Marketing Tips for Small Businesses in 2021

In 2021, small businesses or new start-ups should be aiming to advertise their products and services in new ways. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we now expect things to work online and to be very convenient when using these online services.

With that being said, not as many businesses have opted for an online or a digital marketing strategy. However, we now know that an online presence is key for future success. Due to the impact of the pandemic, as well as the fact more customers are shopping online, you must ensure your business is up to speed and ready to take on the challenge. Keep reading to find out some top marketing tips for 2021.

Online consistency is key

Being online is one thing but staying consistent across all social platforms is another. How do your customers usually find you online? If it is through social media, then you should consider the online image you have created for the brand. Experts recommend that you should maintain consistency online including usernames, themes and pictures. At times, it can be very difficult for customers to find brands both on Facebook and Instagram, however, if they can evidently find the same brand on two sites, they are likely to trust it and invest their interest.

Having different names across four different social media sites will not do your brand promotion any good, so this is certainly worthwhile to consider!

Use a marketing automation service

As a small business, you may not yet know the extent of marketing and how time-consuming it can be. Yet, if you are committed to meeting high expectations and growing your audience in 2021, you should be looking for services to make things easier for you. One example of a marketing strategy to save time is that of a marketing automation service. The marketing automation definition generally is the use of software that allows marketers to automate their activities.

With marketing automation, there are many different forms of it but whichever you use usually depends on your business type and where your customers are coming from. A good example of an effective marketing automation service is business SMS. For instance, an automated service would send your customer an order confirmation via SMS, to prevent you from having to do it manually. This is very beneficial as it saves money and naturally improves your customer experience.

Develop a social media marketing strategy

Nowadays, many customers tend to find small businesses online across various social media platforms. Therefore, having an all-inclusive social media marketing strategy is well worth your time. Ultimately, social media marketing is generally defined as the use of social media and various online platforms to promote your goods and services. This is done very well and can be successful if the correct digital marketing strategy is well developed.

Although we don’t go into all of the different strategies today, a great example of social media marketing is simply offering a discount or promotion to customers who buy with you using social media. This can be done in different ways, but this is very useful for small business as they can get engage their audience and even potentially attract new customers.

Don’t ignore your competition

Following from the previous point, your social media presence is key when seeking to develop your marketing strategy. But, where do you get your audience from? More often than not, you will expect to pull in customers from other small businesses in your market. Learning some tips and tricks from them is key to your success. This also allows you to figure out where they have gone wrong and what you can do better.

Some small businesses have also developed a collaboration marketing strategy whereby they team together and advertise across various social media platforms. Others go as far as to develop an Instagram competition or giveaway whereby customers enter with the chance to win some products from the multiple brands included in the promotion. However, the rules generally are that the entrants must follow the brands, share and like their posts. This is very useful for promoting your goods and services all while getting to know other small businesses within your market.

Consider website navigation

Last but not least, our final marketing tip for 2021 is to consider how easy your website is to navigate. Rather than social media platforms, your customers may find you through a search engine. This might mean that their first mode of contact with you is your website. Although, what is the use in this if they can’t find what they’re looking for? Having a well-developed user-friendly website is the key to success!

Overall, you should consider these small business marketing tips to grow effectively in 2021. What will your marketing strategy look like?