10 Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Business

Marketing is an essential component for growing your business. To start bringing in more sales, you need an effective marketing strategy in place. In this article, we'll go over 10 marketing strategies you can use to start growing your business.

10 marketing strategies for growing your business

A good marketing strategy covers a wide range of tactics. The 10 marketing strategies below cover different tactics that all complement one another and establish a strong base for promoting your business going forward:

1. Optimize your website

2. Start a blog

3. Create videos

4. Become active on social media

5. Run an online advertising campaign

6. Manage an affiliate program

7. Work with influencers

8. Partner with other businesses

9. Sponsor charity events

10. Set up referral rewards

Related: 15 Marketing Jobs That Pay Well

1. Optimize your website

Most businesses have websites. If yours does not, you'll want to get started on that first. You need a website so that you can promote your products or services to potential customers and give them a way to contact you. The internet is now the most common way that people look for information, so it's vital that your business has a presence online.

Once you have a website, you'll want to optimize it for search engines. Search engines have certain criteria and ranking factors they look at when determining where to display a website within search results. Moving your website up just one or two spaces in search results could mean a dramatic boost to your site traffic, so you'll want to focus on meeting these criteria.

Some things you can do to optimize your website are speeding it up, conducting keyword research and including those keywords in your page titles, and working on your internal linking structure. If this is your first time optimizing a website for search engines, spend some time studying up on the best practices or hire a professional to do it for you.

2. Start a blog

A blog is a great way to further promote your business and its website. With a blog, you can accomplish a few goals. You can better educate your customers about your product or services, provide other helpful information related to your niche, and create more access points through search engines.

Example: Let's say you run a pest control business. To promote your business, you create a blog post titled "10 Ways To Tell If Your Home Has a Mouse Problem." People who visit your website can see this blog post, learn to identify the signs of a mouse problem, and if they have one contact you for your help. Also, if this blog post ranks well on search engines, it can draw more people into your site who maybe have not heard of you yet. The more opportunities you can create for people to find your business the better off you'll be, and a blog is a great way to do this.

3. Create videos

Similar to blog posts, creating videos is another excellent way to promote your business and create new entry points. Videos typically rank well within search engines, so if you can create a good video, you could find yourself near the top of the results. Try to create videos that will help your customers out in some way. Some types of videos you can create are:

• Q&As

• Tutorials

• Product reviews

• Behind-the-scenes

• Product demonstrations

To create a video, you don't have to spend a lot of money on expensive equipment or production teams. However, high-quality videos will present a better image of your business. Work to find a balance between cost and production quality that you're comfortable with.

4. Become active on social media

Social media is a powerful business promotion tool. With it, you can reach potentially millions of people all in a matter of seconds. If your business isn't active on social media yet, you'll want to get started as soon as you can. Create an account on at least one social media channel, then start filling out your profile. Use these platforms to promote your business but also to interact with others within your niche.

Example: A freelance web designer decides to create a social media account to promote their work. Within their profile, they post links to their latest work, and they share feedback on other websites that they think have a great design. Doing these two things allows the freelancer to promote their own work and give interested people a reason to follow their account. With a little luck, one day a follower of theirs will need web design services and reach out to them.

Related: Learn About Being a Social Media Manager

5. Run an online advertising campaign

If you have the resources available, paying for advertising online is another great way to promote your business. To run ads online, you have three major options.

Google PPC

First, you can run a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign through Google. With this method, you would promote your business through search results, with a link to your website appearing at the top of relevant search results.

Facebook PPC

The second method is a PPC campaign through Facebook. This is similar to a campaign through Google, but instead of appearing on search results, your business would appear on your audience's Facebook page. With this type of ad campaign, you can either link directly to your website or your business's Facebook page.

Sponsored posts

The third option is to run sponsored posts. This is primarily done through social media networks. With this method, you would create a post on either platform, then pay to have that post appear in your target audience's feed. This is a good way to promote your social channels and gain some attention in an area that people check every day.

The great thing about running an online advertising campaign is that you can set your own budget. If you only want to spend $5/day, you can do so. This allows you to test out different strategies without risking a lot of your resources.

6. Manage an affiliate program

An affiliate program is when others promote your product or services for you, and you give them a percentage of any sales that result from their promotion. Your affiliate members can then share a link to your website through their social channels, website, blog, etc. If anyone visits through that link and makes a purchase, the member gets a percentage of that sale. An affiliate program can be a great way to get others to do the marketing of your products for you and generate sales that you might not otherwise have gotten.

7. Work with influencers

Another option is to work with influencers. Influencers are people who have large social media followings. Many of them are willing to promote your products or services for a fee. Spend some time researching your niche on social media platforms and look for anyone with a particularly large following. If you find one, you can reach out to them about promoting your business and what it would cost. By working with influencers you can extend your reach well beyond your current social following and get an endorsement from a respected member within your target niche.

8. Partner with other businesses

Partnering with other businesses can often be a successful strategy. If you can find another business within your niche that isn't a direct competitor, you may be able to combine your marketing efforts and reach new customers. They could partner with a freelance copywriter who specializes in website copy. By agreeing to promote each other's services, the web designer now gets exposed to all of the writer's social followers. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement and there's no danger of losing out on customers because you provide different services.

9. Sponsor charity events

For local businesses, a good way to get your name out there is by sponsoring local charity events. This marketing method comes with a few great benefits, including:

• Displaying your name in a location crowded with locals

• Making connections within your community

• Associating your brand with positive emotions

Find some causes in your area that you care about and see if they need sponsors. Not only will you get to feel good about contributing to a worthwhile cause, but your business will receive some excellent promotion, all for a one-time donation.

10. Set up referral rewards

Promote your business by setting up referral rewards. Referral programs are a great way to turn happy existing customers into more customers. Here's how a referral program can work: First, you create a system to provide each customer with their own unique referral code.

You tell your customers that if anyone uses that code during their next purchase, they'll receive a discount on a future purchase. The original customer now has an incentive to promote your business for you. People are more likely to become customers when referred by a family member or friend, so if you can encourage these referrals through a referral program, you'll likely see growth within your business.