Top tips on how to use marketing to expand your small business

When it comes to starting up a small business, you’re likely to face many challenges along the way.

Some of these will be practical – like funding for example – and some will be creative – like new and innovative ideas and projects for you to undertake as a smaller business. But remember this: all large businesses started off as a small company once upon a time. Apple wasn’t always as big as it is now, you know?

The key to expanding your business is to expand your client base and connections. And how do you do that? By marketing your business well.

Here are some top insider tips on how you can use marketing to expand your small business.

Use Search Engine Optimisation effectively

Since the Internet grew to prevalence, the way in which we market pretty much anything has changed. Nowadays, one of the most commonly used marketing techniques is, without a doubt, using a SEO consultant to do exactly what it says on the tin.

If you haven’t heard of Search Engine Optimisation before – commonly referred to as SEO – we will narrow it down for you. It’s very simply the act of using online content and key words in order to increase the natural flow of traffic being directed to your website but it’s really not as complex as it sounds.

Think about when you use your preferred search engine. Chances are, whatever you’re searching for will come up in the first few posts, or at least on the first – or second page – at the furthest. The link at the top of the first page will get the largest amount of online hits in its own category and so on. If you want your business to succeed – particularly online – it’s important to be on top of this.

And how do you do this exactly? By producing content for your website itself. The vast majority of sites will do this through the medium of blog posts, and this isn’t a bad method to adopt yourself. The first thing to make sure is that your posts are relevant. The second is that you have some repetitive key words that you are using throughout.

Say for example that your company specialised in the quick sale of property. You might choose your key words to be something like “quick property sale” or “sell house fast”. Generally speaking, the more simplistic and the less filler words you use, the better it’ll be.

But you shouldn’t only be doing this once. You should then go on to produce regular posts, rich with content and key words. The aim is that when someone searches for something in your field of business – so say, sell my house quickly – your link is the first to come up on the search engine results. It’s not an exact science, no, but it’s been proven to work time and time again.

Use social media for business reasons

You might think that social media is all about chatting and interacting with your friends for informal use, but this doesn’t have to be the case.

Statistics show that as many as 94% of us admit to having at least one form of social media. With that in mind, where is there a better place to advertise and market your business? What’s better still, is that it’s entirely free.

We’re going to use Facebook as an example. There is quite literally a business tool on Facebook where you can set up a page for your company. Then, all you have to do is share it. You can even do this on specific forums on the page, say for example in your sector or even in your local area if that’s where you’re interested in doing business. And did we mention it’s free? That’s a win-win if ever we’ve known one.

Good old fashioned networking

Third and finally, never underestimate the impact that some good old fashioned networking can have.

It doesn’t matter whether this is meeting face-to-face with clients and investors, or whether you attend business functions. It’s just about getting your name – and of course, your business – out there in the world, where it will be seen and needed.

Most people hate networking, but it’s not too bad really. It’s just a chat – a chat about business. Think about it like that, and it won’t seem quite so daunting.

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