As a small business, you should make it your aim to widen your audience as much as possible. This is made easier if you know how to market your business – yet, this can only be done properly if you understand the current market and how your business falls into it. Before jumping in, some good questions to ask yourself might be: how does my business differ to other small businesses in the market? Do I offer anything different that will make me stand out? Once you know where you stand, you can get your footing and figure out what you need to do to make it.
Market research isn’t only about discovering competition and trying to be better than them; essentially, you should attempt to work with them and develop some form of mutual facilitation to benefit both businesses. With that being said, it is wholly your responsibility – as a small business owner – to market the business and grow your audience. Each of the ways discussed in this article consists of some form of marketing and serves as a great starting point if you’re new to the game. Keep reading to find out more!
Who is your target audience?
Before you begin marketing your business to increase your audience, you must consider who your target audience is. Doing so will make it easier for you to choose what type of marketing is best for your business. For example, there is no point in pouring a lot of investment into social media marketing if the bulk of your audience doesn’t have social media. As you go on and start to market your business, you’ll probably learn more about your audience as a whole and figure out what they want to see and how they want to see it. It does take time and commitment, but by using the right resources and watching where you invest, you will certainly reap the benefits of knowing your audience inside out.
Use email marketing
Email marketing encompasses the use of email services to reach your customers. Within each email, you can promote your business in different ways by including business information, product information and different links to other websites. Email services are a great form of marketing as they reach your intended audience. As a business owner, you can choose to outsource to companies to help you use email as a marketing service. These companies can help you create a bulk email service that drives engagement and personalises the reader’s experience. You can also choose to hire external help from content creators who will help you create your emails. Ultimately, email marketing is a sure way to reach your audience as a small business.
Consider social media
The growth of new technology over the past decade has meant that social media is being used now more than ever before. This has been and will continue to be especially useful for businesses as it acts as a free form of marketing. Knowing how to use social media will definitely work in your favour! Choose what platform you’d like to advertise on and create engaging content that will drive customers to interact with your account and share photos and information that you upload.
More recently, businesses have been optimising their platforms to push their products and services to reach a wider audience. Due to the increasing influencer culture whereby businesses invest in popular social media figures to promote their goods, this has been proven to work. If you have the funds, consider doing this. You can also run giveaways and promotions which would see customers tagging their friends and sharing your posts to win products and services. Social media is a great place to market your business and reach a wider audience.
Optimise your website
For some customers, your business’s website is their first interaction with your business. Therefore, you are recommended to put a lot of effort into creating your website and making it user-friendly. Customers will come back to your website and suggest it to a friend if the website has an easy navigation system that allows customers to easily find exactly what they’re looking for. You should also optimise your website’s content by creating content that will make people want to click on links. In turn, this will increase traffic to your website and widen your audience.
Final thoughts
There are so many different ways to grow your audience and reach new customers. A final thought to take away from this article is to engage with your customers and ask them for feedback. They’ll give you the answers you’re looking for and let you know what’s working and what isn’t. Ultimately, it’s up to you to choose what marketing tools to use – make your decisions wisely!
