Advertising is necessary for small and large businesses alike, but small business advertising is decidedly more difficult. Your staff is smaller, and your marketing budgets are smaller, too. How do you compete with bigger businesses under the circumstances?
The good news is, with the right strategies in place, you can advertise online to drive leads, sales, and ROI, no matter what size your business is. While traditional advertising methods are costly and hard to measure, a small business has never had greater access to cost-effective, trackable marketing tools. The best way to market your business might be a lot more accessible than you think. We are here to share some strategies and tips to help you raise brand awareness and grow your business on a small budget.
Pay Per Click (Search Ads)
We all know it: Google is an advertising machine. It may appear to be giving you helpful information and tools (Google Docs, Gmail, Calendars, etc.), but it’s providing all these cool things to make sure you see their ads. 85% of Google’s revenue comes from the Google Ads platform. One of the most measurable forms to advertise online is paid search marketing, a system that allows you to place advertisements in the search results when people are searching for products or services related to what your business offers. One of the huge benefits of pay per click (PPC) advertising is the fact that you only pay for what consumers click on. Whether you are a large or small business, you can tap into the power of the search engine for a small cost.
Use Bing Ads
Bing has a smaller share of the search engine market than Google, but it’s still used by millions of people every month. While Google’s market share is diminishing, Bing is growing at an astounding clip, and there is less competition. Because of less competition, it’s cheaper…an obvious benefit for any small business! Though it’s hard to nail down just how much cheaper Bing is, it seems that it’s significantly so for more queries. Users report an average decrease in cost per click of about 35%. Plus, it’s easier to get in top positions on the results. Additionally, users have shared that ad scheduling is far easier and more customizable by allowing different campaigns to run in different time zones or languages within an ad group level. Simply put, it saves you a ton of time and headaches in restructuring ad campaigns – a win-win!
Social Media Ads
Advertising is the financial engine that drives all social media. The world has become used to the idea of seeing ads in their social media feed. Many people will skip past them, but they still see them, which leads to familiarity.
The reasons for a small business to advertise on social media are clear. Let’s take Facebook for example: About 80% of Americans use Facebook, and more than half of U.S. residents use Facebook several times a day! Facebook advertising costs are also lower on average than other forms of online advertising, and Facebook offers an amazing degree of granularity when it comes to targeting options. If you want to reach men between the ages of 19 and 26 who live in California, vote Republican, and like gadgets, you can do that!
Email Marketing
Did you know that email marketing is the tried-and-true digital marketing channel with an average return of $38 for every $1 spent? It’s an efficient way to ensure that a small business can reach out to their customers, grow their customer base, and build their reputation. The latest product launch, your next big event, and any news about your business are all great topics for regular newsletters. If a customer has opted in to receive emails from you, then you shouldn’t be shy about sending out emails and making contact with them as a way to advertise and keep up the relationship. As it turns out, managing an email campaign is easier than most people imagine, and it builds stronger customer relationships.
Location-Based Offers
Every small business that wants to be found online should create a Google My Business page to help grow its visibility. The pages are free and allow local searchers to find a business near to them.
According to research from ThinkWith Google, 75% of people who find local, helpful information in search results are more likely to visit the physical stores. As well as offering information, Google now allows Offers to be added to your listing. Typically, these are savings or incentives to encourage people to try your business. If a person is already searching for a small business like yours in their local area, a small coupon with an offer might be enough to get them to call or visit.
Online Advertising on the Rise
For small business owners, the ways that you can promote your business and attract attention have changed dramatically in the past decade. By far, the most significant change has been in digital ad spending. A research report by Zenith expects U.S. internet ad spending to increase 12.4% in 2020 to over $135 billion, which accounts for 53% of ad spending. This means more than half of all spending on advertising has now moved to online mediums.
That’s why every penny spent on advertising must be worth it, and small businesses especially need to ensure they’re seeing a number of benefits all at once.
Let Davant Help You Advertise Your Small Business
We are a printing solutions company that specializes in design, printing, mailing, signs, and promo products. It’s our mission to not just get the job done, but to exceed expectations as we work with the people, not just the business.
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