Want to know how to market your business for success this 2024? A good product or service is the best secret to running a successful business. The product or service must address the pain points of your target audience and provide a solution. But that’s not all there is to attract prospective customers.

You need an effective marketing strategy to promote your business. Learning how to market your business puts you one step ahead of your competitors and retains your existing customers.

Unfortunately, many business owners fall into the trap of thinking that they need wads of cash to afford to promote their business online. If you want to get your brand (and its products or services) noticed, you have plenty of options and some of them are either affordable or free.

Discover how to use the various local and digital marketing strategies to promote your business, accelerate its growth and hit your sales targets.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach if you want to promote your business and reach potential customers. You can use one or several of these strategies so you can rank higher on search engines or get your brand name in front of prospects.

 

This list of digital marketing strategies works for an existing or new business, which gives you more flexibility in how you incorporate them into your existing strategy.

 

1. Set Up Your Google Business Profile

Google Business is the number one search engine’s listing service. When you add your business to the Google Business listing, it allows your business information to show up for any relevant Google search result. It makes it easier for potential customers to find information about your business, such as the address, business hours, contact number, and more (so long as you’ve provided them on your profile).

This free listing should be a top priority if you want to promote your business online for free. It allows you to leverage the popularity of Google, especially if you want to promote local businesses and customers within a specific area of operation.

You must verify your account as a business owner to make it easier to confirm the validity of the information on your profile. In addition, you have several optimisation options to rank higher on Google search results and reach your target audience. Since the listing is permanent, it will be visible on Google for as long as there are relevant searches for it.

Investing time to update your Google Business profile with the correct information will be highly beneficial. Furthermore, you can add posts that are relevant to your business and use that to inform your customers about your products and services, or share news or announcements about local events or activities within your local community involving your business.

Creating a brand name and logo is the first step to building an effective marketing strategy. The long-term goal of marketing is to build a consistent brand identity. It also establishes the credibility of your brand and gives your target audience the impression that you are a legitimate business.

One of the best ways to establish your brand is to come up with a unique value proposition. This value proposition is a critical component when you plan your marketing campaigns. For example, you want to build a low-cost brand and focus on delivering low-priced products.

Identify your point of differentiation in the market and it’s something that people will associate with your brand. Maximise your use of the brand name and logo by incorporating them into your social media and website.

3. Social Media is King

Social media is a powerful platform that more businesses should make use of in 2024. Leverage it as a marketing tool to boost brand awareness and attract more customers to your business. A social media platform provides you with easy access to your target market; it’s all about finding them.

The first step in social media promotion is to identify which social media channels to use for your business. As you know, there are several social media platforms available. If you have limited resources or manpower to handle your social media promotion, you must be strategic in choosing which platforms to focus on. It requires market research to know your target market and identify the social media channels they commonly use.

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are free tools that you can utilise for marketing. Even Youtube is a great platform to promote your business. You can create professional videos that inform or talk about your products or services on your social media. On social media, you can regularly post updates about your new products, provide how-to information on these products, or drum up interest in an upcoming sale.

Using social media as a platform for engagement is essential to market your business in 2024. Strike for a balance between posting about your business and engaging with your audience on your social media profile. The goal is to establish a connection with the social media users that represent your target audience and humanise your brand.

Interacting directly with your customers is an efficient way to build loyalty and trust. It also increases customer satisfaction, especially when you answer enquiries or complaints quickly. However, you must still conduct yourself as a professional when you engage with them.

Small businesses which have a limited budget to spend on advertising can also take advantage of social media advertising options. It usually doesn’t require a large budget to drive more traffic to your website or increase engagement on your posts.

Make sure you have a solid social media strategy that defines your goals and the steps you must take to reach those goals. The right strategy can increase your social media presence, help generate more online sales and build a relationship based on loyalty with your audience.

4. Solicit Product Reviews

Social proof is one of the most effective tools you can leverage to promote your business online. If you have a product that you are confident your market loves, you can ask them for feedback or encourage customers to leave a review for the online community to see. You can incentivise this step to get more reviews from every customer that purchases your product, such as free points that they can convert into discounts for their next purchase.

If your customers are happy about the product, they will most likely leave a review. While not all clients are inclined to do so, even if only a small percentage of those who bought your products left a review, you have enough material you can use to promote your business using social proof and actual customer feedback. Make sure you can provide proof that they are verified customers to add credibility to the reviews.

You can also use a blogger outreach program, which is now known as influencer marketing. This online marketing strategy is effective if you can find the right “influencers” whose online community is of the same demographic as your target market.

Get the ball rolling by reaching out to these people on social media and provide them with a product to try and review. The terms for this marketing strategy differ according to the influencer you are working with. Some require a fee to go with the product review while others accept a free product sample. You may adjust your terms based on your advertising budget.

5. Take Advantage of User-Generated Content (UGC)

In connection with the above tip for your marketing strategy in 2024, don’t miss out on the opportunity to gain brand awareness and social proof by utilising user-generated content on social media.

User-generated content is any type of content that is submitted by your customers, especially those who post it on their social media accounts. User-generated content is one of the most powerful tools to promote your business online, especially if you want to drive traffic and increase conversions.

According to Nielsen Consumer Trust Index, 92% of consumers trust user-generated content over traditional advertising content. Since brands do not pay for UGC, they can get authentic feedback on the customer’s experience with the brand and its products versus those who were paid to feature the product on their social media platforms or blogs. Therefore, there is the perception of an unbiased opinion with UGC.

You can build user-generated content related to your brand or business by holding a hashtag contest. Set up a branded hashtag that you can use to promote your business. Encourage participants to use that hashtag when sharing their own content to not only make the hashtag popular, but also to build awareness for your brand online.

Holding contests and giveaways are a great way to encourage users to share their photos or videos about your brand. In addition, it boosts the shareability factor of these types of content, which improves the credibility of your brand online. It is an effective social media strategy that has worked for many brands.

6. Create an App

Nowadays, it seems that there is an app for almost anything! Therefore, you can jump into this trend and target your customers who are into mobile phone apps.

According to Forbes, up to 37 billion apps were downloaded in the first quarter of 2022 alone! This data increased by 11% from the previous year. Those are numbers that you can potentially use to your advantage by building an app that will boost your brand recognition and target potential customers.

Some of the benefits of creating a mobile app include the ability to improve customer engagement and make it easy for people to shop for your products through the app. You can also build customer loyalty by offering exclusive app-only incentives and special offers to your audience. Finally, a mobile app is accessible 24/7 and usually offers a seamless experience to the user compared to a website which might not be optimised for mobile use.

7. Email Marketing Isn’t Dead

Email marketing is a great tool for business promotion. It’s also one of the most overlooked marketing tools that are potentially beneficial for your business. Work on building your email list by focusing on targeted leads. You can make this possible by making it easy for people to sign up for your email list and by giving them a discount code to your website.

Once you’ve built your email list, nurture it. Focus on building relationships with the people on your email list. Over time, you will be able to yield great results if you keep your subscribers updated with relevant information.

You can set up an automated email marketing campaign with the use of an automated email marketing platform. This platform enables you to send those emails on a periodic basis to ensure you maintain communication with your prospects consistently.

Don’t forget to incorporate a call-to-action (CTA) in your email marketing campaigns. It’s important to guide your email subscribers on what you want them to do, but make sure it flows naturally within the content of the email.

8. Send Out Press Releases

Public relations is always a good option when it comes to business promotion. As people are not paid to talk about your products or services, it makes feedback more legit and trustworthy.

Issuing press releases whenever your business has done something that is newsworthy will generate a buzz for your small business and attract prospective customers. For example, you launched a new product or service, or you organised an industry-related event.

Press releases are a powerful marketing tool that enables your business to gain publicity in the industry. There are several platforms that allow you to send press releases online for free. A few examples include 24/7 Press Release and PR Log. You can start with these websites to create impactful press releases and promote your business offers to a large audience.

9. Join Online Communities

You can start or join online communities involving businesses within the same industry to promote your business. Make sure you sign up and engage with these communities to get the opportunity to build relationships with other small businesses.

Many local businesses use this platform to engage with other complementary businesses in the industry. It is a great way to earn referrals for clients or to build professional networks. You must invest time to connect and engage with other members of the online community to expand your networks and create more business opportunities. It’s known as active contribution wherein your goal is to establish rapport with other members.

Don’t forget to add your link after each post so that other users can click on your link if they want to know more about your local business.

10. Make Your Content Shareable

Make it easy for your readers or website visitors to share your content by giving them sharing tools. Use this on any content, whether on your website, blog, or social media business pages. Add a button that users can click on whenever they find any of your content useful or worth sharing, so they can do this in a matter of seconds.

Encouraging your readers to share your content is one of the best ways to make your content go viral. It is also your ticket to getting free advertisement on your content, while also generating organic reach for your business. Creating content that is of good quality is not enough; you must ensure that sharing them on any social platform is easy to do.

11. Use Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the traditional forms of online marketing that is an effective tool for your business. You can join many affiliate marketing platforms wherein users and bloggers can apply to your program and feature your products on their websites and social media.

Affiliate marketing is a win-win situation for businesses and bloggers (the affiliates). The bloggers can choose which program to join based on their niche. Therefore, you can guarantee that the affiliates who will be promoting your products are relevant to your niche and will reach the right audience for your business.

Affiliates get a commission or a flat fee for every product sold through their affiliate link or channel. It allows you to build relationships with affiliates of your brand so they can become your brand ambassadors online. You can also leverage the relationship they formed with their followers.

12. Advertise in a Local Newspaper

Online marketing is essential to promote your business. But if you have a local business, it’s important to focus on marketing within your community so you can target local customers.

Set up an ad in the local press or magazine. Most local newspapers have a dedicated section for advertising businesses. Take advantage of this space to target a specific audience, especially if you plan on running a local event. Small business owners with a limited budget can use this approach to diversify their marketing strategy.

13. Use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System

A CRM system is one of the most valuable tools for any business, especially if you want to promote your business online or locally.

It starts with building a customer database wherein you can access all relevant information about your target customers. Use it to keep track of your activities and interactions with those customers and identify sales opportunities.

There are many options to choose from, whether you’re looking for free or paid CRM systems. Choose according to what suits your budget and your business objectives.

The most important thing is how you use the data and insights you can gather from the system, not just about the type of system used. If you use this data efficiently, you can increase your online sales and retain customers.

14. SEO is Key

In this digital age, it’s almost a sin to not employ search engine optimisation to promote your business. Have you tried Googling your business name or any relevant keyword? Where does your business rank in the search engine results pages?

Ideally, you should be on the first page of the results pages for a relevant query. Optimising your Google ranking allows you to rank higher on the search engine and find new customers for your small business.

It pays to invest time and resources in SEO. But first, you must start by identifying the keywords to target in your online marketing campaign. Use keyword research tools to gather actual data and insights about those keywords. Pick out the top keywords to target for your search engine optimisation, such as those with high search volume and low competition.

Use those keywords for your on-page SEO, such as adding them to your website content, blog, metadata, and alt texts for images. You should also consider other search engine ranking factors, such as keyword placement, length of content, speed of web page loading, and the frequency of your post updates.

The Google search engine algorithm works by providing the best possible match for a relevant search query. Therefore, it is important that you employ SEO to ensure you are among the websites listed on the search results page.

15. Set Up Google Adwords

SEO takes time to build organic traffic to your website. If you want immediate results, you can take advantage of Google’s paid advertising program – Google Adwords.

It allows you to identify keywords that you want to target for listing your website on the search engine. If your website and target keywords are a relevant fit for a given query, your website will be listed as one of the top results. This can be a game-changer if you want to boost traffic and conversion to your website, as well as reach prospective customers.

The initial cost of setting up your campaign can be high, especially for keywords with high search volume and high competition. However, you can set a maximum monthly budget for your marketing campaign to keep costs under control while still benefiting from this advertising opportunity.

16. Update Your Content Regularly

Google likes fresh content. and consistency is key. Therefore, you can use this trick to promote your business online and reach the top of the search rankings.

Look at old blog posts that have done well in the past. Optimise the performance of this content by updating them with new information and incorporating more keywords that are relevant to the topic.

When you update an old blog post, you can repurpose the same content that has historically proven to be performing well. At the same time, you can save time and money as you no longer have to hire a content writer or look for new content ideas. You simply have to double down on your content that’s getting a lot of traffic.

A good content management system makes it easier to organise content planning for your business website and blog.

17. Be Featured in Gift Guides

Online magazines and websites typically feature gift guides to match the different holidays of the year. One of the best ways to promote your business is to be featured as one of the products in the gift guide. It takes effort and strategy to be one of the featured products on the list.

As a business owner, you need to lobby these online editors for them to consider your product in the gift guide. Gather contact details of publishers and craft a personalised outreach email to have your product included in their gift guides.

18. Start a YouTube Channel

YouTube is one of the most popular websites online. Up to one billion hours of video are played on YouTube daily. However, only 9% of small business owners use it to promote their business.

Setting up a dedicated YouTube channel is a great way to leverage the site’s popularity. There are several benefits to starting a YouTube channel, such as driving more traffic to your business website, building credibility among your audience, and boosting engagement and customer loyalty.

Invest time and resources in creating high-quality video content. The higher the quality of your videos, the more people will likely view, share, and engage with them. It’s also an excellent tool to attract new customers to your business. Ensure you have a solid marketing strategy for YouTube to maximise this platform.

It’s also crucial that you promote your YouTube channel on your own website.

19. Create Promotional Merchandise

Promotional merchandise is a good way to promote your business offline. It’s a traditional marketing approach but one that has proven highly effective.

Once you have created your brand name and logo, you can use that to print merchandise that will serve as walking billboards for your business. You can print your brand name and logo on t-shirts, caps, mugs, pens, and more. Take time to build a great design that will compel people to buy or distribute your merchandise.

You can also give them away as promotional gift items during the holiday or local events. Your brand identity will get exposure long after the event is over.

20. Vehicle Branding is Still Alive

If you own a vehicle as part of your business operation, don’t miss out on the chance to use your vehicle as a branding tool. It is cost-effective and is a valuable opportunity to increase brand awareness.

Unlike outdoor advertising such as billboards that have a fixed location (which also requires you to be strategic in choosing the right location), vehicle branding is one of the most untapped strategies on how to market your business. More people and potential customers can see your brand when your vehicle drives around your area.

21. Partner with Other Small and Local Businesses

Networking is an amazing tool to promote your small business. It’s also a great way to establish your credibility as a legitimate business and brand.

Network with other businesses in your area and industry. You can partner with them to offer great deals to your local customers. You can also work with them to organise local events that will attract people within your local community.

This type of partnership works best for companies that have complementary products. For example, a restaurant business can partner with a local delivery service provider to offer value-added services to its customers.

22. Speak at a Local Event

Get invited to speak to local events in your community that is relevant to your business niche. It is a great marketing strategy since you can establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, which adds to the credibility of your small business.

The talk gives you a platform to showcase your knowledge and expertise. At the same time, it allows you to introduce your business to new customers who are attending the event. There is a mixer that follows such events, which is a great way to network with other business owners.

23. Create a Customer Loyalty Scheme

A customer loyalty scheme is an excellent marketing strategy because it works for online and local businesses. This program encourages existing customers to continue supporting your small business. You can also leverage this program to attract new customers.

There are several strategies for implementing a customer loyalty scheme, such as a points system or the use of a loyalty card. The idea is that your customers can enjoy more perks as they continue to support your business. These perks can come in the form of freebies, discounts, etc. Make sure to keep your rewards attractive enough for customers to want to become part of the program.

The Bottom Line

The world of digital advertising and marketing opens up new doors of possibilities to reach your potential customer. However, it has also made the marketing world more cutthroat and competitive.

If you want to boost your marketing efforts and promote your business, it’s important to incorporate a few or all of these tactics as part of your marketing strategy.

The diversification of marketing techniques for your business ensures that you can reach your customers and build relevant content that will meet your business objectives.