To ensure business growth, it's crucial to continually seek new vectors of development and optimize processes. In practice, this can be more challenging than it sounds. Entrepreneurs often find themselves overwhelmed by routine, confused by the multitude of promotion methods, or opt for strategies that exceed their financial capabilities. To assist you in choosing your development path, we've compiled the most effective and modern methods, providing a brief description of each. Here are the 30 best ways to promote your business!
Business can neither exist nor grow without customers. To make your potential buyers find out about your products or services, it is necessary to engage in promotion. All methods of business expansion involve:
Not so long ago, entrepreneurs printed brochures, leaflets and advertised in newspapers. There were almost no other opportunities for promotion. Indeed, the digital age has brought forth a plethora of promotional methods, creating a new challenge: how to discern which avenues are essential and which are discretionary. With numerous advertising opportunities available, strategic decision-making becomes paramount in navigating this landscape. Navigating the myriad options for business promotion can indeed be overwhelming, leaving many entrepreneurs feeling uncertain. Recognizing this trend, we've compiled 30 proven methods categorized under minimum, medium, and large budgets. This curated selection aims to not only introduce you to the most relevant methods, but also to assess their alignment with your financial resources.
Affordable promotional methods can be just as effective as their more expensive counterparts. In fact, many modern methods of advertising require minimal financial investment while still offering significant reach and engagement.
This is a type of digital marketing that uses the potential of the popular social media platforms to achieve marketing and branding goals. Businesses actively use this strategy, which is confirmed by the numbers.
In 2023, social media advertising spending reached $268 billion. As noted in research from HubSpot, the main goal of businessmen is to advertise their products or services and increase brand recognition. Besides, 77% of entrepreneurs note that this type of promotion helped them increase sales.
Social media marketing requires a systematic approach that involves:
creating a business account;
active management and maintenance of pages;
publication of photos, stories, videos and conducting streams;
interaction with other users;
building a community around your brand.
Traffic from social media reaches on average 16% of all sources, which should encourage businesses to take these activities seriously. 82% of entrepreneurs have several business accounts on one platform, adapting content according to the characteristics of each of them. The great advantage is that social media marketing allows you to choose those platforms, which your potential audience uses. More features of each social media platform here:
*Source wordstream
This strategy assumes that instead of directly promoting your products or services, you provide useful information that either helps solve problems or simply entertains your audience. It is worth noting that 69% of businesses planned to increase marketing budgets on content marketing in 2023, which actually proves the effectiveness of choosing this sector of development. Regular posting of high-quality content increases the chance of attracting a new audience.
Longreads play a crucial role in content marketing strategies. By delving deeper into topics relevant to your target audience, these in-depth pieces of content can provide significant value and build trust with your readers. This will also help:
improve SEO
Search engines like Google prefer long and detailed articles because they have more value in the eyes of the user. As a result, longer format articles rank higher in search rankings.increase engagement rates
Valuable content increases the chance that the user will either subscribe to your posting or make an order.demonstrate expertise
This is your opportunity to become a thought leader and get yourself quoted by resources, bloggers and publications.increasing the number of subscribers to email newsletters
Qualitative content helps improve email marketing results.Creating valuable content is essential for building and maintaining strong customer relationships, driving conversions, and boosting brand recognition.
Despite being around for nearly four decades, email marketing remains a powerful and relevant tool for businesses of all sizes. The popularity of this strategy can be explained by the fact that most people, and that's almost 77%, would prefer to receive only those marketing offers that have been chosen by themselves.
Email remains a popular marketing channel because:
people like to be informed about the latest offers;
people check their mail regularly;
email marketing almost always guarantees a return on investment, in some cases, the ROI is 30:1.
email platforms are easy and convenient to use.
Search networks can also help promote a business, but there are a few conditions that need to be met. Search engine optimization is a process that involves a set of activities, both internal and external, aimed at bringing your business in line with Google's requirements.
Search engine optimization is a strategy that encompasses many interrelated tactics that work together to affect your search engine rankings. SEO tactics for business promotion include:
adding relevant keywords related to yours industry and the location of the business, on the required pages of the site;
regular publication of high-quality content, both text and graphics;
optimization of page load speed and adherence to security protocols.
If your site ranks high in search results, Google will also recommend you to potential buyers in organic edition.
If you ignore local optimization, you automatically reduce your chance to get into the field of vision of your own potential audience. Instead, you'll be competing with the biggest businesses and sites from different industries. To indicate which area you work in and which services provide, create your company profile on Google My Business.
If you have a profile in Google Business Profile, you will be able to get on Google Maps and appear in the local section of search results.
To get the most out of your business profile, prove your business ownership with the help of a free Google Business account. Once you verify ownership, you can adjust information and optimize your listing for a chance to rank higher. It's crucial to note the fact that buyers are more likely to trust businesses that actively engage with their online audience through regular updates, captivating photos, and responsive interactions.
Creating high-quality content offers the opportunity to draw more traffic to your site while reinforcing your expertise in the eyes of the target audience. A successful business blog is one that publishes quality informational content tailored to the brand's voice, addressing topics that align with what the ideal customer searches for on Google.
Examples of useful business blog posts include the following types:
step-by-step instructions;
lists of strategies and resources (“Top 5 Best…”, “10 Must Have…” style articles)
interviews with industry experts;
examples and templates;
guest posts;
research.
Selecting an expert for guest posts requires attention to whether they align with your brand values. Consider your audience; choose someone who speaks the same language as your customers and delivers valuable information.
While online directories and lists were once considered the gold standard for local business promotion, their credibility has waned recently. However, they still hold significant value and remain widely used. The key is to focus on high-quality directories with verified information and robust data security. Studies reveal that a staggering 92% of users actively seek information about local businesses on online directories, highlighting their continued relevance.
Examples of reliable online directories are:
Google Business Profile;
Facebook Business Page;
Yelp;
Enter;
Better Business Bureau;
Foursquare;
HomeAdvisor.
Positive customer reviews in online directories are proof of your reliability in cases where a potential buyer is still hesitating. Being able to read reviews from other users brings your business closer to your customers and strengthens your online presence.
Referral marketing empowers your loyal customers to vouch for your business. This approach builds trust, with 88% of people relying on reviews from family, friends, and acquaintances over traditional advertising. Referral marketing leverages social connections and fosters cooperation where both parties share a mutual interest in achieving positive outcomes.
As a reward for cooperation, the following incentives are often used:
cashback;
points;
discounts;
gifts.
Thanks to effective referral marketing, entrepreneurs can not only increase profits, but also strengthen connection with loyal audience.
DIY Graphic Design has become especially popular lately. 52% of interviewed businessmen admit that they no longer hire professional graphic designers. In fact, the situation is not so dramatic because the refusal to buy other people's works is explained by the appearance of such services as BannerBoo and other. If you are wondering why customers choose these services, the fact is that they are simply convenient. Even a person with a complete lack of experience in graphic design can easily create an advertising banner adapted to any platform. In addition, using templates that are already categorized for your convenience allows you to save time on choosing color and font combinations. Thus, you can save quite a significant part of the budget.
*example of a Retail template by BannerBoo
User-generated content is a powerful tool, which helps to stimulate interaction between business and customers, as well as to find new customers. The question often arises, what content can be considered user-generated? This group can include:
reviews;
photo;
video;
The only condition is that it must be content created by your customers.
Now, experts note trends in user-generated content that will affect business as a whole:
increasing attention to authenticity;
growth of the amount of visual content;
deepening integration with e-commerce;
strengthening the authority of micro-influencers.
So don't hesitate and encourage your customers to share their photos and videos with you. Remember that user-generated content helps improve conversions. For example, among buyers who interact with ratings and reviews, conversion increases by 108.6%.
A list of the best marketing strategies that involve moderate costs, but have proven to be effective.
The core of this strategy lies in advertisers bidding on specific keywords that potential customers use to search for goods or services on search engines. When executed correctly, an internet user entering a search query related to your business will encounter your ad and visit your site. You pay a commission each time someone clicks on your ad.
The main advantages of this marketing model are that:
you can independently control costs;
you can clearly specify who should see your advertising banner, when (ad display time) and on which devices;
you can get quick results;
performance is easily tracked and measured.
PPC can increase brand awareness by 80%, and this strategy is also successfully used by 45% of small businesses. As you can see, even small companies invest in paid advertising.
It gained particular popularity due to the appearance of many different social media platforms. A feature of this strategy is the use of the audience's trust in a popular content creator. A blogger promotes your business by giving positive reviews about your products or services, for which he receives a fee. Working with influencers provides you with access to a potential customers segment, who may be interested in your product. According to statistics, influence marketing is considered as a way of promotion in 97% of businesses. In building a fruitful collaboration with an influencer, a crucial step is understanding your audience thoroughly. The more alignment between the interests of your loyal audience and the blogger's audience, the better results you can achieve!
93% of marketers all over the world use social media advertising for business promotion. The choice is fully justified, after all 67% consumers want to see the businesses whose services and products they use online. It is also effective because there are numerous different tools.
*example of a Christmas template by BannerBoo
The main types of social media advertising:
content advertising;
targeted advertising;
teaser advertisement;
retargeting;
hidden (native) advertising.
When planning your social media promotion, be sure to follow these three rules:
choose the platforms where your potential audience is;
if you choose several platforms for yourself, give them the same amount of attention;
set goals and objectives to monitor progress;
analyze and adjust your plan using analytics data.
Video marketing works great because consumers like it. In today's digital landscape, short video content reigns supreme. With 66% of internet users citing it as their preferred content format, particularly on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, it's undeniable that businesses must take notice. You can post educational videos, step-by-step instructions, or how-to videos on your YouTube channel to let people who are looking for what your business offers know about you. Besides, each video platforms offers different options for paid advertising. For example, you can advertise on YouTube by publishing video ads that play in front of the user's selected videos in relevant categories, or by using text ads that appear in search results.
Launching an email outreach campaign is almost always a good idea because 91% of consumers check their email at least once a day. In addition, it is the least intrusive form of digital advertising. Promotional letters are particularly versatile in application, for example, you can send letters to subscribers with information about any promotion you are holding. Most often it is:
offers are limited in time;
exclusive offers for subscribers;
seasonal or holiday promotions;
presentation of new products;
information about contests and raffles.
For an effective email marketing campaign, you should follow these rules:
define what you are promoting, the purpose and target audience;
do emphasis on the final benefit for the reader;
indicate in the subject of the letter that it is an advertising offer;
divide the email into meaningful parts;
use high-quality visuals;
be concise.
Affiliate program is an effective marketing strategy, the feature of which is the promotion of other people's goods and services for a pre-agreed reward. For many industries, it is a risk-free way to improve traffic, increase brand awareness and boost sales. Affiliate programs can be especially useful for representatives of small and medium-sized businesses because it is quite an inexpensive way to interest potential customers.
Using this strategy, you can also:
cover a wider circle target audience;
improve conversion rates.
Online contests and sweepstakes are undeniably powerful tools for generating positive buzz around your business. They consistently deliver significant results, boosting engagement rates, attracting new customers and potential leads, expanding your subscriber base, and rewarding loyal supporters.
Partner marketing, also known as partnership marketing, is a collaboration between businesses. This strategy is mutually beneficial because by leveraging each partner's resources, you can reach a wider audience. To find opportunities, contact businesses that aren't your competitors, but work with a category of customers that could potentially become yours. When establishing partnerships, сonsider cross-promoting each other's services through social media channels, your blogs, and email lists.
Professional graphic design allows you to create unique visual content that 100 percent reflects the style of the brand. This is your opportunity to be etched in the minds of buyers. According to research, 75% of consumers remember businesses precisely because of their unique visuals. The positive news is that the cost of developing graphic materials has decreased, much of this is thanks to innovative platforms like BannerBoo. In addition to free ready-made templates for more than 30 categories of businesses, there are special tools for advertising agencies. You can also involve professional designers, who will have full access to the extensive functionality of the graphic editor.
*example of a Misc template by BannerBoo
Exhibitions and events are powerful marketing tools, which make it possible to advertise your products or services to an audience that knows almost nothing about you. It's also a great opportunity to find new potential customers.
Businesses with large advertising budgets often turn to traditional methods of promotion. These strategies are almost impossible to implement alone because they require long planning, phased implementation and teamwork.
Traditional commercial advertising proves to be an effective strategy for brand promotion, allowing you to reach a broad audience within your market. By strategically placing ads on radio and television, businesses can establish a memorable and emotional connection with their target audience. Television, in particular, enables the creation of emotional bonds by utilizing images or characters that viewers can personally relate to.
In this case, marketers identify the demographic characteristics of the target audience and place the print advertisement where it can be seen by the potential customers. Despite the fact that the printed material has been predicting bankruptcy for many years in a row, this strategy is still effective and brings high results.
Outdoor advertising, including placements on transport, signs, and billboards, is indeed noteworthy. For one, it's incredibly effective. Out-of-home advertising has the power to reach a broad audience, leave a lasting impression, and even solidify a brand identity in the minds of consumers. The visibility and impact of outdoor advertising make it a valuable asset in the marketing arsenal.
Mobile app advertising is effective because it allows you to communicate with customers anywhere, anytime. For example, you can send push notifications to users with current offers such as promotions, sales, etc. This is one of the best ways to stay focused, even when customers aren't necessarily thinking about buying your product or service.
Sponsorship is a strategy in which one business promotes an event organized by another company or organization. Sponsorship can be divided into 3 types:
media sponsorship
For example, some media company, social network, or a local television channel, may offer coverage of a particular event.financial sponsorship
Companies can donate money for events like others business, as well as non-profit organizations.sponsorship in the form of goods
These are cases where businesses can provide their goods or services free of charge to sponsor a certain event or organization.Partnership, unlike sponsorship, is a strategic collaboration between two or more businesses to achieve a set goal. The goal can include increasing brand recognition, expanding the customer base, driving traffic to the site, improving customer loyalty, and generating leads.
Market research and surveys allow you to collect and analyze important information about your business, the state of the market and the business landscape as a whole. As a result, you can see how your company is perceived by target customers and the customers you want to attract. You will also learn more about the needs and motivation of existing and prospective customers, positive and negative opinions about your products or branding, and the effectiveness of your advertising efforts.
PR and media can be a powerful tool for stimulation of development business. By building relationships with journalists and influencers, creating positive buzz around the brand or product, and producing valuable content, which resonates with the target audience, companies can use the power of PR to achieve their marketing goals.
Campaigns of cooperation with influential people are a rather expensive but effective marketing strategy. For example, in the USA, the influence marketing market has crossed the mark 3 billion. This strategy is trusted by loyal audience to the blogger and his tastes. Positive feedback from an influencer about the quality of your products or services can build trust in your brand, increase sales and increase the number of loyal customers.
SEO, an acronym known as search engine optimization, and SEM, search engine marketing, are two strategies that work best in tandem because they have one common goal: to increase traffic to the website. The consistent hard work and effort required for search engine optimization success lays the foundation for search engine marketing. For example, SEM involves the use of paid advertising on search engines such as Google and Bing, while SEO provides the basis for converting and retaining traffic generated by SEM strategies.
It is a modern marketing strategy that brings business closer to the audience. Typically, this strategy improves customer engagement and encourages them to use your services more often because they now have your app or program on their mobile devices. If the application and software are well-designed, they bring huge benefits to the company in all important indicators.
Navigating through the intricacies of various strategies entails risks, and unforeseen challenges may arise. To ensure success, continuous monitoring of the chosen methods is crucial. Tracking key indicators provides valuable insights, and to simplify this task, we've compiled the primary metrics for your reference.
Return on Investment (ROI) is a metric that shows the difference between how much you invested and spent on marketing compared to the amount you earned.
Cost per win is an indicator that helps measure the cost of each sale.
Cost per lead – measures the effectiveness of a marketing campaign from a financial point of view, focusing on the number of new potential customers, not on sales or achieving goals.
Cost per conversion – shows how much it costs to convert a visitor of the website to the buyer.
Customer lifetime value (customer lifetime value) – this metric allows you to see which marketing efforts attract the most loyal customers.
Cost per acquisition is an indicator that measures the cost of attracting a new customer.
The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to the site or your social media pages, who became customers.
Website traffic acts as a key indicator of your website's overall success. Analyzing traffic trends over time, particularly by comparing periods outside and within marketing campaigns, provides valuable insights into which campaigns attract the most visitors and when.
Sessions — this indicator measures the total number of visits to your website, even if several of them are made by the same visitor.
Average session duration is the total amount of time a visitor spends on your website.
Impressions – a single image of advertising material on the screen of the user's device.
Coverage (social reach) — the number of people on a social platform, who viewed your content.
Open rate – this metric measures the number of people who open your emails compared to the total number of people you send them to.
Click-through rate is a metric that measures how attractive and interesting advertising material is for your target audience.
Each of the strategies has its own indicators for measuring the success of its application, but the main thing is the regularity of checks and careful analysis. If you constantly keep your hand on the pulse, it will be easier for you to make timely adjustments and avoid irrational use of the budget.
Business promotion is a combination of creativity and cold calculation. Even with a limited budget, it is possible to create engaging and effective campaigns for your target audience. All promotion strategies can be conditionally divided into three groups: low budget, average budget and traditional. All described strategies are flexible, each of them can be adapted to your specifics. The important thing is that budget options are no worse than others. In some cases, they are even more adaptive. To achieve a better effect, it is worth using several strategies at the same time.
The most expensive form of advertising is still television advertising.
This means choosing such a strategy for which tools are not charged.
The best way to impress a customer is to care about their needs and expectations.
