3 Things to Consider for Your Small Business Marketing Strategy

Is social media marketing a part of your small business marketing strategy? If not, you are missing a cost effective strategy to reach, convert and retain customers. Consider these statistics about social media and consumer behavior: 

  • As of January 2020, over 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide. That’s nearly half the global population — and the number is expected to exceed 4 billion in a few years!
  • More than 40% of online shoppers use social media when researching things to buy.
  • Social networks are the biggest source of inspiration for consumer purchases, with 37% of consumers finding purchase inspiration through them.

A small business with a polished, coordinated, and thoughtful social media marketing strategy can reach their target audience and improve conversions. Aim for well-planned content that resonates with your customers. Here’s how.

  1. Set Goals for Your Strategy

To create an effective marketing strategy for your small business, you must first know what you need to accomplish. Set clear and detailed goals that fit into your overall marketing strategy. 

You can write SMART goals — specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and temporal — to outline exactly what you want to achieve and when. For example, if you want to sell more products in your store compared to last year, your SMART goal may look like this: 

“I want to increase revenue (specific) in the next two quarters (temporal) by selling 30% more products (measurable) compared to last year. Since most of our site traffic comes from social media users (attainable), I’ll post on all social media platforms three times per week to increase engagement and traffic (relevant) to the website.”

With SMART goals, you know exactly what action to take and how to measure the outcome.

  1. Research Your Customers and Competition

Now that you’ve outlined your goals, you must figure out who you’re marketing to…and who you’re up against. Researching both your customers and your competition is essential in a small business marketing strategy.

You have to know who your customers are before you persuade them to take action. 

  • Are they using Facebook and Instagram the most, or YouTube and LinkedIn? 
  • Are they reading your blog or clicking links in your email newsletters? 
  • What are they buying? 
  • What are their most frequent questions?
  • Who is your target demographic? 

Use your knowledge of customer behavior, values, needs, and habits to create a marketing strategy that works.

Likewise, you should get to know your competitors in your industry. Pinpoint local retailers in your area and analyze their marketing tactics. Are they using organic social media posts? Print advertising? Social media ads? The better you know who you’re up against, the easier you can come out on top. 

  1. Develop a Strategy Based on Your Goals and Research

As a small business owner, you likely don’t have a lot of time or money to invest in marketing. That’s why social media is the perfect choice for the bulk of your marketing strategy. It’s free or relatively inexpensive, and as we’ve discussed before, most of your customers are already online. It’s just a matter of meeting them where they are.

Choose the right social media platforms

There’s no sense in using Twitter to market your business if nearly all of your customers use Facebook instead. Some platforms are popular among certain groups of people. 

For example, 93% of adults aged 25 to 29 in the U.S. said they use YouTube. Only 38% of adults 65 and older said they use YouTube, but in comparison, only 3% of adults 65 and older use Snapchat. The second age group may not be as familiar with YouTube as the former, but it’s still a noticeable difference compared to the numbers with Snapchat. These demographics vary considerably by location, too, so look for research that applies to your local market.

Create valuable content

Why should your customers follow or engage with you on social media? Give them a reason to stick around with valuable content that speaks to their interests and preferences.

For example, a local furniture retailer may stand out from their competitors by tailoring their social media posts to their audience’s habits. Their customers likely want tutorials on putting together a shelf, or incorporating a new table or chair into their home decor. 

Valuable content doesn’t always mean you have to give away something for free or teach your followers how to do something. Behind-the-scenes content that introduces your team to your audience can build trust and loyalty. Fun quizzes or Q&A sessions can entertain and engage social media users. Spotlighting customers and sharing positive reviews can make your audience feel good. All of these benefit your business.

Finally, take advantage of branded content provided by the manufacturers of the products you carry. Most likely, they invest considerable resources into producing highly polished, professional content that you can easily share with your followers.

Tailor content to local audiences

To attract customers in your geographic area, consider localizing your content. You might research which other local retailers your customers prefer, popular local keywords in the area, social media usage habits, and preferred type of content among local audiences.

More than 8 in 10 customers trust and support local businesses, even preferring them over national chains. There’s even better news for small businesses weathering the COVID-19 pandemic: more than half of consumers indicated they’re more likely to buy locally instead of a national retailer during the COVID-19 crisis.

Supporting the local community and remaining loyal to local stores are important to customers now more than ever. Make sure you’re using that to your advantage when forming a marketing strategy for your business.

How Can ThumbStopper Help With My Marketing Strategy?

You juggle many responsibilities as a small business owner. You handle it all, from bookkeeping to human resources to inventory and more. You already have your hands full. Crafting an effective social media strategy can take more time and resources than you have available. That’s why ThumbStopper is the solution for you.

ThumbStopper gathers high-quality, relevant content generated by the brands you sell in your store and publishes it automatically to your own social feed. Because you share similar audiences with the brands you sell, you can leverage their content to engage consumers on social media. 

With ThumbStopper, you can work towards your marketing goals using social media without spending hours brainstorming and creating content from scratch. Free up precious time to actually run your own business. That’s what you get with ThumbStopper: more leads, more conversions and better branding at the fraction of the cost of a marketing department.
Ready to let ThumbStopper help you with your marketing strategy? Learn more here.

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Key Points:

 

  • Companies should understand the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure their websites are accessible.
  • Brands that concentrate on accessibility on social media demonstrate care for their customers and build a positive brand reputation.
  • Brands should always consider inclusive design, such as plain, straightforward language, in their social media posts.

 

 

Accessibility may not be a term you usually associate with the internet and social media. You might picture wheelchair ramps, directional signs in braille, or sign language interpreters at live performances. The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 dictates the legal necessity of these and similar accommodations in public spaces. As we’ve come to rely on the internet for everything from entertainment to buying groceries, it’s become clear that the internet is now also a public space. It must be accessible to everyone. And like other applications of ADA, businesses that do not comply are liable for damages caused by inaccessibility.

 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international set of standards to provide instruction on meeting accessibility needs. It’s important for companies to understand how this applies to their websites, especially if they engage in e-commerce. In terms of social media, the requirements are less concrete. But prioritizing accessibility on your company’s social media is essential to your reputation, even if the legal requirements are uncertain. We’ll look at why it’s important to your customers, how it affects the perception of your brand, and how to make these changes efficiently.

Social Media for All

The cornerstone of accessibility is inclusive design: products or experiences that are accessible for everyone regardless of disability. The most important place where this shows up is on company websites where most users expect to also find links to the brand’s social media profiles. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of websites are not accessible, despite the fact that the application of ADA to the internet is over 20 years old. Making websites accessible is a complex process without the use of specialized software like Accessibe or EqualWeb.

Unlike websites, making sure your social media is accessible is a straightforward, ongoing process. Every social platform has been quick to release optional accessibility features. These features are important to many users even if they don’t rely on them to use social media.

Making your social presence accessible tells users that your brand cares about people, not just profits. It’s the same idea as the push for the representation of different body sizes in fashion or more expansive skin tone ranges in beauty products. Brands that meet the needs of underrepresented groups endear themselves to others as well. And while optimizing your brand website for accessibility might be a larger project you aren’t ready to tackle yet, starting with your social media pages is a great way to show customers that you’re listening to their concerns. 

 

Making Content Accessible

Shifting to accessible content means incorporating inclusive design into your creative process. The practice varies by type of media. For platforms that have graphics or videos with captions, it means not only adjusting each component but also being mindful of how they interact with each other.

For example, YouTube’s automatically generated closed captions and subtitles are often inaccurate. It's one of many examples where the caption generation software has issues picking up strong accents and mumbled words. This could be remedied with handcrafted video transcription services. If that’s not in the budget, the video creator could add their script or transcription to the video description.

None of the technology for accessibility is perfect yet. Teaching computers to digest complex information for human understanding is difficult, and the variations in disabilities further complicate it. The majority of adjustments creators need to make revolve around helping assistive technology better understand their content. Let’s look at how to make different kinds of content accessible. 

Text

  • Use plain language that’s easy to understand 
  • Avoid text in all caps
  • Capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag, like #SocialMediaMarketing, a practice called camel-case

Videos

  • Provide descriptive captions. Instead of just displaying the words people on-screen say, explain background noises and other sounds that are relevant to the scene.
  • Add your own subtitles or enable auto-subtitles on the video platform of your choice
  • Use captioning for live videos when possible

Graphics

Distribute Accessible Content

Many users find their new favorite brand through social media. When disabled people (who make up 26% of the population according to the CDC) can’t access your brand’s social posts, you miss the opportunity to connect with a demographic that’s eager to engage in online communities. On a hyper-local level, that kind of connection goes even further.

That’s why ThumbStopper exists to help brands distribute their social content to their retailer network. Retailers can connect with their local audience - with your accessible, branded content - in a more personal way. And since content goes to their page automatically once they sign up, retailers can effortlessly promote your brand online while focusing on running their business. 

Ready to see how ThumbStopper can help your brand improve its reach? Check out our brand reach calculator or book a demo.

 

 

accessibility
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[/et_pb_column]
What Is Social Media Automation?
[/et_pb_column]
[/et_pb_column]
10 Ways to Automate Your Marketing
[/et_pb_column]
[/et_pb_column]
How Effective Is Your Social Media Strategy
[/et_pb_section][/et_pb_column]
[/et_pb_row]
[/et_pb_column]

Key Points:

 

  • Companies should understand the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure their websites are accessible.
  • Brands that concentrate on accessibility on social media demonstrate care for their customers and build a positive brand reputation.
  • Brands should always consider inclusive design, such as plain, straightforward language, in their social media posts.

 

 

Accessibility may not be a term you usually associate with the internet and social media. You might picture wheelchair ramps, directional signs in braille, or sign language interpreters at live performances. The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 dictates the legal necessity of these and similar accommodations in public spaces. As we’ve come to rely on the internet for everything from entertainment to buying groceries, it’s become clear that the internet is now also a public space. It must be accessible to everyone. And like other applications of ADA, businesses that do not comply are liable for damages caused by inaccessibility.

 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international set of standards to provide instruction on meeting accessibility needs. It’s important for companies to understand how this applies to their websites, especially if they engage in e-commerce. In terms of social media, the requirements are less concrete. But prioritizing accessibility on your company’s social media is essential to your reputation, even if the legal requirements are uncertain. We’ll look at why it’s important to your customers, how it affects the perception of your brand, and how to make these changes efficiently.

Social Media for All

The cornerstone of accessibility is inclusive design: products or experiences that are accessible for everyone regardless of disability. The most important place where this shows up is on company websites where most users expect to also find links to the brand’s social media profiles. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of websites are not accessible, despite the fact that the application of ADA to the internet is over 20 years old. Making websites accessible is a complex process without the use of specialized software like Accessibe or EqualWeb.

Unlike websites, making sure your social media is accessible is a straightforward, ongoing process. Every social platform has been quick to release optional accessibility features. These features are important to many users even if they don’t rely on them to use social media.

Making your social presence accessible tells users that your brand cares about people, not just profits. It’s the same idea as the push for the representation of different body sizes in fashion or more expansive skin tone ranges in beauty products. Brands that meet the needs of underrepresented groups endear themselves to others as well. And while optimizing your brand website for accessibility might be a larger project you aren’t ready to tackle yet, starting with your social media pages is a great way to show customers that you’re listening to their concerns. 

 

Making Content Accessible

Shifting to accessible content means incorporating inclusive design into your creative process. The practice varies by type of media. For platforms that have graphics or videos with captions, it means not only adjusting each component but also being mindful of how they interact with each other.

For example, YouTube’s automatically generated closed captions and subtitles are often inaccurate. It’s one of many examples where the caption generation software has issues picking up strong accents and mumbled words. This could be remedied with handcrafted video transcription services. If that’s not in the budget, the video creator could add their script or transcription to the video description.

None of the technology for accessibility is perfect yet. Teaching computers to digest complex information for human understanding is difficult, and the variations in disabilities further complicate it. The majority of adjustments creators need to make revolve around helping assistive technology better understand their content. Let’s look at how to make different kinds of content accessible. 

Text

  • Use plain language that’s easy to understand 
  • Avoid text in all caps
  • Capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag, like #SocialMediaMarketing, a practice called camel-case

Videos

  • Provide descriptive captions. Instead of just displaying the words people on-screen say, explain background noises and other sounds that are relevant to the scene.
  • Add your own subtitles or enable auto-subtitles on the video platform of your choice
  • Use captioning for live videos when possible

Graphics

Distribute Accessible Content

Many users find their new favorite brand through social media. When disabled people (who make up 26% of the population according to the CDC) can’t access your brand’s social posts, you miss the opportunity to connect with a demographic that’s eager to engage in online communities. On a hyper-local level, that kind of connection goes even further.

That’s why ThumbStopper exists to help brands distribute their social content to their retailer network. Retailers can connect with their local audience – with your accessible, branded content – in a more personal way. And since content goes to their page automatically once they sign up, retailers can effortlessly promote your brand online while focusing on running their business. 

Ready to see how ThumbStopper can help your brand improve its reach? Check out our brand reach calculator or book a demo.

 

 

accessibility
[/et_pb_column]
[/et_pb_column]
What Is Social Media Automation?
[/et_pb_column]
[/et_pb_column]
10 Ways to Automate Your Marketing
[/et_pb_column]
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