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Word of mouth marketing is the most powerful advertising tool in a small business owner’s toolkit. A happy customer sharing your story with a friend, colleague, or family member is far more effective and much cheaper than any billboard, blog, or Twitter feed. Conversely, an unhappy buyer telling friends how bad their experience was can cut deeper into revenue than nearly anything else. Done right, word of mouth marketing can grow your business, build your brand, and secure your revenue stream. Researchers have been examining word of mouth marketing for at least 60 years to figure out what it is, why it works, and how to do it well. Here’s what we know: What Is Word of Mouth Marketing? Word of mouth marketing differs from unorganized expression in that it’s influenced and directed by the organization. In providing that influence and direction, a business can follow one or more of …

Traditional forms of advertising have grown less effective over time. Television, radio, and newspaper ads don’t carry the distribution levels or emotional impact they once did. Plus, consumers have grown savvier, less responsive to hard sells, and more likely to use the internet to do research before making a buying decision. Today’s buyers want to feel a sense of autonomy in their choices. These cultural changes have led to a realignment in marketing. Businesses are moving away from advertising and toward content marketing. Advertising vs. Content Marketing What is advertising? Advertising is a sponsored media production that is intended to convince the public to buy a service or product. Advertisers want to get their message in front of as many viewers as possible to maximize their reach. An advertising campaign usually includes billboards, commercials, banners, and brochures, all intended to tell people about a product or service. The decision point …

Every small business faces the same key problem: no one knows who you are yet. The solution to that problem lies in getting exposure to prospective buyers in order to build awareness and credibility. Contrary to conventional wisdom, advertising will not solve your exposure problem. At the scale you need to get results, advertising will break your budget. Price reductions won’t solve your problem, either. People won’t buy from you at any price if they don’t know you exist. And if you’re already working hard on your publishing and social media platforms (and you should be), what other strategies can you implement? Audio. Gary Vaynerchuk, the oracle of the internet, says, “The future will be audio and voice focused.” Podcasts, the main audio medium, are growing fast, and if you’re an entrepreneur, you need to be on them. Once a niche market for hobbyists, podcasting has grown into a mainstream …

If you’re already doing email marketing and SEO optimization, then you’ve nailed down two of the most fundamental internet marketing strategies every small business should know. But these two strategies alone are not enough to comprise a viable marketing initiative. For one thing, email marketing requires you to maintain an address list. Once you have that list and use it, you’re marketing to the same customers with each email. If you aren’t regularly adding new names to your list, then your email strategy will eventually fold from natural attrition. And SEO, while essential, is far from enough. Since 2014, Google and other search engines have been returning paid results alongside free ones. Since paid results provide a wide revenue stream to the companies behind internet searches, you can expect to see pride of place going to those paid options more and more while organic results get shuffled to the side. …

From Twitter to TikTok, social media is dominating the online marketing domain. Actually, social media is ruling the world. An estimated 3.2 billion people, or four out of every ten on the planet, use social media, including nine out of ten Millennials and five out of ten Boomers. And the average user spends nearly 2.3 hours a day on their favorite platforms. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that 73% of marketing experts say social media is “extremely” or “very” effective for business. Half of social media users go to their platforms of choice to research products before buying, and 71% of happy buyers recommend products to friends and family using social media. Clearly, social media marketing is critical to brand awareness, communication, and sales volume. But with more than 50 social media sites available, how can a small business owner decide which ones to use? And what’s the …

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) increases website traffic through organic search results. A well-optimized website will show up high in the organic (non-paid) results that a search engine returns for a relevant string of keywords. Why does SEO matter? Because 89% of B2B buyers and 81% of online shoppers research products and services before they buy them, according to Hubspot. And you cannot market online effectively without doing SEO. Therefore, if your business doesn’t show up on Google and other major search engines, your business is unlikely to survive. SEO forms the core of any digital marketing strategy. Good SEO practices do more than increase website rankings. They also help businesses’ social media sites, videos, images, and blogs show up for relevant keywords. Because SEO is a big, slippery, and critical marketing concept, many small business owners believe it to be complex, ever-changing, and beyond their control. Sometimes, entrepreneurs invest marketing …