How to Market Your Small Business: A Quick Guide (+Free Tools)

Why don’t business owners invest more in marketing?

It’s simple: marketing is not really a priority right now. Understandable, because your business is still in survival mode. But –

Failure to research the market, and prepare a business plan are common reasons for business failure. – Investopedia

Effective marketing doesn’t have to be expensive.

In this blog post, we will walk you through the eight stages of small business marketing, with clear steps and free/low-cost tools you can use to achieve them.

How to market your small business in 2024 (and beyond)

1: SMART-ly frame your goal

You already had an objective when you started your business. But the SMART framework makes it trackable. For example: Your goal is “to create eco-friendly bags from scrap fabric”.

So your SMART goal would be “To create and sell 100 eco-friendly bags made from scrap fabric within the next three months, using sustainable production practices.”

Free/Low-Cost Tools:

• • Trello: Organize and prioritize your business goals with boards and lists. Trello’s visual layout makes it easy to see your progress.
  • Google Sheets: While not specifically a goal setting tool, you can create your own customized spreadsheet, with goals, target metrics, deadlines, and progress tracking.
  • SMART Goal Template: The better version of Google Sheets. Set your goals and deadline on paper (or digital). Steal it here 👇

We have 1000+ more templates by the way. Enter your email below to access them for free. 

Suggested Reading: 22 Top Market Research Tools for Business

2: Get your budget sorted

Take a detailed look at your finances. Check your operating costs – staff, equipment, premises, raw material – everything. This will give you a fair idea of how much you can invest in marketing.

Next, figure out your marketing objective: do you want to increase brand awareness? Boost leads? Or build customer loyalty? Once you have this information, you can pinpoint your KPIs – site traffic, leads, footfalls, sales figures, etc.

Free/Low-Cost Tools:

• Business Budget Calculator: Quickly estimate the expenses of your company with this free tool.
• Customer Surveys: Conduct customer surveys and get direct feedback with SurveySparrow. This will help guide your marketing objectives.
• Expense Tracker: Free budgeting apps like Mint or Empower let you connect your bank accounts and credit cards for automated expense tracking and categorization. They can also help you identify areas for savings.

50% of small businesses shut shop within the first five years. – Entrepreneur

3: Flesh out your strategy

Create a central theme (your overall marketing goal), and branch out with different ideas, tactics and channels. This will help you fix a marketing budget more effectively. It would be good to start with the low-hanging fruit first.

For example, imagine you’re a self-taught artist selling their designs on Etsy. You could post a behind-the-scenes video of your process on social media – it’s easy and clicks fast. In fact, 87% of viewers prefer to watch videos online if it means more BTS content, according to Wix.com.

Free/Low-Cost Tools:

• Make My Persona: Give your buyer a name, face and personality with Hubspot’s free tool.
• Google Jamboard: A free app that is basically a digital version of your office whiteboard.
• Marketing Budget Template: Smartsheet has some handy templates for setting down marketing budgets. They also include templates for specific channels like events and social media.

4: Create your visual identity

This is 100% relevant for your business. The basics of visual identity are the logo, color palette and imagery. They help you stand out and creates an impression of reliability.

A strong visual identity also acts like an amplifier, extending your reach and presence across different marketing channels. And if you don’t have a visual identity, you can bet that your customers will create one for you. Even if they are not officially adopted by the brand, they will still have a big impact on perception.

For instance, Starbucks. They have long encouraged customers to personalize their cups by writing their names on them.

This simple act of customization taps into the human need for self-expression, and creates a brand connection that’s almost emotional. When you share a photo of your Starbucks cup on social media, it feels like you are part of a community.

Free/Low-Cost Tools:

• Canva: Create a nice logo plus marketing materials, on your own, in minutes.
• Bark.com: Find designers in your locality who can deliver what you need.
• 99designs: Crowdsource your visual identity to a global talent pool.

5: Activate your website

77% of customers use Google to find local businesses. They need a destination – with a website that showcases your brand.

Even if you’re an offline business, you still need a website. It’s your online brochure, highlighting what you offer at a glance, and making it easy for customers to find you.

Free/Low-Cost Tools:

• Nameboy: Enter your brand keywords and get domain name suggestions.
• Weebly: A beginner-friendly website builder with a drag-and-drop editor and 50+ themes. It also integrates well with ecommerce platforms if you plan to sell online.

Note: Weebly offers built-in SEO features. However, it doesn’t have traditional plugins like WordPress. If you want to scale up your SEO, you can switch to WordPress at a later stage.

6: Craft compelling content

Remember, a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. Here’s why:

• Social Media: Fast-paced, so you need short, punchy content.
• Email Marketing: Value-driven, so craft informative and targeted emails.
• Content Marketing: Slow to yield results. But when done right, it’s an evergreen source of traffic. It includes in-depth blog posts, articles, or ebooks.

In short, creating high-quality content, consistently, takes time and effort. So consider delegating this task to an intern or freelancer. This frees you up to focus on other areas.

Free/Low-Cost Tools:

• Answer The Public: Get content ideas based on search topics.
• Mailchimp: Create and send email marketing campaigns.
• Buffer: Schedule and analyze your social media posts.

7: Close the feedback loop

Regularly collect customer feedback. This will help you uncover customer needs, complaints and even hidden gems in the form of great reviews.

Next, put your learnings into action! Use customer feedback to refine your offerings and services.

Free/Low-Cost Tools:

• SurveySparrow: Create, share, analyze and act on survey data. For CX, PX and even EX.
• Google Forms: Need a more stripped down tool? Use Google Forms.
• Jotform: Collect feedback quickly using Jotform’s extensive template library.

8: Measure what matters

Free and paid analytics tools are your best friends. They can help you track your marketing performance at a glance, and understand what’s working (and what’s not).

In the case of the latter, don’t be afraid to adjust your strategies as needed.

Free/Low-Cost Tools:

• Google Analytics: Track and analyze your website traffic: their interests, behavior and more.
• Facebook Insights: Get data on your FB page’s reach, engagement, and audience demographics.
• HubSpot: A great all-around free CRM option that includes an AI email writer, meeting scheduler and more.

Wrapping up

That wraps up our guide on how to market your small business. But remember, marketing is a continuous journey, not a one-time visit. Use the Review – Experiment – Adapt approach to get even better results:

1. Review: Go over your performance data and note down your learnings.
2. Experiment: Test new approaches, refine existing strategies.
3. Adapt: Build on what works, and make it a part of your process.

Adios!