Marketing Tips to Get Your Small Business Noticed

No matter how long you’ve been in business, you probably still have marketing-related tasks on your checklist. And with a rapidly changing business environment, there’s always more to learn. At Town and Country Bank and Peoples Prosperity Bank, we’ve been helping local businesses succeed for more than 50 years. In this article, we’ll share the latest best practices in marketing for small businesses.

Local Business Listings and Profiles

Build your online presence with a local business listing. A business listing is your initial online profile that consumers will engage with when searching for your business. Listings display in search results as profiles that contain vital information about your business for customers. Your created listing can contain your business name, physical address, phone number, website, hours of operation, and much more. If you haven’t already claimed local listings, tackle these three giants of business profiles/listings first.

• Google My Business
• Bing Places
• Yelp

Buyer Personas

If you already have buyer personas, great! Review them now to see if any updates need to be made. If you haven’t done this important marketing exercise yet, it’s well worth your time and research to have a thorough understanding of your ideal customers. Your buyer personas will guide the rest of your marketing efforts, especially with segmentation and targeted campaigns. This article from Hootsuite includes a step-by-step guide to creating buyer personas as well as a free template.

Inbound Marketing

This refers to a variety of digital marketing tactics designed to attract prospects and turn them into happy customers. Inbound marketing includes:

Website

To turn prospects into customers, you need a good website to send them to. Your website is your 24/7 location, so don’t neglect it. A professional website can be one of your best assets because it tells prospects who you are, what your business offers, where you’re located, and how to reach you. Just be sure to make it mobile friendly, as people increasingly begin their customer journeys on smartphones and tablets. Also, make sure to link Google Analytics to your website so you can start collecting data on your website visitors and their interactions with your site.

Content Marketing

This encompasses social media posts, blog articles, and any other content you create. High-quality content offers added value to your customers while also helping you climb the organic search results rankings in Google and other search engines. You can also repurpose the same piece of content for multiple channels, establishing your brand as a go-to resource in your niche.

Not sure what to write about? Use free tools like Google Keyword Planner and Google Search Console to find the topics your prospects are already searching for.

Social Media

If nothing else, you should have a business page on Facebook because it’s the platform with the widest cross-section of users. Aim to use at least one other social media platform depending on the type of business you have and where your customers are likely to hang out:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

For more on social media, check out our blog post on “Effective Ways to Promote Your Business on Social Media.”

Email Marketing

Although email has been around “forever,” it remains an effective way to engage with your audience and drive conversions. Continuously growing your newsletter list helps you reach more people with important updates, offers, and more. Here are the basics of successful email marketing:

• Use a recognizable sender name associated with your business.
• Subject lines should provide a hint as to the subject matter and be worth clicking.
• Layout should be easy to skim and optimized for mobile, where more and more emails are opened.
• Include a call to action that is easy to follow, such as contacting you or visiting a landing page to learn more.

Video Content

People are watching more videos than ever and many prefer to learn about a product or service through video instead of reading about it. This is why video content should be a priority for every business.

The best places to post your video content include:

• YouTube
• Snapchat
• Instagram Stories and Live
• Facebook Stories and Live

Not sure where to start? Try these ideas:

• Intro video about your business
• Give advice
• How-tos
• “Behind-the-scenes”

Direct Mail

While digital marketing is important, don’t lose sight of traditional approaches. Direct mail is also a smart, data-driven way to reach local prospects and engage with existing customers. Unlike email, for example, you can be sure that people will check their “snail mail” on a daily basis and at least glance at your marketing message.

Partner with Town and Country Bank and Peoples Prosperity Bank!

With 12 branch locations, we are a longtime community bank serving local businesses throughout Central Illinois and the Metro East. Interested in learning more about how we can better serve you and your business? Meet our Business Bankers and contact us today for help with all your business banking and borrowing needs.