The Four Powerful Pieces of SMB Marketing You Can’t Afford to Sleep on Anymore

by | Jun 13, 2018 | Business Feature

“I’ll get around to it later.”

Arguably one of the most dangerous phrases in marketing is one that we hear all too often from small business owners, right?

Sure, there seem to be millions of options when it comes to growing your business online. In fact, many of them seem to come and go faster than we can keep up with them.

Think about it. A few years ago, Instagram seemed like a passing craze and now it ticks upward toward one billion users. Meanwhile, businesses are killing it with Facebook ads and are building full-blown businesses through social media alone.

The good news? Even in the face of so many trends, there are a few pieces of SMB marketing that have become true staples.

Consider the following four platforms and tactics which you just can’t afford to ignore anymore if you’re looking to make your name known in your market online.

Video Marketing

Video is quickly poised to take over the bulk of web traffic within the next few years. Given how people aren’t exactly jazzed about reading endless walls of text, this isn’t much of a surprise, is it? Coupled with the fact that Facebook’s new algorithm loves video, businesses of all sizes are scrambling for ways to become producers themselves.

Where videos truly shine, though, is through explaining what your business does and keeping people glued to the page. As noted by the experts at Idea Rocket Animation: “video has power to make complicated concepts easy to understand and a pleasure to consume.”

Explainers. Animations. Vlogs. The list goes on and on. There are creative options out there for you totally regardless of your budget.

Q&A Platforms

Positioning yourself as a problem-solver is a brilliant move, and answering your audience’s burning questions is a great way to get your name out there. Forums like Quora and Reddit are good stomping grounds for those looking to…

  • Squeeze more out of their content strategy (think: repurposing “how-to” content)
  • Building up authority and brand recognition
  • Framing your business or product as a helpful resource

Although the link-building power of such platforms is up for debate, question-based marketing through Quora has become increasingly popular for a reason.

Blogging and Vlogging

Half of this tip might come as a bit of a surprise given what we noted earlier about video, right?

That said, the need for organic search traffic and linkable assets such as lead magnets certainly isn’t going anywhere. A well-optimized blog is a powerful tool for link-building, after all. Meanwhile, you can easily repurpose blog posts into vlogs which makes it easier to get on board the video bandwagon.

You don’t need to worry about daily blogging, by the way. The popularity of in-depth pillar posts provides that “quality over quantity” can indeed work and help you position yourself above your competition who are sitting without a blog.

Influencer Marketing

The future of influencer marketing is bright and, despite popular belief, it certainly isn’t too late for your business to get on board.

While paying social media influencers to shout out your brand might seem like unexplored territory, more and more businesses are scrambling for authentic ways to reach new target audiences. Building relationships with influencers does double duty of gaining some much-needed exposure while saving the money of a traditionally pricey ad campaign.

If you can find an influencer with a highly engaged audience, even if it’s smaller (think: ~10,000 people or less), you might be surprised at the ROI for your efforts.

You have no shortage of options when it comes to marketing your business, but these are the tactics that are proven to provide positive returns in the form of authority. If you’re looking for inspiration for your next big campaign, any of these represent a solid starting point.