3 Ways to Boost Your Small Business Marketing Efforts

Ensuring your business stands out in a competitive industry requires a smart, well-thought-out marketing strategy. Whether you have a huge marketing budget or prefer to take a more DIY approach, there are a lot of ways to tailor your strategy to suit the scale and style of your business.

With so many different approaches to consider, marketing is rarely a one-size-fits-all solution. At the core of any good battle plan, however, you’ll find common themes that make sense for any type of business.

These articles from the Hiring Headquarters—Upwork’s resource for businesses, freelancers, and entrepreneurs—deliver useful strategies to help enhance your company’s marketing across the board.

Maximize Media Traction, Even on a Tight Budget

Traditional marketing efforts have the potential to get expensive in a hurry, but there are also many strategies to use tried-and-true tactics without putting a major strain on your budget.

If you can get attention from the right people, it’s possible to get reach and exposure without digging deep into your bank account. Landing coverage in a national publication or media outlet that has an extensive online presence, for example, can give your business tremendous reach.

“Driving Major Media Exposure on a Limited Budget” explains the approach one digital marketing agency took to help client-branded content get traction on social media and major sites like The Huffington Post—all while using cost-effective strategies.

This case study explains what worked during the campaign, and includes the steps the team took to get the positive end result. It underscores the impact that national press, bolstered by a strong social media push, can have on raising your brand’s visibility.

Here are a few additional takeaways from this social-driven marketing experiment.

A great idea is king. Clever content that’s entertaining and shareable can significantly boost the spread of any marketing messages you attach to it. If you make something that resonates with your audience, they’ll be more inclined to share it with others.

Use captivating imagery. A funny image or other piece of visually captivating artwork can enhance your message and help push it toward going viral. Photos, illustrations, and gifs can be more digestible than large blocks of text.

Don’t skimp on social media. Social sharing drives visibility, which is why getting good coverage in a national outlet isn’t always enough. Finding inventive ways to get people to share your content, and pushing it out through your company’s own social media channels, can give your content added traction.

Build Positive Social Proof

Generating positive social proof for your brand and learning how to harness its power can be one of the most effective ways to boost your company’s marketing mojo. Clients and customers want to know how others have benefited from your goods and services, and the opinions of past clients matter to them. User reviews are one of the main ways people gauge whether past customers were satisfied.

“The Secret Recipe for Getting 5-Star Reviews” details why positive customer reviews can be a boon to your business and how to maximize your chances of consistently getting five-star reviews from customers and clients. The article outlines several key ingredients to help you get great user reviews and keep customer satisfaction on track.

Deliver a phenomenal experience. Beyond the quality of your product or service itself, consider what you can do to help your customers feel special. Keeping them satisfied is one thing, but wowing them with a five-star-worthy experience is even more powerful.

Set goals and aim to hit them. Rather than trying to get all of your reviews at once, it’s better to aim for long-term goals and encourage people to share their feedback and results on a regular basis.

Incentivize success. To keep your team members motivated and on track when it comes to keeping customers happy, a little extra incentive can go a long way toward inspiring greatness.

Recognize When You Need Experienced Help

The DIY route is a great way to personalize your marketing efforts, but not everyone has the skills, time, or patience needed to get the job done right. That’s when a team of outside experts can be a game changer.

For busy entrepreneurs, time can be a more precious commodity than money. Leaving your marketing to the pros might be just the thing you need to free up your attention to tackle other business-critical challenges.

“The Benefits and How-tos of Hiring a Virtual Marketing Agency” outlines why using a remote team of marketing specialists can be such a boon for your business and offers tips to help you make this important decision.

For example, turning to a team of pros can give you more innovative minds to throw at any problems that arise. It can also expand the types of skills at your disposal, and minimize the level of onboarding needed to get new team members up-to-speed. The piece also gives a handful of recommendations to help make the shift to using a virtual marketing agency a smooth one.

If you’re looking for more marketing insights and tips to help grow your brand online, the marketing section in the Hiring Headquarters has tons of articles to help you level-up your business.

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