5 Paid Marketing Tactics for Small Businesses

For small businesses, there’s free marketing and then there’s paid marketing. Paid marketing often works better, but some free marketing also helps. There are several paid marketing tactics available and the best example of this are paid advertisements or ads. In today’s business climate, word of mouth is hardly enough. The primary source of information is the internet when looking for a local diner or local car mechanic.

Let’s face it, marketing is an important aspect in any business and oftentimes, one has to pay to get the best results. Walking around carrying a sign is somewhat effective but can be a bit tiresome. Here are five effective paid marketing tactics to help your small business get off the ground.

Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is a form of paid marketing. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram may be free for users, but they have to get revenue from somewhere. Like Google, they rely on paid ads from millions of small to medium businesses. Right now, apart from television, the best way to get enough exposure is through social media advertising. Facebook advertising alone is quite effective if you are willing to spend just a few bucks monthly. Depending on your audience, those few bucks are well-spent. Simply create a business page which will also serve as your customer reception point and doubles as a free website. You can then create a Facebook ad and post it through the Facebook Ads Manager. Instagram and Twitter are great platforms as well.

Google Adwords and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Most of the population is dependent on the internet, particularly on Google when they want to look for anything from food to cleaning services. Not everyone is on social media so it also pays to market your business on Google as well. Your small business can profit from Google if you spend a little and engage in some paid marketing. If someone is looking for the nearest pest control service in say Rhode Island, that search will include your business. However, it’s uncertain if your business would show up on the first page. This can be tricky as you need to update your website using the right keywords for your business along with content that will use those keywords consistently. Subscribe to Google Adwords which can be effective when done right and you’ll have to pay Google some money per successful click.

Create your own website

Having your own website gives your business some validity and a vote of confidence with potential customers. There are free website makers and builders out there and you can make the website yourself. Or you can go the professional route and pay a website professional for a clean, intuitive, looking and SEO-enabled website. Make sure all your social media platform posts link back to your site and provide some compelling content to link to.

Content Marketing

You could easily market your business by creating your own content whether it’s an article or a video. If you’re not a writer, you can hire professionals to create useful informative articles such as how-to guides related to your product or business. As for videos, you will have to invest on equipment as well. After creating the content, you can post it on your website promoted by social media. Or post to social media directly.

Email Marketing

This is the granddaddy of digital marketing before the advent of social media. Everything is passed on and forwarded through email. And since everyone now has email, this method of paid marketing remains viable in promoting one’s product or business. You can pay to acquire several leads or lists of relevant emails. Then market to that email list with compelling content such as free trials, free downloads, coupons. Or a simply introduce your products or service catalogues. There’s bound to be somebody looking for your particular product or business. The best place to find you is in a work environment through email.

So there are your five best tactics for paid marketing short of costly television or print advertisements. We hope these will help your business grow.