5 Ways to Boost Your Small Business Marketing
5 Ways to Boost Your Small Business Marketing
5 Ways to Boost Your Small Business Marketing It was a test by fire for many. Some reached the pinnacle and made record earnings. Others never recovered.
Why did some companies flourish while others failed? How are company owners faring today — in a “new normal” market? Are they optimistic about new challenges and their future? CallRail polled 600 small company owners in the US in the summer of 2021 to gain a very incisive look at how marketing firms might satisfy new requirements and aims of small companies in a post-pandemic environment.
Findings
• Eighty percent of companies report complete recovery from the epidemic.
• 94 percent of SMBs want marketing companies to help them post-COVID.
• 96% are willing to increase marketing budgets and pay firms more.
The data from CallRail shows that marketing firms and small businesses may work together to create long-term plans that can withstand future obstacles. Read the study for more details.
5 Ways to Boost Your Small Business Marketing
Marketing for Small Businesses in the Future
The Call Rail survey participants all had under 200 workers. COVID-19 negatively impacted 56% of respondents’ businesses, while 11% experienced growth and 33% had no impact.
The future is looking up — 80% say their company has fully recovered from the epidemic, and 71% say they are optimistic in their company’s long-term development and prosperity. What unites most of these firms? You guessed correctly a marketing strategy. Only 3% of firms surveyed do not have a growth plan. The other 3% have a plan for the next six months.
Marketing techniques included in respondents’ basic approach include:
• 57% social media marketing
• Official company website: 49%
• Email marketing: 43%
• Blog: 35%
• Newsletter: 32%
• Campaign landing pages: 29%
• Testimonials: 28%
• Referrals: 26%
• CRM technology: 20%
• PPC (pay-per-click): 17%
• Local SEO (15%)
• No marketing (due to funding, time, and reliance on word-of-mouth advertising): 6%
• Other: 1%
5 Ways a Marketing Agency Partnership Can Help Small Businesses Grow
This is good news for most companies after almost a year of lockdowns, mask requirements and consumer apprehension.
Welcoming evidence of a rebound in discretionary spending and consumer optimism.
Despite the bright outlook, the market is still shaky. With fresh case spikes and more infectious variations on the increase, the future remains uncertain. Businesses are still in trouble.
A small business owner should consider marketing agencies for five reasons:
1. Save the company time and resources
According to the CallRail study, time and money were the two biggest obstacles to creating a marketing campaign.
• 44% of respondents claimed they were too busy operating their businesses to recruit anyone.
• 74% prefer primary business duties over marketing.
Many entrepreneurs are do-it-yourselfers who try to do too much on their own.
A marketing agency adds more experience to the table while freeing up crucial time for other responsibilities.
2. Track Trends & Make Informed Recommendations
COVID-19 blew up the market. Most firms had no idea what to anticipate and were left flailing in a new market.
While a professional marketing firm faces the same problems, they also have years, if not decades, of marketing expertise to guide their judgments.
During the COVID-19 epidemic, 81 percent of small company owners stated a marketing plan was important to their success. A well-tested approach can be the difference between life and death.
Businesses that don’t focus on smart marketing lost out on income.
3. Gain resources while saving payroll costs
A marketing firm would have saved 67% of respondents time and money.
It is a frequent misunderstanding that employing in-house is cheaper and faster. Other expenditures include health insurance, 401(k) match, vacation and sick days, payroll taxes (if applicable), disability coverage (if applicable), and tuition reimbursement (if applicable). Hiring a new employee typically costs 1.25 to 1.4 times the base wage, plus time spent training and familiarising them with the company. What if the employee leaves? That’s a big loss. The hourly fee of an outside marketing firm may appear more than employing in-house, but the added benefits of having a professional team on call with numerous additional resources and personnel are typically worth the extra expense.
4. Update the Marketing Plan
Markets move quickly. Apps, trends, SEO upgrades, and best practises come and go.
Can small company owners keep up with it all and sustain high conversion rates?
Modern marketing strategies combine inbound marketing approaches like high-performing online content with outbound marketing techniques like commercials and PPC advertisements.
5 Ways to Boost Your Small Business Marketing
Keyword research, graphic design, multichannel campaigns, social media, phone volume, email, and everything in between are all part of today’s marketing strategy.
To be effective, the marketing manager must be up to speed on the latest marketing methods. What worked a year or even a month ago may not work today.
5. Examine Long-Term Effects
70% of those polled by CallRail thought their company was well-positioned for long-term growth. But 25% were unsure about their company’s future. And 4% said their company would collapse if it remained on its present path.
Building and managing a firm involves both long-term planning and short-term adaptability.
Marketing companies provide objective knowledge to a company’s strategy. They look at the broad picture and research the market segment to see what their rivals are doing and where the industry is going.
They also give critical analytical data that helps small businesses better understand and target their customers, identify successful marketing initiatives, and plan future efforts. CallRail for Small Business Marketing
As the post-pandemic marketing environment recovers, many small company owners are reevaluating their marketing strategy. 94% stated they would use a marketing firm or expert in the future. For those relationships to succeed, agencies must understand their customers’ needs.
5 Ways to Boost Your Small Business Marketing
Following a bad experience with a marketing firm, small company owners indicated the following areas for improvement:
• Improving client service: 55%
A new technology to help the company grow: 51%
• Streamlining marketing and sales processes: 43%
• Refining value proposition: 40%
• Helping the company track leads: 38%
• Going above and beyond to assist a company better understand its customers: 29%
• Helping the company handle leads: 29%
• Adding company enhancement services like sales training or brand coaching: 25%
• Enabling better lead communication: 9%
In addition to helping their clients survive, agencies that can identify and address these pain areas for their clients may help them develop and succeed in the long run.
More services are willingly paid for by small business owners (96%).
Analytics are vital in business-to-business marketing collaborations. Also, data is important to demonstrate a customer how much ROI they are getting from the connection. Call Rail provides a number of tools for recording critical data for calculating
ROI and planning campaigns:
• Caller ID: Find out which ad, campaign, or keyword prompted a call to your business. Call monitoring software lets you track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts so you know which ones work and which ones don’t. Measure online and offline marketing assets including social media postings, emails, PPC advertising, and more.
5 Ways to Boost Your Small Business Marketing