The unique challenges that face small business marketing companies and how to overcome them

There are a few unique hurdles that small businesses need to overcome, especially within the first two formative years, which are the most crucial. In this article, we share our experience on what some of these challenges are and how a small business marketing company can offer solutions.

3 organic marketing strategies to overcome budgetary constraints

Cashflow is arguably the biggest challenge for small businesses. Maintaining a healthy cashflow involves striking the delicate balance between incoming revenue and outgoing expenses. As such, marketing budgets are usually more restrained when compared to larger, more established brands and corporates. But the most effective way to work around these restraints is to use the organic marketing options that are available to you.

As part of a small business marketing strategy that’s working within a shoestring budget, you should spend your valuable resources on platforms that don’t require additional marketing spend.

•   Organic social media

Social media for example, can be done organically. Although unpaid growth on social media is significantly slower than paying for advertising on channels like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, the “slow but steady” approach to community building applies. The key to using organic social media to market your small business is to refine the quality of your social content. Good quality content that is engaging and interesting is so much more effective than low-quality content posted at high frequencies.  

•   Email marketing

Another organic tool you can use to market your small business is email marketing. There are a number of free online mailing tools like Mailchimp and GetResponse, which allow you to send emails to small audiences without needing to pay for the service. And what’s great about these tools is that over time, they have developed visually striking templates that you can use instead of building mails from scratch. It won’t cost you anything to start building an email database and you can start immediately with very few resources. The key again is to ensure that your mailers are relevant, informative and well-timed to encourage high click-through rates.  

•   Organic SEO

Basic search engine optimisation (SEO) won’t cost you a thing beyond time and effort. If you’ve partnered with a marketing agency for SMEs, you can ask them about ways that you can optimise your content to improve your page ranking without resorting to paid advertising. This will include aspects such as using strategic keywords in all your web content, including links that run between the pages of your website to improve your relevance score in search engines and using a blog as a content marketing platform.

Partnering with a small business marketing agency to alleviate resource shortages

Another major challenge that small businesses face is a lack of resources. In sole proprietorships for example, a small business owner may be called upon to wear many different hats and to fill several skills gaps to avoid paying excess amounts on hiring additional staff. While there are many ways in which a business can ‘bootstrap” its marketing strategy and use trial and error in the first few months of operation, reaching new heights as a business and implementing a growth strategy will require the help of experts.

The great thing about partnering with a small business marketing agency is that as a small business, you won’t have to cover the cost of having an in-house marketing professional or the cost of training your existing team to take on this responsibility. Instead, with an agency you will be able to negotiate a monthly retainer or package deal that meets your needs as you grow. In doing so, you will be able to rely on professionals who have experience in the industry and who have expert knowledge on how you can optimise even the smallest budgets to achieve business objectives in a consistent and measurable way.

If you’re at the stage of growth where, as a small business, you require additional skills to help you take your marketing plan to the next level, then we’d gladly assist. Connect with us and we’ll offer you free advice and suggestions on how you can use low-cost methods and marketing strategies to make the most of your budget.