As we’re sure you already know, marketing and the fields of advertising are changing almost constantly, and each new year brings new avenues for growth — but also some new challenges.

If you’re a small business owner, then there’s a good chance you’re looking to boost your sales and get a handle on your customer growth this year, and so we have some great tips and tricks when it comes to small business marketing in 2021.

You will already know that regardless of how outstanding your products and services are or how incredible your customer service is, that it means nothing without correct advertising. At the end of the day, if people don’t know your brand or your products exist — you essentially don’t.

Whether you are new to business, a seasoned professional or just looking for a few different ideas when it comes to business marketing in the early 2020s then we have some great tips for you below.

Take a look!

Work on a Brand Story

There’s a good chance you’ve already considered or been suggested this tip before, and that’s because it’s crucial!

A brand story might seem like meaningless fluff to a lot of business owners, though for customers, it’s an essential piece of information that can help persuade them to buy from your brand over another.

The brand story doesn’t even need to be real, it just needs to be well-curated.

With that said, we suggest working on formulating a brand story that ties in well with the services and products you offer and build it out from here.

For our readers with service business that work to improve business-client operations; your brand stories could revolve around believing that with your help, a business can succeed and you will always work to do your best to ensure this.

Take Apple for example. The brand works to offer business and consumer-focused products, however, their brand story and brand position outlines that these products are life-enriching and able to power you forward in your everyday life through inspiration and efficiency. That’s a lot, coming from a laptop or an iPad.

All that said, a brand story that’s designed to suit your products and services is essential for marketing in 2021.

SEO Takes Centre Stage

As our world becomes ever more digital, you’re going to want to be on top of search engine optimization or SEO.

These tasks will essentially ensure that your business can be found by your ideal customers, and will save you a tonne on paid search as well. This will also help to bring up your marketing’s ROI in the long term.

On top of this, your SEO will also work to bring in many more new customers searching for a specific product or service that you offer, and with that in mind, you could use SEO to build out your customer base.

One thing to keep in mind here is that your marketing and branding will need to be on point prior to moving forward with a fully-fledged SEO campaign, and so running a degree with Courses in digital marketing might be a good place to start.

Far too many businesses begin their SEO processes with poorly designed websites and links that don’t work — along with brand messaging that is conflicting — and so be sure that you have your ducks in a row before you roll out an SEO campaign.

Social Media Marketing is Still King

A second avenue for marketing that remains a winner in the early 2020s is social media marketing. The good news here is that it’s both free and paid and you can work to choose which option works the best for you.

When it comes to our consumers, you’ll already know that they love to leap to a brand’s social media accounts to take a gander at how the business works and what’s on offer — and so making sure your socials are presentable, on-brand and filled with information is essential.

Add to this the fact that your social media accounts can connect you with consumers and their demographics across the globe, then you’re on to a winning customer acquisition process.

Make use of social media for two main things — sharing your brand’s products and content and acquiring new customers.

Structure Pricing to Reward Customers

Though you will typically find these types of programs offered in businesses that have been operating for decades, small businesses can get in on the action here too.

For this tip, we suggest being as pre-emptive as possible in that you want to ensure your goods and services are priced well enough to cover the costs of a loyalty or rewards program and go from there.

We suggest working to offer your customers a discount or a free item or service for returning multiple times. Think McDonald’s coffee rewards, for example.

With these types of rewards in place, you’ll be building your customer loyalty and making sure that you’re keeping your share of the market and reducing your client and customer’s chances of heading to the competitors.

Develop a Customer Profile

One of our final tips on our list is to understand your customers at new depths.

To make this task a little easier, we suggest building a document with information on who your customers are and reverse engineering a customer profile. When we do this, we get a good look at exactly who our customers are and what they like to buy, where they hang out and what their purchasing patterns are.

You’re then able to use this information to better enhance all of the above marketing procedures and improve your ROI overall.

Conclusion

With all of those points above in mind, we’re sure you’ll be on the way to a more prosperous business in 2021 and beyond, and will also gain a little more insight into who your customers are and how best to reach them.

Keep in mind that you should always be adapting and changing your marketing activities to suit changes in social media and the business landscape and you’re on the right track.