How do I market myself as a small business?

In my first job out of college, I was an Account Manager for a company that specialized in internal training development for automotive brands. Immersed in the automotive industry, in which I had zero experience prior, I attended the Detroit Auto Show every year to learn, scout for facilitator talent, and connect with partners and clients. In one particular conversation between my supervisor and a logistics partner, I made an awkward introduction and said something along the lines of, “I’m Kristina Gorr. I’m just the Account Manager helping with BMW and MINI.” 

[Photo below of my brother and I at 2014 Detroit Auto Show]

After the conversation ended, my boss promptly told me to never introduce myself as “just” anything ever again. I was valuable, I was good at my job, and if I didn’t exude confidence in myself, no one I worked with would have confidence in me either. 

Nearly 15 years later and that conversation is still as relevant now as it was then. As a small business owner – whether sole proprietor, solopreneur, or owner of a company with a small team – you are bringing value to the world. Building and exuding confidence in yourself is the first step towards building confidence among your customers. Establishing a strong brand presence and utilizing strategic marketing resources are two foundational ways to get started.

How do beginners do marketing?

There are so many small business marketing ideas out there, it can be hard to know where to begin and which will actually yield results. 

For professional, high quality, marketing, you need a strategy. Avoid doing anything (yes, that means don’t set up a social media page!) until you first set a solid foundation in which to build your marketing.

A strategic communications and marketing plan should include:

• Data-Driven Customer Personas: a representative of your target audience that is based on your instincts and cold, hard data. Personas reveal a customer group’s motivations, challenges, goals, shopping habits, preferences, pain points, and more.
• Competitive Analysis and Market Research – a deep dive analysis into the world of your competitors and the market provides invaluable insight into how you can stand out by building a unique brand, product offering, and marketing strategy.
• Brand Voice Guidelines – a document that outlines who your brand is, your tone, style, personality, descriptors, values, message anchors, and more. 
• A Customer Journey Map – a clear pathway that maps out every touchpoint between initial introduction to your business and converting to a sale. This allows you to set up experiments and a data tracking strategy to ensure return-on-investment.

How do I introduce my small business on social media?

Learning how to market yourself on social media is relatively easy once you have the foundational elements of a strategic communications and marketing plan in place. Your customer personas dictate which social media platforms to use and your brand voice guidelines direct you towards authentic messaging. 

With those two marketing resources in place, be authentic and on-brand in your introduction. If your brand is charming with a side of wit, use that style and tone in your first post. Ensure your about sections and visuals are also in line with your guidelines to ensure consistency across all customer touchpoints. 

How can I market my business with little money?

When a small business is just starting out, a small budget is common. There are lots of low cost marketing ideas for small businesses to help you stand out in the market without spending an arm and a leg. 

If you are executing your marketing on a shoestring budget, don’t skip crafting a strategy. DIY’ing your strategy will save you thousands of dollars, but if you aren’t a marketing expert, this is dangerous territory to navigate without a guide. 

Crafted Voice offers affordable, on-demand marketing resources that provide high quality, step-by-step resources to create a solid marketing strategy.

How do I market my business myself?

When it comes to out of the box ideas for marketing, this pizza place experimented with a marketing stunt that was incredibly cheap and went viral. 

You can watch the pizza QR code stunt on CBS Minnesota, and as a bonus, the news anchors go into a relevant and interesting topic on brand awareness and ROI.

If a goofy QR code man isn’t your ideal marketing tactic, go back to the beginning of this article and ensure you have the right foundational elements in place for a great marketing strategy. Those will determine what activities you should execute. And if you need help, Crafted Voice is here to guide you towards a successful marketing mix and campaign.