Small Business Marketing – Maximize Your ROI

Market Research

Before determining your marketing tactics and developing your marketing message, you must conduct market research to better understand current and potential customers. Depending on the industry and size of your business, conducting marketing research that generates tangible, relevant data may require hiring a market research firm. The information gathered and analyzed will serve as the foundation for your marketing strategy.

Customer Demographics

Identifying your customer demographics is a good starting point, providing valuable data that will enable you to further understand your target market. There is a wide range of customer demographics, and some of the primary data points include:

·         Age

·         Gender

·         Location

·         Education level

·         Household income

·         Marital status

·         Occupation

·         Ethnicity or race

·         Language preferences

·         Family size

·         Homeownership status

Customer Psychographics

Customer psychographics delve deeper into your target market, providing psychological and behavioral data, including:

·         Personality traits

·         Values and beliefs

·         Lifestyle choices

·         Attitudes and opinions

·         Interests and hobbies

·         Social and environmental concerns

·         Consumer behavior patterns

·         Media preferences

·         Brand loyalty and preferences

·         Spending habits

·         Social influences and peer groups

·         Motivations and aspirations

·         Decision-making processes

Understanding Customer Pain Points and Motivations

Why should people want or need your product or service? What issue does your product or service help potential customers overcome? Understanding people's problems, challenges, or frustrations enables you to effectively address those issues within your marketing message, motivating them to make a purchase.

Determining Your Marketing Strategy

After successfully defining your target market demographics, psychographics, pain points, and motivations, you can develop your marketing message and determine the best ways to get it in front of that audience.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing allows businesses to reach potential customers on various digital platforms. Additionally, social media platforms like Facebook gather hundreds, if not thousands, of data points on their userbase; and Facebook Ads allow you to create and target niche audiences using that data.

There are several digital marketing tactics, including:

·         Social media marketing

·         Email marketing

·         Search engine optimization (SEO)

·         Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising

·         Influencer marketing

Each digital marketing tactic has unique advantages. Tracking and analyzing the results is extremely important as you continue implementing digital marketing campaigns. Use that data to update your future campaigns, increasing the likelihood of their success.

Direct Mail Marketing

Did you know that direct mail recipients buy almost 30% more than customers who did not receive those marketing pieces? While this statistic generally applies to the retail industry, direct mail marketing can positively impact revenue for all types of businesses.

Approximately 40% of recipients also read or at least scan direct mailers. This number may not sound significant; however, let’s say your business hypothetically sends out a direct mailer to 1,000 people. 400 will take time out of their day to learn more about your company.

Additional Marketing Strategies and Tactics

There is a seemingly limitless number of marketing strategies. Aside from the ones we discussed, some of the most widely used marketing strategies include:

·         Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

·         Customer Experience (CX)

·         User-Generated Content (UGC)

·         Loyalty Programs

·         A/B Testing and Conversion Optimization

·         Customer Journey Mapping

·         Retargeting and Remarketing

·         Seasonal Marketing

·         Direct Response Marketing

·         Storytelling and Brand Narrative

·         Customer Surveys and Feedback

·         Community Building and Engagement

·         Thought Leadership and Expert Positioning

·         Experiential Marketing

·         Trade Show and Event Participation

·         Inbound and Outbound Marketing

·         Cross-Selling and Upselling

Financing Your Small Business Marketing

Developing and implementing an effective marketing strategy may come with a high price tag; however, when well executed, your return on investment (ROI) will far outweigh the associated costs.

At Fairway Funding, our network of reputable lenders gives you access to the funds necessary to launch your upcoming marketing campaign. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help support the growth of your business.