Your Guide To Marketing a Small Business Online and In-Person

10 min read

New small businesses need customers, and a well-rounded marketing strategy is probably the best way to get them.

So, how should you go about marketing? There are two main avenues to think about: Digital and in-person. And yes, they’re both important. In today’s digital world, you might be tempted to think that all you need is a Google Ads campaign, but combining online marketing with in-person ads might prove to be the best way to grow your business.

But first, let’s talk about customer avatars.

What Is a Customer Avatar?

Customer avatars are a detailed profile of your ideal customer. This can include things like their age, gender, income, hobbies, and more. You’ll use this avatar to inform your marketing strategy.

How do you make a customer avatar?

Consider these questions as you build your avatar:

What are their demographic traits? (Age, gender, education level, income, etc.)
What are their psychological traits? (Are they creative? Do they value family time? etc.)
What websites do they use? (This can be especially helpful for ecommerce businesses.)
What are their fears? (Security, aging, spiders, etc.)

Pro tip: If you already have a few customers, try sending out a survey to learn more about the people who already use your company. This is an excellent way to tap into valuable and relevant data to learn about who buys your product.

How to Market a Small Business With Online Ads and Without Them

Now that you have a better idea of your ideal customer, it’s time to get their attention.

And online ads are a great place to start.

Digital marketing has two very popular (and effective) subcategories: social media marketing and general ad campaigns.

There are a lot of overlapping characteristics in the digital marketing space, but social media marketing can generally be done for free while ad campaigns need to be purchased (you can do paid ad campaigns on social media, but we’ll talk about that later).

Social media marketing (SMM) for small businesses (and how to market a small business for free)

Wondering how to market a small business for free? Use social media!

Let’s look at three factors that make a social media ad effective.

Number One: Relevant value

Why should people stop scrolling to see what you have to say? Are you prioritizing valuable content that people will care about? If people are interested in what you’re posting, they’ll be more likely to click that buy button.

Number Two: Good visuals

According to Forbes, 90% of customers say they consider video content when making purchasing decisions — so it’s almost always a good idea to include a video or picture alongside your text. But don’t just add a random video to your post, make sure it’s relevant.

Number Three: Unique content

Social media is fast-paced, so you should prioritize content that will be interesting to your specific, ideal customer. Don’t aim for broadly interesting content, it might get buried in people’s feeds — instead, post something unique that your avatar would be attracted to.

Number Four: Consistency

When posting to social media, be sure to track your analytics, as this can tell you how many people are receiving your posts. You may find that a certain day or time of the day is better for posting. As you get into the routine of creating content, you need to remain consistent in your posting. This helps to reach more people and spread the word about your brand.

A suitable method for maintaining consistent posting is to put together a content calendar, which is just a schedule for what you will post and when.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a bit of a subcategory of social media marketing. Essentially, it means partnering with someone online with an established following. For example, content creators on TikTok or Instagram that make videos related to your particular business industry or field.

Look for creators using filters in TikTok Creator Marketplace

The major benefit of influencer marketing is that you have the benefit of their audience’s trust right off the bat. When the influencer markets your product, their audience has come to trust or respect their recommendations. In other words, those people can be more likely to purchase your product without knowing your company directly.

Start Small

The important thing to note about influencer marketing is that you don’t have to jump right to the creators with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers. In fact, this is likely not even an option for many small businesses, as large influencers can be expensive to work with. Fortunately, this does not mean influencer marketing is out of the question.

Small businesses should instead reach out to “micro-influencers.” All this term really means is influencers who are on the rise and still have a decent following. They may not be in the millions, but they can have thousands or tens of thousands of followers. This still makes for a great audience to market your product.

Find the Right Influencers

The first step in beginning influencer marketing is to find the right influencers to promote your product or service best. This step can take a little effort and time, but it is worth it to do the research.

Finding the right influencer means finding one that is involved with or connected to your particular industry and has a decent following. An additional criterion is that they have done marketing campaigns before so that they understand how it works and what is successful.

There are two primary ways to go about finding an influencer for your campaign. The first of these is to use established influencer marketing tools or platforms to find one. The second is to do the legwork yourself by searching through trending hashtags or competitors to find relevant influencers.

Create a Contract

After you have found an influencer you would like to worth with and have contacted them, the next step is a contract. This helps to lay out expectations throughout the partnership and helps protect your business.

An influencer contract should include:

Expectations for the promotion
Deadline for completion
Type of content and scope of agreement
Content approval pipeline
Ownership details

After launching your campaign, don’t forget to track the key metrics to monitor performance. For more tips, check out our full guide on influencer marketing.

Paid digital ad campaigns for small businesses

Paid campaigns can include everything from affiliate marketing (where you pay someone to promote your brand) to Google Ads campaigns (a system that posts your ads in a variety of online settings).

Let’s focus on Google Ads since it’s proven to be effective.

What you’ll need for a Google Ads campaign

Budget. These are paid ads, so you need to know how much you’re willing to spend.
Keywords. Reference your customer avatar to identify what words are relevant to your business. Google will use these keywords to target your campaign at internet users who are likely to be interested.
Landing page. Where do you want people to end up when they click on your ad? A website is a great choice (if you don’t have a site for your business, Ecwid can help you make one).

How much does a Google Ads campaign cost?

Google Ads has two networks with slightly different pricing: the Search Network and the Display Network.

First, the Search Network pushes your website to the top of the search results — which is great since it means the people seeing your ad are actively looking for similar search results. This type of Google ad can cost anything from a few dollars to several thousand depending on a lot of factors. Google lets you change your budget daily, so the Search Network is a good option for a new small business testing the market.
On the other hand, the Display Network posts your ads on a variety of websites. This gives you the opportunity to include visuals like your business’s logo — making it a good option for businesses that rely on visuals to make the sale. This network also has a big price range, so it’s a good idea to add your specific campaign goals on the Google Ads’ website to get an accurate price estimate.

Using paid ad campaigns on social media

Facebook and many other social platforms also offer paid ad campaigns — which can cost anything from a few dollars to several thousand depending on your budget, goals, and campaign type.

While they’re similar to general posts, social media ads will target specific users’ timelines, even if they don’t follow your account.

Don’t worry, you’ll have control over this targeting. On Instagram, for example, you can use the platform’s built-in system to target certain user demographics and geographic locations. You’ll also be able to specify certain interests and behaviors — another great opportunity to use your customer avatar.

How much do paid social media ads cost? Estimates vary, but you can expect to pay about $6.50 for every 1,000 impressions on Instagram. Facebook tends to be a little more, at around $7.50 for 1,000 impressions.
What’s the most effective platform for paid social media ad campaigns? It depends on your customer avatar. In the U.S., younger people are less likely to use Facebook, while people over 40 are less likely to use Instagram. You should consider your target audience before starting a campaign (reference that customer avatar again).

Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing tends to be a less common form of advertising in the days of digital ads, but it can still be effective. According to Omnisend, the average ROI for email marketing can be anywhere between $36-40 per dollar spent.

To have the most success with email marketing, personalization is an important factor. The last thing people want is rote or bulk emails endlessly spewed into their inboxes. Instead, offer customized deals or offers for products they have browsed or similar products.

An excellent use of email marketing is in retargeting ads for customers who have purchased or those who have abandoned their cart.

Optimize Your Marketing Strategies

One point to apply to any online marketing strategy is monitoring and optimization. Never simply launch a campaign and let it ride without keeping track of key performance indicators, like impressions, clicks, conversions, etc.

All of this data is critical to understanding how your campaign is performing and how you can improve it the next time.

For instance, if your impressions are low on a digital ad, it can mean a number of things, such as your placement isn’t ideal or your bids are too low. This allows you to tweak your next campaign to improve in those areas. The more data you collect, the better the campaigns will be that you launch in the future.

In-Person Marketing for Small Business

Just like digital marketing, in-person marketing for small businesses should be targeted at your ideal customer. Let’s look at three good in-person marketing options and how you can connect them with your online ads for a solid marketing strategy.

Number One: Print Marketing

This one covers a wide range of mediums—from business cards to posters. The best option for you will depend on how your business interacts with customers. If you or other company representatives work in person with your customers, handing out business cards might be helpful. If company representatives are less hands-on, try including a thank you note complete with your business’s branding/logo in your customer’s order.

With print marketing, it’s smart to include details about your business’s digital presence. Add things like your social media handles or a QR code that sends users to your website.

Number Two: Discounts and promotions

One of the best ways to connect digital and in-person marketing is by offering discounts and promotions for certain actions. For example, give your in-person customers a discount if they sign up for your email newsletter.

If you don’t have a brick-and-mortar location, try advertising your discount/sign-up offer at relevant meetups or conferences. This would also be a great time to use printed marketing materials, like posters or flyers.

Number Three: Outdoor ads

Outdoor ads include billboards, transit ads (those advertisements you see on taxis or buses), and posters. Ultimately, we’re talking about advertisements that are physically outside. These can be especially effective if your customer avatar doesn’t use the internet that much.

Try including short calls to action and eye-catching visuals. Just like social media ads, outdoor ads have a busy world competing for your customer’s attention — so don’t expect a big wall of text to make the sale.

Number Four: Industry Events and Shows

Depending on your type of business, an excellent way to get the word out about your business can be at industry-related events or trade shows. These events can often put your business right in the center of your target audience or at those who may be more interested. Moreover, it can be an excellent opportunity to network with similar business owners, which could open up collaboration relationships.

As a bonus tip, bring business cards or discount flyers to hand out for potential customers to check out your online store.

Time To Get Started!

Ready to get started on growing your own online business?

Between the boom in ecommerce and the potential of digital marketing, there’s never been a better time to start your small business’s new marketing strategy.

The best part? Ecwid is here to help with our easy-to-use selling platform. In fact, you can have your own online store up and running in no time.

Sell online

With Ecwid Ecommerce, you can easily sell anywhere, to anyone — across the internet and around the world.

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Aug 2, 2024

About the author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.