Imagine walking into your favorite local coffee shop, where the smell of freshly ground coffee beans meets the sound of a frothing espresso machine. Now, picture that same beloved shop, tucked away in a quaint neighborhood, suddenly becoming the talk of the town. The coffee is good (let’s be real, it’s dreamy), but this story is more than one of coffee beans and morning rituals. This is a story of SMB marketing strategies.

Despite its charm and excellent espresso, this cozy cafe struggled to attract more than the usual morning crowd. Our owner, let’s call her Emma, dreamed of becoming a local staple. To bring in more customers, she decided to focus on digital marketing to expand her reach, focusing on three key but manageable marketing strategies to become the coffee queen of her city: 

1. Local SEO optimization: Emma updated her cafe’s Google My Business listing and optimized her website for local keywords like “best coffee near me” and “cozy cafe in Metropolis.” This made it easier for coffee lovers to find her shop when their cravings hit. 
2. Targeted Social Media: Recognizing where her customers spend their free time online, Emma began showcasing her shop’s unique offerings through Instagram and Facebook, posting daily specials and behind-the-scenes glimpses. She also ran a few targeted ads focused on local audiences, promoting “bring a friend” deals to increase word-of-mouth referrals.
3. Engagement through Email Marketing: Emma collected emails from her customers through her POS system, offering a discount on their purchases in exchange. She began sending regular newsletters featuring exclusive offers, new offerings, and invitations to special events. 

Simple tactics like these can dramatically increase traffic and sales, brand awareness, engagement, and buzz that can extend outside local boundaries. But, let’s say you’re not a coffee shop; perhaps you’re a craftsman, a local boutique, or a tax preparer. Would these work for you? There are tons of SMB marketing strategies ready to be tailored to your individual needs so you can increase visibility while engaging and growing your loyal customer base. 

In this article, you’ll get a high-level view of marketing, empowering SMB owners and leaders like you with fundamental marketing knowledge and the ability to begin the foundation of your SMB marketing plan. 

What is SMB marketing? (And why do you need it?)

Regardless of what business you’re marketing for SMBs or large corporations, at its core, marketing is the strategic process of identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer needs and desires through creating, promoting, distributing, and pricing products or services. Marketing encompasses a broad range of activities designed to communicate a company’s value proposition to its target audience and influence consumer behavior to further its business objectives. 

Marketing is a must for small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The competitive nature of the markets you operate in, combined with the reality of resource limits and how you must allocate them, are strong drivers for SMBs to engage in effective marketing efforts to differentiate, build brand awareness, and establish a loyal customer base. Marketing is more than selling products or services; it’s about creating lasting relationships with your customers, understanding what they need, and developing and tailoring your solutions to them.

A vast array of marketing tools and resources available to businesses of all sizes and types have evolved the digital marketing landscape to give SMBs a definitive edge to beat the competition when they make use of marketing’s potential. Maximize your resources through targeted strategies that will provide higher returns on investment. These strategies will allow you to compete with big corporations that can’t pivot as quickly. Without marketing, SMBs risk remaining invisible in a crowded marketplace where consumers are bombarded with daily choices. 

Digital, Traditional, and Everything In Between

Digital and traditional marketing channels are the primary avenues through which businesses reach and engage with their audiences, each offering unique tools and strategies.

Digital Marketing:

Digital marketing involves online platforms and techniques to reach consumers through the internet. Key digital channels include social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.), search engines (SEO and PPC advertising), email marketing, content marketing (blogs, articles, eBooks), and mobile marketing (apps and SMS). Digital marketing is prized for its precision in targeting specific demographics, ability to engage customers interactively, measurability, and cost-effectiveness.

Traditional Marketing:

Traditional marketing refers to more conventional forms of advertising. Major traditional channels include television and radio advertising, print advertising (newspapers, magazines, flyers), direct mail (postcards, catalogs), and outdoor advertising (billboards, transit ads). Traditional marketing is often used for broad message dissemination and is particularly effective in building brand awareness and reaching local audiences.

Event Marketing:

Event marketing involves promoting a brand, product, or service through in-person or virtual events such as trade shows, workshops, conferences, and promotional events. Event marketing effectively engages potential customers directly, providing immersive experiences that can enhance brand perception and foster meaningful relationships with attendees. Event marketing today has become a true hybrid of digital and traditional marketing.

When used together effectively, these channels provide businesses with a comprehensive toolkit for crafting diverse marketing strategies tailored to their specific goals and audiences.

Developing Your Marketing Plan

The first step is to strategize and understand your business and marketing goals. What do you want to accomplish? Who are you marketing to? How much do you want to spend? 

Establishing SMART SMB Marketing Goals

SMART goals are good for any situation but are especially helpful for SMBs when developing marketing efforts. Beginning with SMART goal-setting can increase your campaigns’ productivity, profits, and retention. For the uninitiated, SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. SMART goals get you from ideas to action in no time at all.  

Just remember, marketing goals aren’t always the same as business objectives; however, marketing goals result in business outcomes of achieving revenue, volume, and profit objectives. Some SMB marketing goals you should consider include stimulating demand, building awareness, influencing consideration (what do your customers think of you when selecting a product or a service partner?), improving sales experience, repositioning the brand, and growing loyalty. 

Identifying Your Target Market

It sounds simple, but it’s an important step that I recommend SMBs commit to writing so you choose the right marketing channels. Plus, as your business grows, you can hand your customer personas over to another team member to continue developing your marketing plan. 

Answering the question “Who am I selling my products and services to?” should include the following: age, location, income, social media preferences, hobbies and activities, and other demographics that may sway purchasing decisions, such as their family and pressures within their lives. 

Allocating Budget for Marketing

This is tricky if you haven’t engaged in marketing in the past. Most businesses asses past sales data, projected revenue, and strategic goals. Often, this looks like a percentage of expected annual revenue—often between 5% to 10%—towards marketing, adjusting based on industry norms, competitive landscape, and the effectiveness of previous marketing efforts.

Also, remember that SMB marketing is more than just dollar resources. Consider how to allocate your time and your team members’ time to gain the greatest effect. 

Other Considerations

There’s a lot to consider when determining a marketing plan. I just shared the big three, but here are some more questions you may want to ask yourself: 

1. What are my competitors doing? 
2. How will I monitor marketing progress? Setting up mechanisms to regularly monitor and evaluate the performance of marketing activities is the key to understanding whether your efforts were successful. Be sure to measure what matters here. 
3. What does the sales process look like today? What works, what doesn’t, and how might that translate through my marketing efforts? 
4. Are my marketing plans prepared to keep my customers’ data protected? 

Digital Marketing Essentials

As mentioned earlier, digital marketing strategies are effective and efficient… especially for SMB marketers. They’re all such good choices that I find it hard to rank without knowing the particulars of your business. That said, unless you have a giant budget, it’s important that SMBs focus on one or two… maybe three… strategies at first. Once locked and loaded, then start to work on others. Here’s an overview of 10 key digital marketing tools (and their main uses): 

Traditional Marketing Essentials

We’re big on digital, but traditional marketing tools remain vital for SMBs to effectively reach broad and local audiences. Thoughtful creation within traditional marketing strategies is an excellent way to stand out and demonstrate your quality. Here are 8 key traditional marketing tools for your SMB marketing toolkit: 

How is SMB Marketing Different Than Marketing for Other Businesses?

There are several key ways in which SMB marketing differs from the marketing larger corporations engage in:

1. Budget Constraints: SMBs often operate with more limited budgets than larger enterprises. Because of this, they need to be more strategic and resourceful, focusing on only the most cost-effective strategies with the highest returns. 
2. Resource Limits: Beyond just budget, SMBs often have staff who wear many hats. This means marketing strategies must be manageable and executable when a lot is happening elsewhere. 
3. Local Focus: Depending on the type of business, SMBs focus on local or regional markets, so optimizing for local SEO, community engagement and participation, and leveraging local and social media will have a high return for smaller businesses. 
4. Agility and Flexibility: Compared to their giant competitors, SMBs are built to adapt and respond quickly to market changes. This agility can significantly benefit their marketing efforts, allowing them to experiment and pivot their strategies based on real-time feedback and results. 
5. Digital Marketing Winners: While digital is essential for all modern businesses, SMBs, particularly, can leverage digital channels as cost-effective tools to compete. Social media, content marketing, and email marketing are key opportunities for SMBs to make significant inroads without large advertising budgets. 
6. Community & Storytelling: As a smaller business, you’re closer to your origin story. Your local community and unique story of becoming a solopreneur, entrepreneur, or leader within an emerging small to mid-sized business can be a powerful SMB marketing tool. Share your history, community involvement, and the personal stories of you and the wonderful people on your team to create a strong emotional connection with your customers. Try as they might; building community and storytelling can be difficult for large corporations, so take the easy win and wear your story with pride. 

Embrace Your SMB Marketing Journey

As we delve into SMB marketing, the growth potential is immense. Now is the time to craft a marketing plan, set achievable goals, identify your target market, and allocate your budget wisely. Each step not only enhances your brand but also strengthens customer connections.

Consider this your call to action: start small, think creatively, and be excited about the possibilities ahead. Marketing isn’t just a necessity—it’s an opportunity to make your SMB stand out. Begin today and watch your business thrive.