Running a small business is already hard enough without having to figure out the best ways to market it too. With SMS marketing, advertising and promoting your services or products can be easier than you think. 

Here are seven tips and ideas that can help you advertise your small business.

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1. Get Personal

The key to marketing your small business is to leverage what you have that your competitors don’t—a personal touch. Consumers want to support the person behind the business, so build as many personal connections with your audience as possible. We live in a modern world where face-to-face interactions are no longer the only way to get intimate with your clients.

Sign up to get a text marketing phone number that you can use to interact with your audience directly and intimately while staying relevant with today’s technology. Communicating via SMS allows you to do more than just advertise your business; it gives your customers the ability to get to know you by exchanging messages directly with your company's leader. 

Your audience will get to connect with you in a way that email and other marketing methods just simply can’t offer. Your clients can receive notifications about your business’s latest deals or products directly onto their personal cell phone’s home screen. 

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2. Tap Into the Power of Referrals

One of the most critical ways of marketing your small business is by optimizing the experiences of previous customers through the power of word of mouth. Client referrals and positive reviews are pivotal in spreading the word about your company. 

These two vital aspects of marketing can make a significant impact when it comes to enticing potential customers to come and trust your company. 84% of survey of responders across different countries agreed that recommendations from their family and friends are their number one most trusted source of advertising.

It’s easy to encourage your customers who have already purchased with you to leave a positive review by sending them a link directly through our text marketing platform. Texting removes as many obstacles out of their way as possible and makes it convenient for them to share their opinion quickly. 

You can lead them directly to whichever site where you want them to leave their review and perhaps even consider offering a small discount for doing so. It’ll be worth the growth in business that their positive review brings in.

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Refer a Friend Program

Maximize the number of possible referrals to your business by implementing some version of a “Refer a Friend” program into your marketing plan. You can get creative with the details as long as you encourage and incentivize your existing customers to share your product or service with their friends and family. This is an easy ask for the clients that already love your company, and they’ll be excited to receive an exclusive perk in exchange for spreading the word. 

Easily track your ROI on a “Refer a Friend” program by assigning a unique keyword for referrals to text into your number. You can also text out a referral link for clients to send directly to their friends. Consider giving additional perks to any customer that can bring in more than one referral. 

Just be sure to offer both the referring customer and their referred friend an exclusive discount or another incentive for supporting your brand. Then sit back and watch your audience grow!

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3. Partner with Nearby Small Businesses

Small businesses need to stick together. Start a campaign that a nearby small business would want to participate in, too, one where you can both reap the benefits. Use SMS marketing to grow your audience by displaying a designated keyword in each other’s storefronts; that way, customers can text in to subscribe to your community, and you can easily track the ROI of the campaign. Provide new subscribers who text in that keyword with an exclusive discount for joining your list!

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4. Retarget and Recapture Customers

Marketing expert Dr. Jeffrey Slant shared the popular concept that customers need to be contacted or “touched” by your advertising about seven times before they will purchase your product. 

Today, many argue that it could require even more touches. The typical consumer is inundated with marketing messages throughout their day. The takeaway message from this type of research is that all businesses need to be retargeting and recapturing customers to stay in front of them and stand out from the dozens of other ads. Staying visible will help build familiarity with your potential customers, eventually encouraging them to complete their first sale with you. 

While businesses used to do this with email marketing, text notifications can provide the gentle reminder that a potential customer needs to feel familiar enough to follow through with a sale from your business. 

Designate whatever relevant actions you want to be used as triggers to initiate a series of text messages that you send to that user. This is the perfect low-effort way to stay in front of your potential customers with Community.

Another option to make as many contact points as possible is to set up a drip campaign, an automatic and pre-scheduled text message series that you send to your audience. 

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5. Encourage Engagement with Incentives

Engagement is the product of any successful marketing method and is necessary to keep your customers coming back for more from your business. 

Encourage consumers to stay engaged by providing incentives to only access by staying subscribed to your SMS notifications. Exclusive discounts, early access to new products, and other promotions only for text subscribers are a great way to give your audience value and show them how they can benefit from sticking around.

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6. Provide Informational Content

If a client loves your company, then they’ll love seeing content about your products. Take your online marketing one step further and provide promotional content, educational resources, and information on things they’d find relevant. This will also boost your SEO, as the more informational blog posts you create with relevant keywords, the more your company will appear in search results. This is much more effective than paid Google ads or Bing ads because organic results breed consumer trust.

Try sending out a text blast with a link to a blog article that offers tips on how to get the most out of the product they purchased or an informative post on the new line you’re developing. 

Customers will appreciate that you’re not just constantly selling to them but also offering them resources to improve the experience they have with your product or service. 

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7. Host a Local Event

Small businesses are an essential part of their local community. Celebrate this by hosting a local event. The best way to advertise your local business, product, or service is to get involved and show up where your customers are located—in the community. 

Host an open mic night, a pop-up shop at a local school basketball game, or a free fitness class. Anything that will intrigue potential customers and allow them to bring their friends.

Easily promote your event or pop-up by texting out details to relevant Members of your audience. You can do this by using the Filters feature to target specific audience Members anywhere within a radius of your event. 

Of course, you can also advertise your event in person or use bulletin boards, radio ads, local news outlets, or even billboards. But by texting the details, you’re inviting them personally, which is more direct and effective than those out-of-home promotion methods.

At your event, be sure to increase your brand awareness. Giveaway t-shirts, host contests with branded merch as a prize, or hand out postcards so people will remember your business name in the future. When people search for your business, you want them to be able to find you, so make sure to include your Community number, your URL, and your social media accounts on your branded merchandise. 

If you don't have the means to host an event yourself, you can sponsor a local event to increase your footprint in your local community.

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Donate to a Nonprofit

One study on why supporting charities helps your business found that 80% of Americans would switch brands that were equal in quality and price to choose the one that supports a charity. 

That same data states, unsurprisingly, that 85% of consumers had a more positive image of the company when it supported a charity. Donating a portion of your profits or hosting a fundraiser is not only a great marketing move, but you can feel good about supporting a worthy cause too.

Use SMS marketing to promote your fundraiser and even send out a link to collect donations. Hosting a fundraiser or working with a nonprofit organization is a win-win since it gives your audience an additional reason to support your company, makes your business memorable, plus contributes to your chosen cause. Quickly set it all up and promote it through your text marketing platform.

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Summary

To summarize these seven critical tips for advertising your small business, there are a few key themes you want to keep in mind as you craft your marketing strategy. 

Keeping engagement high and staying as personal as possible in your communications are a couple of the goals you should be prioritizing in your marketing activities, both for online advertising and local advertising. SMS marketing can help you reach your audience directly and on an intimate level like never before. 

Advertise your SMS number on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIn, and include it on any signage, flyers, or brochures to help get the word out. You could even go beyond social media posts and include your new number in a direct mail campaign, in your email newsletter, or on your Yelp business profile. You can also include an incentivized referral program with prizes or promotions. 

SMS marketing is a new, effective way to send coupons, increase brand awareness, and increase customer satisfaction.

Whatever marketing event or method you choose to pursue your small business—text messaging can give you the advantage you need to stay in front of your customers and connect with them. 

Sources:

Under the Influence: Consumer Trust In Advertising 

How Many Contacts Does It Take Before Someone Buys Your Product? 

5 Ways Supporting Charities Benefit Your eCommerce Business | Mageworx Blog

Photo by Blake Wisz on Unsplash1