25 Basic Marketing Strategies for Beginners

Not every small business has a marketing budget like the bigger companies. More often than not, entrepreneurs don’t even have a lot of extra time to get the word out on their goods and services.

These basic small business marketing strategies for novices have been designed to fill that gap.

Basic Marketing Strategies

Optimize Your Content

Keywords attract clients. They need to be placed in strategic locations in the text on your website. Make sure they work with the topics your customers are searching for.

• SEO Optimization: Focus on integrating SEO best practices in your content to enhance visibility on search engines. Utilize tools like Google Keyword Planner to identify relevant keywords.
• Content Relevance: Regularly update your website with fresh, relevant content that addresses your audience’s needs and interests.
• User Experience: Ensure that your website is user-friendly, with easy navigation and fast load times, enhancing the overall user experience.

Advertise Online

Facebook Ads and Google Ads work great. These are cheaper than print, television and radio and they appeal to a wider audience.

• Platform Selection: Choose the right platforms for your ads based on where your target audience spends the most time.
• Ad Customization: Customize your ads for different platforms, keeping in mind the unique format and user behavior of each.
• Tracking and Analytics: Utilize analytics tools to track the performance of your ads and make data-driven decisions.

Develop a Call to Action

Tell people exactly what you want them to do when they visit your site. The right Call To Action coverts visitors to sales.

• Clarity and Prominence: Ensure that your call to action (CTA) is clear, concise, and prominently placed on your website.
• Action-Oriented Language: Use strong, action-oriented language to encourage immediate response from visitors.
• Test Different CTAs: Experiment with different CTA formats and placements to see what works best for your audience.

Write a Blog

You can share specials and planned events on a blog. These are a great way to market in your own voice.

• Regular Posting: Maintain a regular blogging schedule to keep your audience engaged.
• Quality Content: Focus on providing valuable, informative, and engaging content that resonates with your readers.
• Engage with Readers: Encourage comments and interactions on your blog to build a community around your brand.

Publish a Book

Writing a book and self publishing it positions you as an expert in the field. Many business people even sell these on their websites.

• Establish Expertise: Use the book to establish your expertise in your field and share unique insights.
• Marketing and Distribution: Leverage various channels for marketing and distributing your book, including your website, social media, and online retailers.
• Engage with Readers: Organize book launches, signings, and talks to directly engage with your audience.

Streamline Your Brand

A cohesive brand resonates more with customers. Understanding your audience and tailoring your branding to their preferences can enhance their connection to your business.

• Audience Research: Use surveys and feedback tools to understand your target demographic’s preferences.
• Consistent Messaging: Ensure your brand message remains consistent across all platforms.
• Visual Identity: Colors, logos, and design elements should be recognizable and consistent.
• Emotional Connection: Understand the emotional triggers of your audience and align your branding to evoke these feelings.
• Value Proposition: Clearly communicate what sets your product or service apart from competitors.
• Brand Audit: Regularly conduct a brand audit to ensure all elements align with your brand identity and message.
• Customer Feedback: Use customer feedback to understand how your brand is perceived and make necessary adjustments.
• Employee Training: Train your employees to be consistent with brand messaging in all interactions.

Define Your Competition

This is the best way to make sure what you offer is different than your rivals in the same market. Doing a little research is invaluable.

• Competitive Analysis: Regularly conduct competitive analysis to understand your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
• Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Clearly define and communicate your USP to differentiate from your competition.
• Adapt and Innovate: Stay agile and adapt your strategies based on the competitive landscape.

Start Posting on X

Social media is free. It’s one of the best basic marketing strategies available. Posting on X helps you to engage with you target market.

Create an Email Campaign

Putting together an email marketing campaign gets you out in front of your target audience. Everyone on your list will see your email  message from in their inbox.

• Segmentation: Segment your email list to send targeted and personalized messages.
• Engaging Content: Include engaging content like exclusive offers, valuable insights, and compelling stories.
• Metrics Tracking: Track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to continually refine your email strategy.

Use Facebook Ads

These help you to get out in front of a big audience. You can target these to a specific market for optimal effect.

• Audience Targeting: Utilize Facebook’s detailed targeting options to reach your ideal audience.
• Creative Variations: Test different ad creatives and formats to see what resonates best with your audience.
• Retargeting: Implement retargeting ads to reach people who have previously interacted with your brand.

Give Stuff Away

Free access to a report or blog is a value added way to turn visitors into clients. Whether you’re online or in a brick and mortar store, free stuff attracts customers.

• Value-Added Content: Offer valuable content like ebooks, webinars, or free trials to attract potential customers.
• Lead Generation: Use giveaways as a tool for lead generation by requiring email sign-ups.
• Share on Social Media: Promote your giveaways on social media to increase reach and participation.

Drop Your Price

Competing in today’s marketplace requires agility, especially when it comes to pricing. By adjusting your prices, you can potentially outpace competitors and increase sales volume. However, ensure that the reduced price doesn’t compromise the perceived value of your product or service.

• Competitive Analysis: Regularly check competitors’ prices to ensure your product remains competitively priced.
• Volume vs. Margin: Sometimes selling more at a lower price can lead to greater overall profits than selling less at a higher price.
• Promotions: Limited-time offers can attract new customers without permanently dropping your price.
• Bundle Offers: Provide value-added packages, combining multiple products/services at a reduced price.
• Loyalty Discounts: Offer discounts to loyal customers as a way of saying thank you and ensuring repeat business.
• Strategic Discounting: Offer discounts strategically, ensuring they align with your brand positioning and do not devalue your product.
• Seasonal Sales: Utilize seasonal sales or events to offer discounts, driving increased traffic and sales.
• Customer Segmentation: Provide exclusive discounts to specific customer segments, like first-time buyers or loyal customers.

Create a Newsletter

In a world saturated with digital content, newsletters offer a personal touch, acting as a direct line of communication between brands and their audience.

They serve as a curated capsule, updating subscribers about the latest products, services, and company happenings. Beyond just being informational tools, they help in fostering a sense of community among readers.

Platforms like MailChimp have made the process of creating and disseminating newsletters smoother than ever. With their user-friendly interface and customizable templates, even beginners can craft professional-looking newsletters, ensuring that their brand’s message is delivered right to the inboxes of their target audience.

• Engaging Format: Design an engaging newsletter format that reflects your brand’s style.
• Regular Schedule: Send newsletters on a regular schedule to keep your audience engaged.
• Exclusive Content: Include exclusive content or offers in your newsletter to add value for subscribers.

Include Images

Visual content is paramount in today’s digital landscape. A compelling image not only captures a reader’s attention but can also convey complex messages in a matter of seconds.

Whether it’s for blog posts, social media, or website content, integrating high-quality images can significantly elevate the overall impact of your marketing materials.

Thankfully, resources like Pixabay offer a vast collection of royalty-free images, ensuring that marketers have access to engaging visuals without the burden of licensing fees.

• Quality Visuals: Use high-quality, relevant images to enhance your marketing materials.
• Brand Alignment: Ensure that the visuals align with your brand’s aesthetic and message.
• Image Optimization: Optimize images for different platforms and devices for best performance.

Run Contests

Interactive marketing strategies, like contests, quizzes, or games, have proven their worth time and again. They’re not just fun activities; they’re powerful tools to ignite engagement, boost brand awareness, and collect valuable customer data.

When prospects participate in a contest, they’re more likely to share it with their network, thereby amplifying its reach. Moreover, such engagements provide an opportunity to gather email addresses or other contact details, facilitating the growth of a brand’s mailing list.

By offering attractive prizes or incentives, businesses can create a buzz around their brand, fostering a sense of excitement and anticipation among both existing and potential customers.

• Engaging Themes: Create contests with engaging themes that encourage participation.
• Social Sharing: Encourage participants to share the contest on social media to increase reach.
• Follow-Up: Use the contest to build relationships with participants, even after the contest ends.

Write Industry Articles

Establishing yourself as an expert in your industry is one of the best basic marketing strategies. Writing a series of articles for a trade publication positions  you as an expert and these can be serialized as blog posts for optimal effect.

• Publish on Reputable Platforms: Publish your articles on reputable industry platforms to gain credibility.
• Thought Leadership: Focus on thought leadership content that offers unique insights and perspectives.
• Engage with Readers: Respond to comments and engage with readers to build a following.

Do a Podcast

Getting out in front of an audience by using your voice adds the personal touch that can make a sale. If you’re stuck at first you can start by just reading out your blog posts.

• Consistent Episodes: Release episodes consistently to build a loyal listener base.
• Guest Speakers: Invite guest speakers to provide additional value and variety to your audience.
• Promote Widely: Promote your podcast on your website, social media, and through email newsletters.

Organize a Webinar

These are another great way to personalize basic marketing strategies. A webinar that details how your product works is a great idea.

• Relevant Topics: Choose webinar topics that are relevant and interesting to your target audience.
• Interactive Elements: Include interactive elements like Q&A sessions to engage participants.
• Follow-Up: Provide additional resources and follow-up with participants after the webinar.

Launch a Website

Regardless of the goods or services you’re selling, having a website is a prerequisite. Find a developer that can implement you vision.

• Professional Design: Invest in a professional, user-friendly website design.
• SEO Optimization: Optimize your website for search engines to increase visibility.
• Regular Updates: Keep your website updated with fresh content and information.

Test Campaigns

Monitoring the performance of your marketing campaigns, especially on platforms like social media, is essential for understanding what resonates with your audience.

• Engagement Metrics: Monitor likes, shares, and comments to gauge audience interaction.
• Conversion Tracking: Use tools to track how many clicks result in sales or desired actions.
• A/B Testing: Try different ad formats, headlines, or visuals to see what yields the best results.
• Feedback Loop: Encourage comments and suggestions to directly gather audience opinions on campaigns.
• Ad Spending: Monitor the ROI on your campaigns to ensure you’re getting value for money.
• Experimentation: Regularly test different marketing campaigns to see what works best.
• Analyze Results: Analyze campaign results to gain insights and improve future strategies.
• Customer Feedback: Gather customer feedback as part of your campaign testing to understand their preferences.

Issue Press Releases

Whether you want to get the word out on events or new products, press releases work great. Make sure the topics are newsy and not too advertorial.

• Newsworthy Content: Ensure your press releases contain newsworthy and relevant content.
• Media Outreach: Reach out to media outlets and journalists to increase your chances of coverage.
• Online Distribution: Use online press release distribution services to broaden your reach.

Broadcast on YouTube

YouTube, being the world’s second-largest search engine, offers an unparalleled platform for businesses to reach global audiences. By incorporating video into your marketing strategy, you tap into a medium that’s both engaging and widely consumed.

Creating instructional videos, for instance, not only establishes your brand as an industry authority but also provides tangible value to your viewers. When these videos are embedded on your website, they can significantly enhance user engagement, drive traffic, and convert prospects into loyal customers.

• Quality Content: Focus on creating high-quality, engaging video content.
• Regular Posting: Maintain a regular posting schedule to keep your audience engaged.
• Channel Promotion: Promote your YouTube channel through your website, social media, and email marketing.

Use Integrated Marketing

Integrated marketing is the art of creating a cohesive message across various platforms to amplify your reach. Especially in today’s interconnected world, leveraging a live event and announcing it on social media can be a game-changer.

instance, broadcasting a live feed of your event on platforms like Facebook or Instagram can significantly boost your brand’s visibility. It provides real-time engagement opportunities, allowing audiences from different parts of the world to be a part of the experience, thereby multiplying your exposure exponentially.

• Omnichannel Approach: Use an omnichannel approach to provide a consistent brand experience across all platforms.
• Cross-Promotion: Cross-promote your marketing efforts to maximize reach and impact.
• Customer Journey: Map out the customer journey and ensure your integrated marketing efforts align with each stage.

Limit Some Offers

Stress Customer Service

Give the people what they want. Stressing customer service creates a great reputation and buzz around your products.

• Exceptional Service: Provide exceptional customer service to create positive experiences and encourage repeat business.
• Feedback Loop: Establish a feedback loop to continuously improve your customer service based on customer input.
• Training and Development: Invest in training and development for your customer service team to ensure they represent your brand effectively.

Basic Marketing Strategies Checklist

Marketing Strategies	Checklist
Optimize Your Content
Advertise Online
Develop a Call to Action
Write a Blog
Publish a Book
Streamline Your Brand
Audience Research
Consistent Messaging
Visual Identity
Emotional Connection
Value Proposition
Define Your Competition
Start Tweeting
Create an Email Campaign
Use Facebook Ads
Give Stuff Away
Drop Your Price
Competitive Analysis
Volume vs. Margin
Promotions
Bundle Offers
Loyalty Discounts
Create a Newsletter
Include Images
Run Contests
Write Industry Articles
Do a Podcast
Organize a Webinar
Launch a Website
Test Campaigns
Engagement Metrics
Conversion Tracking
A/B Testing
Feedback Loop
Ad Spending
Issue Press Releases
Broadcast on YouTube
Use Integrated Marketing
Limit Some Offers
Stress Customer Service

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