at stake.

They can be experts in their domain, i.e., social media, but they may not have the insights into your business as your in-house employees have. Monitoring will immensely help you identify how they are contributing to your business. Regular feedback on their work will also help them to understand your business needs and improve their services.

The Do's and Don'ts of Social Media Management

The social media landscape is dynamic, exciting, and full of adventure and fun. So, even the experts need to be cautious and mind the dos and don'ts of social media while achieving their marketing objectives. It can be tricky both ways, i.e., managing your social media in-house or outsourcing it to a third party.

Social media is a marketing and sales goldmine, but you can tap its infinite potential only if you're doing it correctly.

The do's and don'ts mentioned below will help you understand how to proceed while managing your social media marketing in-house. It will also help you be mindful of what you should keep track of while outsourcing your social media services. It will help you to achieve the best results.

Common Mistakes in Social Media Management (The Don'ts)

Here are a few common mistakes businesses make while handling their social media properties.

1. Posting Without a Plan

"Post when you get time."

This attitude can be dangerous when it comes to social media. There is a clear line of distinction between personal and business properties on social media. Consistency is a key element of social media marketing.

People don't post when it's not a priority for them. However, it does not apply to the marketing of your business, as it should always be your top priority. Regular social media posting is good for engagement, customer loyalty, and brand recall. Brand Recall is the ratio of people who can recollect your brand when prompted.

2. Assigning It to a Novice

“The novice’s zeal doesn’t last long.” A French Proverb

Most businesses have a casual attitude towards social media marketing. Managers assign it to anybody who knows a bit about Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They ask their employees to quickly run through a few online tutorials and then run the campaigns themselves. While training your employees is a good idea, you shouldn't sacrifice something vital to your business.

If someone in your team is a bit inexperienced, ask them to work under expert supervision for some time before you allow them to handle your social media accounts. Just because somebody has an account on Instagram doesn't mean that they can run Instagram campaigns. The worst we can expect from management is to make someone in charge of the entire social media marketing if they don't know the ins and outs.

3. Posting About Me, Me and Me

"Social media creates communities, not markets." Don Schultz, marketing pioneer

Whoever thinks that social media is a place to sell has a big misconception about its very nature. It's primarily meant for networking and sharing information, thoughts, feelings, updates, and slices of your life. It's mostly about entertainment and information.

There are many brands that only talk about their own products and occasional discounts on them. You'll hardly see any engagement on their pages except if they are super famous brands.

Instead, you can use social media to generate interest in your brand and curiosity around your products.

For example, Nike never posts about their shoes. Instead, they post about sports activities, sports events, health and fitness, and sports celebrities.

The key is to understand that social media is all about engagement, and you should target different groups based on their interests and hobbies.

What You Should Do in Social Media Marketing (The DO’s)

Even though you can’t directly sell on social media, you can achieve many of your marketing objectives through social media platforms. All you need is to have a solid plan for it.

Here are a few things you should do on social platforms while marketing for your brand.

1. Develop a Unique Brand Impression

“Identity is a cause; a brand is an effect, and the strength of the former influences the strength of the latter.” – Larry Ackerman, an expert on organizational and personal identity and author of “Identity, is Destiny” and “The Identity Code.”

It’s all about identity. Social media gives you an opportunity to create your unique identity so people can identify you quickly. You will be hailed as a social media hero if you are able to develop a strong brand voice on social media through your unique approach.

Address people’s pain points, publish motivational stories, entertain and inspire people to do beautiful things, and your followers will admire you for that. The idea is to stand out from the crowd and touch their hearts through excellent posts and interactive approaches.

2. Keep Your Brand Current

You want to fully exploit the power and reach of social media, right?

To keep your audiences engaged, follow social media trends and create posts around those trends. Following the latest trends allows you to expand your audience and add new followers faster than any other technique.

When you follow trends, people share what you post, giving you even more reach. You can exploit the tremendous reach of social media only if you are able to build communities by creating content around current trends and events.

3. Focus On a Broader Audience

“You fail to see the endless sky when you have tunnel vision.” Subham Dwivedi

If you restrict yourself from talking about your products on your social properties, it won’t be easy to attract new customers. So occasionally, you should also post about things that relate to your products and customers. If your customers are young and active, talk about healthy lifestyles, diet, meditation, fitness, and workout regimes.

You can also talk about recreational activities, career advice, and employment opportunities. Additionally, you can mention your products along with the guidelines on how you can use them to achieve better results. This way, your customers will have your products in mind too.

Conclusion

Many people don't include social media marketing in their sales strategy. They consider it an additional activity for building the brand but something that has very little to do with boosting sales. However, it's far from the truth.

Social media has tremendous power to boost sales, build brands and create loyal communities. However, unless you know how to manage your presence on social media networks, you will not achieve anything concrete for your brand. The reason being, social media is not only time-consuming but also requires professional skills.

Outsourcing social media management will make your life easier and allow you to focus more on your core activities, especially business development and strategy. The social media experts at a white-label fulfillment service will boost your brand and build communities. It is the only way to scale and achieve steady growth in your fan base and sales leads.

For a new business, allocating a huge marketing budget is something that is not always feasible. At a time when new business owners cannot afford costly marketing methods, they can always take the help of some low-cost techniques to give their businesses a considerable marketing push. These techniques will help put their businesses on the map.

Today, the rise of digital marketing and social media has made it easier and affordable to market a business. If you are a new business owner mulling over some low-cost marketing techniques or strategies, we have got you covered. Check out these 20 low-cost marketing techniques that can help you:

1. Blog

The list of marketing techniques can't be complete without the mention of blogging. When you talk of online marketing, a business blog is an essential strategy. So, we recommend that you use it and make it work for you. In case you are unhappy with your current business blog, you can always follow some tips and make it better, such as:

1. Always sound successful
2. Write for your customers first and your company second
3. Concentrate on creating engaging blog content
4. Blog on relevant content
5. Remember to be consistent

2. Get More User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is another marketing technique you can consider for your business. It is any form of content such as videos, images, audio, and text that users have posted on online platforms like social media. Regarded as a marketing goldmine, UGC is practically free and provides great results.

To execute this marketing technique, you need to motivate your customers and fans to tell their own story, create content, and share it. This engaging, fresh content will definitely appeal to your target audience.

If the latest statistics are to be believed, millennials trust user-generated content 50% more than the original content produced by the brands. So, more UGC can help in marketing your business tremendously.

3. Claim A Hashtag

Think of a hashtag as a billboard of the internet. It is an interactive and searchable extension of your business that holds the potential to spread virally.

Today, hashtags are easily available on all the big social platforms. You can easily create one for your company and use it when you post.

4. Create Google My Business Account

When you create a Google My Business account, your business can appear in Google searches and individuals can easily find your business. Also, when you create the account, your business becomes visible on Google maps. The great thing about creating a Google My Business account is that you don't need to spend any money in the process.

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5. Upsell Your Existing Customers

So many of us see marketing as a means to reach new customers. But, it is important to know that some of the best marketing is aimed at your existing customers.

When you market back to your existing customers, you see how low-cost and relatively easy it is. So, we suggest that you upsell your existing customers if you are looking for a low-cost marketing technique.

6. Use Twitter

Twitter is an amazing marketing platform. It can help you create never-ending social buzz and a lot of brand exposure. Follow at least 10 influencers in your niche on Twitter, make sure you retweet their tweets, mention them in your comments, and follow their followers.

7. Carry Out A Contest

Running an online contest is yet another low-cost marketing technique that you can try. Giving away cash prizes or merchandise is a great way to enhance your brand image and gain some viral potential.

8. Market in Person

Try to market in person whenever you can. For instance, sometimes you meet great people in real life you may not come across on the internet. We suggest that you tell them about your business whenever the issue of work comes up during your conversation. Don't miss an opportunity to introduce your business to other people whenever you get to speak on the subject.

9. Comment on the Blogs in Your Niche

Commenting on the blogs in your niche is a great way to create a persistent brand image. The two easy steps you need to follow to use this marketing technique effectively are:

1. Search for the 5 best blogs in your niche
2. Read and comment on them regularly

You may be wondering how commenting on blogs helps market your brand. When you comment and people view your name and your associated brand, they begin to recognize you. Over time, they'll grow more curious about you and your business.

Tip: When you comment, keep a check on the quality of your comment because it shapes the perception of the person reading it.

10. Conduct A Free Webinar

Webinars help introduce your business to a wider audience. As per the latest statistics, one webinar could potentially generate over 1,000 leads.

If you plan on hosting a webinar, ensure that you brainstorm topics, plan them, and then promote them.

Tip: Try to go for a more appealing topic to attract interest.

11. Take the Brochure Route

Brochures may sound old school to you. But they are highly effective even today. This holds true particularly for small companies that are targeting a local community. A well-designed brochure is a fantastic marketing material that talks about how your business stands out and it doesn't cost a bomb.

12. Make Engaging Videos

Let's look at some video marketing statistics for 2021 first. 68% of consumers prefer viewing videos to learn about new services or products over infographics, presentations, ebooks, and articles.

Videos are marketing tools that are easy to consume and can help generate leads. To limit the costs, begin by creating basic videos that you can make on your own. You can then upgrade to more professional videos in the future when you have the budget for them.

13. Make A LinkedIn Group

LinkedIn is a social network of professionals that provides you with remarkable marketing opportunities. It also acts as a powerful resume builder, offering much more than just a place to display your resume. You can use it to publish content, connect with people, and create a marketing group of members in thousands. And the good thing is that all of this will cost you nothing!

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14. Provide Free Help To Others

Offering help and guidance is a great way to build a sense of community. For instance, think about offering memberships to customers who cannot afford your service, or giving away a product, or contributing an hour of your time.

15. Get Yourself A Business Award

So many industries host business awards in various categories. Work hard for your business, take part in a competition relevant to your industry, and aim to become the recipient of a business award. If you win the award, it will work as a badge of honor on your site that will help boost your credibility and increase sales.

16. Do Smart Email Marketing

Email marketing is a cost-effective way to connect with your existing customers and those who have signed up for your emails. Ensure you do smart email marketing and do not spam your customers with emails as it can diminish your sales. Use email marketing campaigns only when you have to share something important.

17. Create Content

Another way to market your business at a low cost is by publishing great content. The content can be in the form of listicles, infographics, know-how guides, and more. You must then find ways to distribute it effectively and get the wider public to consume it.

18. Join a Local Networking Group

When you join a local network group, you get a chance to connect with other businesses and let the local community know about your business. The latter is one of the best ways to build a customer base, especially when yours is a new business.

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19. Cross-Promote

An incredible marketing method that a lot of companies use is called cross-promotion. In cross-promotion, you partner with related businesses that help market your services and in return, you market their services. Pretty cool, right?

20. Consider Sending Text Messages

Ā People from all walks of life use text messages to communicate. Then why should brands be any different? The good thing about text messages is that they can be delivered to a lot of people instantaneously.

You can easily use text messages for different types of marketing. For instance, you can send discounts/coupons or inform your customers about the opening of a new store via text messages.

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Additionally, text messages are wonderful marketing tools as they help deliver more information to customers. For example, a text message from your business can include a map, video, or a link to your website (make sure your website is mobile-friendly).

Tip: Now that we are on the subject of a mobile-friendly website, you must know that having a mobile-friendly website is crucial for your business. We all know that building a mobile-friendly, professional, niche-based website can take several days. But, if you use DashClicks' agency website tool, you can make a mobile-friendly, custom branded agency website in just a few seconds.

Wrapping It Up

Remember, you can do marketing for your business without having to break the bank. The above-mentioned low-cost marketing techniques work really well, especially for small businesses. These ideas help promote your brand and take your business to new heights. Invest your time and effort in the implementation of these techniques and you are set!

Now that you know a lot of low-cost marketing techniques, you can start marketing your business today. We also want to ask - which of these marketing techniques are you absolutely going to try? Which of these techniques do you think are the most effective?

Content marketing is highly successful and is overgrowing across the globe. You must be familiar with various elements of content marketing and SEO. Some of its most overlooked features include article or page headings, especially H1 tags.

We frequently use them to help users understand the topic and optimize the article with keywords. Still, very few people know that creating H1 tags is the secret recipe for rankings and traffic.

Web admins know very little about the power of H1s and how you can use them to improve engagement, Click Through Rate, and time spent on the site. We talk a lot about H1s but never pay attention to enhancing rankings with the intelligent use of H1 tags.

Here you will learn the secret recipe of how to write H1s that appeal to search engines and users.

H1 heading carries a lot of significance for visitors. It is a strong indicator of whether a person is going to read a page or not. Apart from that, it also determines the relevancy of the search engines.

In HTML, headings tags are defined in the following hierarchy:

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We will create an H1 tag using this markup code in HTML

<h1> Are you ready to launch your own digital agency?</h1>

To know how it works, let's open a new web page, preferably a blog post.

The H1 tag on this page is "How to Create a Powerful Marketing Funnel Step-by-Step." Now, take a look at how it looks on "View Source."

Please pay attention to the highlighted H1 tags. The text - "How to Create a Powerful Marketing Funnel Step-by-Step" can easily be seen between the tags.

It looks pretty straightforward, but the H1 holds much more value than you can think of from an SEO and content marketing perspective.

What Can H1s Do For Your Website?

H1s are extremely good for search engines as with different variations; you may target different keywords. It will allow you to attract entirely different sets of audiences.

There are several instances when web admins experimented with H1s and noticed dramatic results. Neil Patel wanted to attract an entirely new audience for his blog. To achieve that, he decided to improve his site and that included updating an H1 on one of his blogs.

In less than a week, organic traffic multiplied by 85%, and its ranking improved from page three of search results to 8th position on page one.

And all of this happened just by changing the H1. Neil made no significant changes in an SEO strategy or investment in off-page promotion or link-building.

So, here is something every SEO professional must know:

Tip: H1s have always been a significant ranking factor, so optimize your H1 according to users and relevant keywords before anything else.

Are H1 Tags the Same Thing as Title Tags?

Not really.

H1s are the first headings or titles of a page or article, whereas HTML title tags are created for search engines. They tell the search engine what your page is all about and are independent of the H1s or header tags.

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So, a page's title can be completely different from H1s.

However, the SEO rule book says that the title tag should be a combination of your H1 tag and the title of your website.

Let's consider the following example:

The title of the article is "A-to-Z Guide to White Label Solutions for Marketing Agencies."

The title of the website is "White-Label Solutions for Digital Marketing Agencies."

Then your title tag should be something along these lines:

"White-Label Solutions for Digital Marketing Agencies ā An A-to-Z Guide"

Instead of separating both these parts by a dash (-), a pipe ("|") is also used frequently,

Here is the top SERP returned by Google for the keyword "iPhone 12 reviews."

Have a look at the titles separated by both a dash and a pipe:

Remember, most of the search results highlight the title tag and not the H1 tag. H1 tag is just for further info about the page's contents to enable a better user experience.

User Optimization of H1s

Contemporary SEO is more about user optimization. If users find that your website is easily navigated, Google will reward it with high rankings. Your website will get improved rankings if it’s content:

1. Answers users’ queries
2. Matches their search intent
3. Hooks them and keeps them coming for further information

You shouldn't rely on a few technical tweaks to immediately push your site up the SERP ladder. The focus should be user experience ā all else is secondary.

SEO is an art ā- and not math, and the ultimate objective of all this exercise is to offer a better user experience.

Tip: So, here as well, when you optimize your site and on-page elements such as H1 tags, etc., aim to provide what the searchers are looking for. If your H1 matches the user intent, you're likely to see an overnight jump in rankings.

How to Create the Perfect H1 Tag?

Here are five powerful tips for writing a perfect H1 tag that will boost SEO on your site and improve the user experience:

1. Use a Single H1

Technically, we can use multiple H1 tags per page, but it will create confusion and negatively impact the user experience. It will also dilute the value of an H1.

One major drawback of using multiple H1 tags is that these can easily confuse search engines regarding target keywords so that the page ranking may drop. It may also confuse users in terms of the content on the page.

So go with a single tag, even if it ends up becoming a long one.

If you have multiple subheaders or need more to explain the content, use the H2 tags for the purpose.

It won't confuse Google since Google loves multiple H2 tags and perceives such content as rich content.

2. Keep Your Tag within 20-70 Characters Range

Even though you can very well have a long tail H1 tag, try to restrict it within the range of 20 to 70 characters. There can be several reasons for that, but the user experience is a significant reason as a small header helps the user instantly understand the topic.

A longer tag may become even longer when a website's name is added to it. Imagine when a super long H1 tag appears in the SERPs. Would it look that user-friendly? In that case, Google won't even publish the entire tag. It will just shorten it and add ellipsis, i.e., "..."

When the complete information doesn't reach the users, they might skip the result. So keeping it within 20 to 70 characters will help you put it in front of the users, so they can easily understand that your website contains what they are looking for.

3. Make your H1 Stand Out

Aesthetics play an important role while creating your H1s. To ensure perfect styling, look at `the text in your WordPress draft. Ensure that the text stands out and there is plenty of white space before and after the tags, so the tags appeal to the eyes and look clutter-free.

Please take a look at it from your audience's viewpoint.

Examples:

Here is an excellent H1 tag:

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Now have a look at this example, where H1 doesn't stand out:

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4. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

If you have already used a keyword in your H1, avoid stuffing it throughout the article, as Google considers it keyword stuffing. It was an old SEO practice when web admins stuffed keywords to rank high, but many major algorithm updates announced by Google after Panda aimed to penalize such sites. However, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't include keywords in your article. Optimizing your content with intent-based keywords is standard practice, but it should look natural and not forced. Google wants to make sure that nothing makes user experience suffer on a website.

5. Address User Intent

Last but not least, you should now move over user-experience to user-intent. If your H1 addresses the user intent (what they are looking for), there is no reason it won't help you to rank high on SERPs.

Your H1 should answer the customers' question or call it "intent," which can be slightly different from the actual query they might use in the search field.

Before we discuss it further, let's have a look at Google's mission statement.

Have a look at this example:

This query "backlinks" is a general keyword where the intent is not very well defined, so we can safely say that the searcher seeks reliable information on what backlinks are and how they are created. You can see that most of the results are informative articles around backlinks, and the H1 includes the query ā "What are backlinks?"

Now let's look at the search results using another keyword, "create backlinks free."

Here, the search query is "create backlinks free," but most of the results are about tools that can create free backlinks because that's the search intent.

Again, look at the result at the third position, which comes from www.fannit.com. They have intelligently combined the search query "free backlinks" with the intent-based query in the H1. That's what you can try in your H1s. The user wants to know the different ways to create free backlinks, so the article in the SERP suggests tools that you can use to create such links.

It also reduces the bounce rate.

Here is an essential insight into how Google engineers run a user-intent test on a website. According to them, if a searcher doesn't return to SERPs soon after clicking on a link, it's a positive indication that they are pleased with the result. Such websites have a low bounce rate.

On the contrary, if he comes back within seconds, it hints that Google sent them to a page that wasn't relevant to the search query. If it occurs frequently, it will increase the bounce rate. It happens when the user doesn't find what they are looking for. Google drops the rankings of such a website.

Tip: Align your H1 tag with your title, content, and targeted keyword. It's crucial for the retention of a visitor. If you claim something in your H1, your content should prove it.

FAQs:

1. What Is the Difference Between an H1 Tag and a Header Tag?

There is no difference. Both the terms “H1 tag” and “header tag” are used frequently because the H1 tag is nothing but the article’s title. Don’t confuse it with the HTML <head> section though. It’s a part of HTML <body>.

Title tag goes into the <head> section.

2. How to Manually Check if an H1 Tag Exists on a Web Page?

Right-click on the concerned web page and click on “View Source.” A tab will open with some raw HTML coding. Now do a Ctrl+F term search for “<H1.” Hit the enter button; it’ll take you to the first “H1” on the page. If you can’t find any tag, it means the H1 tag doesn’t exist on that page — create one immediately.

3. What Should Be the Position of the H1 Tag on the Page?

It should be on top of the page for SEO purposes because that is what Google expects from you. Please make note that Google considers it as the title of the page. And if you want any other text to be highlighted below, tag it as subheader text such as H2, H3, etc.

4. Does Your H1 Tag Have to Be Stylish?

For SEO purposes, no — but it needs to be stylish to appeal to human eyes. Usual style elements are color, size, font, and spacing. If your website suffers because of any of these elements, you need to reconsider adding that. Remember: the mobile-friendliness of a website is one of the chief concerns of Google.

5. Should the H1 Tag Match With the Title Tag?

No, it should not. For HTML, both these are two different elements. Even though they define the same article — the article title doesn’t appear on the web page. It’s meant for Google spiders. The H1 seems on the web page as Page Title, intended for both humans and Google bots.

What Are Common H1 Tag Errors Many SEOs Make, and How to Avoid That?

Below are the four most common mistakes SEO professionals make. Go through them and never commit such mistakes:

1. Creating Content Without an H1 Tag

H1 tag helps your visitors understand what your content is all about. So, it’s good for SEO and user experience. You must be paying a lot in terms of rankings if you don’t have an H1 tag.

2. Using Only a Single H1 Tag When You Need More

If you feel your content requires more than one H1s, go for that. It helps in SEO and user experience as a single piece of content may provide solutions to different sets of audiences.

3. Focusing Too Hard on Search Engines

Don’t focus too hard on search engines or changing algorithms. Pay attention to user experience, and everything else will fall in place. Make it simple, but adding relevant keywords and creating a few variations of your H1 would immensely help you if it improves user experience on the site.

4. Don’t Duplicate H1s

Avoid repeating your H1s from external websites and your own website. It’s not a good practice. H1s should be unique as the search engines would rank your web page accordingly. Duplicating H1s can confuse search engines.

Conclusion

Use the suggestions given in this article on how to improve your H1 tags for higher rankings and traffic. Revisit your website, identify the weak H1 tags and implement these tips to improve them. However, user experience is still the most crucial element for rankings and traffic. Make sure everything you do improves user experience and skip everything that harms it.

In order to keep their businesses operational and viable, business owners take the help of marketing. This is because it helps them raise brand awareness and attract customers. If you are a small business owner, getting the word out about your business can pose a challenge due to a lack of resources or less visibility. However, some strategies can help scale the marketing efforts of your small business. From building your website's SEO to email marketing, there are many marketing strategies that can help market your business and get you, new customers.

Irrespective of whether you have time restraints due to a small team, have a limited budget, or simply require some direction, small business marketing strategies and tips will always come in handy. Let's discuss them in detail:

Small Business Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategies promote your business to a target audience, help brand your business, and help achieve sales goals. After you get listed on Google, here are some of the best marketing strategies for small businesses that you can follow:

1. Create A Website

A website is a channel you own. It is a place where you show who you are, what your offerings are, and how to contact you. If you have a professional-looking website up and running, it is the most significant asset for your small business.

We highly recommend creating a website to own your online presence. It works as a full-fledged salesperson for your business and we recommend that you create a site if you haven't already.

Note: Ensure you create an SEO-friendly website for your business. This is because it enhances the customer experience and helps generate organic traffic. As building an SEO-friendly, professional niche-based website can take days, we suggest that you use DashClicks' agency website tool. With this tool, you can make an SEO-friendly, custom branded agency website in a matter of seconds.

2. Invest in Ads

You may be aware that organic traffic takes time to build. So, as a small business, you can consider Google Ads or social media ads for short-term wins.

Google Ads are ideal if you are aware that your target audience is looking for your solution or product on the web. In case they aren't, you can think about investing in social media ads. It is true that people on social media have less buying intent, however, with the help of highly targeted ads and the required impressions, you will capture the interest of your audience.

3. Stay Active On Social Media

Social media platforms aren't just for connecting and socializing but also double up as fantastic business tools. They help businesses engage with potential customers and improve their search engine rankings.

Today, customers expect companies to be active on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. They also expect them to regularly post on social media.

4. Consider Blogging

Another small business marketing strategy you can consider is blogging. It is a great way to generate organic traffic. Even if you post a blog once every week, it will help educate your potential customers and build trust amongst them. Doing so will also increase your site's visibility. Ensure you add a CTA in your blogs for visitors to subscribe to them. Remember, blogging helps provide your potential customers with information even if they haven't yet made up their minds about buying from you.

5. Know The Power Of Your Existing Customers

As per a 1990 study by Bain & Company and HBR, acquiring a new customer is 5 times costlier than closing an existing one (on average). Keeping this in mind, don't stop marketing once your customers have purchased from you.

Think about this - your existing customers have purchased your product/service, which means they already like and trust you. So, identify your opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, and repeat purchasing.

6. Offer A Free Consultation

If you have established yourself as an authority in your niche and offer a high-priced or expert service, you can think about offering a free consultation. Individuals want access to expertise when they are looking to buy professional services. Therefore, offering a consultation can be a step in the right direction. Providing a free consultation also helps you generate more leads and thus, proves to be beneficial for your business.

You can promote your free consultation on social media and your website.

Tip: Offer a 30-60 minute consultation and focus on providing value to your potential customers.

7. Become a Speaker at Events

Another good marketing strategy is speaking at events. When you start out as a speaker for events, deliver insightful talks at smaller events first. You can then slowly work your way into grabbing opportunities that allow you to speak at bigger events.

You can start out by becoming a speaker at these types of events:

• Specific interest groups (for example – sewing, hiking, etc.)
• Major companies and their employees
• Schools
• Upcoming events which you can check in magazines and newspapers
• Business networking groups

8. Offer a Free Webinar

Offering a free webinar is a great medium to allow potential customers to sign up for an online course that you'll host. Such courses are typically between 30-60 minutes. In these courses, you can provide tips and answer questions about a topic your business is experienced enough to talk about.

If you decide to provide a webinar, you get the chance to boost your credibility in your industry. You also get to unlock sales opportunities.

9. Display Reviews on Your Site

Apart from social media, don't forget to display reviews on your site. The reason behind displaying reviews is simple - When customers are thinking about purchasing something, they don't turn their attention to ads, they turn to other customers. This may not come as a shock because showing reviews can raise conversion by more than 360%

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10. Offer An Exceptional Customer Experience

Ensure you provide an amazing customer experience. Remember, happy customers can recommend your business to their family and friends. According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from family and friends compared to other advertising types.

To improve your customer experience, make sure you go through customer feedback and work on the areas that require improvement. When you focus on providing a great customer experience, you get more online reviews, which builds trust and ultimately drives more sales.

11. Text Your Customers

There is a high chance that your customers may ignore promotional material in their inboxes. But that is not the case with text messages on their phones. As per the statistics, text messages have a 98% open rate. Therefore, from getting a review to advertising a sale, text messaging service for small business can prove to be helpful. Just ensure you write a strong CTA in your text message to motivate the customers to take action (for example: Leave us a review on Google).

12. Establish a Brand

Your business is required to have a clear brand identity for your audience and customers to know what your business is, what it does, and what it stands for. Once you decide your company's identity, match it with a suitable name, colors, logo, and imagery that conveys your brand to your target audience.

Once your business has your own logo, ensure you display it on everything - business cards, advertising, website, and email signatures.

13. Email Potential Customers and Customers

There are many benefits of using email as a marketing strategy. It can be automated, is easy to do, doesn't cost that much, offers instantaneous communication, and can reach many potential customers.

It is important that your business emails relevant, valuable, and interesting content to your audience. This is because you don't want your email to just remain unread in their inboxes.

14. Join Local Business Groups

Another great marketing strategy is joining the local business groups. Doing so offers the opportunity to meet up with like-minded business owners. You can look for meetups and niche-specific groups in your area. These groups are great places to share your ideas and listen to other's opinions about them. It also helps recognize fresh opportunities and even find fresh talent. Lastly, these groups can also lead to profitable partnerships and joint ventures.

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Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

When you invest in marketing, you grow your business and your brand. To position your company for success in 2021, let's discuss some marketing tips for small businesses that can prove helpful to you:

15. Create A Buyer Persona

When you think about a customer looking for your service or product, how do you imagine them? What are their pain points? What job do they do? Creating a buyer persona that describes your ideal customer and tells a story about them can assist you in optimizing your website for them.

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When you create a buyer persona, you are in a better position to know what kinds of things your target customers could be searching for online. These terms can then be used on your website.

16. Increase Your Google Ranking With SEO

The technique that helps your site rank higher in SERPs is defined as SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO makes your site more visible to those searching for solutions that your business can offer via search engines such as Bing, Yahoo!, and Google.

An SEO strategy consists of certain things, including buyer persona research, on-page SEO research, and keyword research. With the help of these three areas, you get to know how your target audience is searching on the web. These areas also make your business get noticed by the right people online.

17. Research Keyword Opportunities

In the previous sections, we talked about creating buyer personas. Use these personas to find the right keywords for your business. Then, what you can do is open a tool called KW Finder to search for related keywords for your audience.

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You can also go through our Definitive Guide on Keyword Research for SEO to know how to find keyword ideas.

18. Optimize Your Site For Mobile Devices

We all do a lot of Google searches on mobile devices, that, too, almost every single day. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the importance of having a website that is optimized for mobile devices. Your website, when opened on a smartphone, should look clean and allow for easy navigation. Remember, you can lose potential customers if they decide to leave your site because it wasn't optimized for their mobile phones.

19. Use Social Media For Customer Service

After you join different social media platforms, make it a point to answer customer questions when they ask them via direct messages or comments. You want to let your audience know that you are responsive as well as credible.

Note: A lot of companies today are using Twitter for customer service.

20. Encourage Happy Customers To Share Their Experiences

When a delighted customer talks about how amazing your business is on review websites or social media platforms, it shows that your service or product is a great investment. Social media in particular is where word of mouth really works and influences a person's purchasing decision. For example, if an individual sees their friend raving about your company on Facebook, they are more likely to purchase from your business.

If your customers say that they loved your product, encourage them to share about their experience on Google, Facebook, or Yelp.

21. Reply to Customer Reviews

So many business owners do not reply to reviews. But, this is a mistake they must stop making. Responding to reviews is highly beneficial for your business. One of the most significant benefits you get from doing this is customer loyalty. When you reply with a simple message such as “Thank you so much, we hope we can see you again soon,” you leave a great impression in your customer's minds and encourage them to return to you.

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22. Give Co-Marketing A Try

Look for a local business in your area that you do not directly compete with but provides a service or product to a similar target audience. If you find one, think about working with the business on a co-branded campaign to promote each other through email, on social media, or in your blog. Doing so will give the local business a lot of promotion and let their fanbase know about your business.

23. Try Influencer Marketing

Look for a person in your area who is an expert in your field and has a strong social media following. If you can contact the person, check if they can share their experience of your service or product on social media. If the person agrees, their follower base will know about your offering and may trust it because an expert recommends it.

24. Advertise on Social Media

Most of the big social media platforms provide advertising options. With these options, you can target your posts to a particular audience. Small businesses have been advertising on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for years. You can think of advertising on Instagram as well.

25. Offer Coupons on Landing Pages or in Newsletters

A great way to engage your customers and make them happy is to place a coupon in your marketing emails. When your customers purchase a service or product from you by availing of a discount, they may be more likely to pay the full price the next time.

Tip: You can provide a code for a free trial to your prospects.

26. Tell a Unique Brand Story

Telling a unique brand story is like conveying your own life story - one that has feelings, emotions, and teaches something. Your brand should have a different, one-of-its-kind story that draws your audience towards your business and makes them want to know more about it.

“Content” is a means to let people focus on your business. Some content creation tips for your brand's story are:

1. Know what your audience desires and what their content preferences are.
2. Produce content that educates and entertains.

27. Create Video Content

It may not come as a surprise to know that people remember 95% of a message from a video. We all know that video content is quicker and much easier to understand. Today, people prefer video lessons as it gives a clear picture regarding what a person wishes to explain. So, another great marketing tip for small businesses is producing more video content for their audiences.

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28. Create Beautiful Assets

When you have beautiful assets, your business stands out. Once you figure out your content marketing calendar, you should start creating your assets.

As a first step, start with content. Make it a point to write original and professional content. Then, you can create email campaigns and social media posts. Also, focus on updating your website, creating video content, and contemplating the potential landing pages to create.

All in all, make it a point to be proactive about creating beautiful assets.

29. Leverage Your Community

When marketing your brand, it is best to aim small before you decide to expand your outreach. At this point, the entire world doesn't need to know about what your business has to offer. Start by reaching out to the people around you. Get the word out about your business by telling your family, the local community, and your friends. Check if they support your business. Once you create a customer base within your community, you can consider expanding your outreach and promoting your business.

30. Update and Improve

Stand out from your competition and be honest, genuine, and bold. As a small business owner, you must constantly look for ways to improve and update your offerings. Look at adding value and don't be afraid to try something unique.

Conclusion

Bottom line, these marketing strategies, and tips will definitely help in the growth of your small business in the year 2021 and beyond. Some of these ideas may take time to show results, while others may provide immediate effects. But it is important to note that all of these ideas will help take your business to new heights.

Now that you are armed with so many ideas, you have started your journey of marketing your small business much more effectively. So, which of these strategies and tips are you going to use first? Which ones are your absolute favorite?