The seven most popular ways to promote your business
BLOGS 17 Aug 2022
From Facebook adverts and newsletters to traditional print and PR, there are so many ways to promote your small business. But how do you know which is best?
Get started on your business journey. This article is part of our start-up hub, which is home to even more tips and expert advice on starting your own small business.
PR specialists at the Federation of Small Businesses explain the seven most popular ways to market and advertise a small business, both online and offline.
Jump to
Media relations
Social media
Digital advertising
Press advertising
Direct mail
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
Email marketing
1. Media relations
Also known as PR, media relations is simply getting articles about you and your business in publications and their online websites.
Perhaps you’ve won a new contract, launched a new product or service, appointed new people or achieved record results. It might be that something quirky has happened within your business or you’ve reached a milestone, such as an anniversary, or you’ve sold a significant number of items. Another way to get coverage is by giving advice or having strong views about a subject and being prepared to openly state them.
What are the benefits of PR?
Provided you appear in the ‘right’ places, you’ll be seen by your target audience. If you run an engineering business, you’ll benefit from being seen in select trade publications. If, however, you’re keen to raise awareness of your café, then the local newspaper and magazines are the places to be.
Such media coverage not only raises your profile, but it’s also ideal for conveying important factual messages about your business, along with promoting its values and culture.
Should I use a PR agency?
Although you can contact a reporter or journalist yourself to tell them about a potential story, this can seem daunting, so you might want to consider using a specialist PR agency. They can:
deal with journalists and identify stories in your business
advise you on the best places for your articles to appear and how to ‘pitch’
provide you with original content for your website
However, there are no guarantees your piece will feature. It boils down to the strength of the story – again, this is why using an agency is advisable because they instinctively know what will work.
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2. Social media
Social media plays a critical role in marketing your business if used effectively, and the opportunity to reach and engage with such a huge audience is not to be missed.
Social media is a great way to connect with people who already engage with your brand and introduce the business to people who are yet to discover you. 58% of consumers visit a brand’s social pages before visiting its website.
What are your business goals?
Before you begin developing a social media marketing campaign, you need to consider your business goals and marketing plan. Do you want to reach a wider audience, generate more traffic to your website or increase product sales?
It is also important to understand who your target audience is, what platforms they are likely to use and what kind of content they will find useful and engaging. Our guide to social media platforms will help you find the right one for you.
What should I post on social media?
Creating relevant content for your audience is crucial to the success of your social media, whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. When creating content, think about what your audience wants to see and what valuable content you can give them in return for their attention.
If you are in a service-based industry, free resources and tips from your business can go a long way – you’ll become their go-to when searching for information, leading to potential new clients. If you are a product or brand, invest in photography and video and create a consistent brand identity with your assets. It’s also worth knowing that video is one of the most engaging assets, so use it whenever possible.
Social media is not just about putting the right content out there. As a business, you need to generate a two-way conversation with your audience so they feel a human connection, making you more memorable and more likely to keep followers.
It’s important to regularly review your channels to understand what’s working. Each social platform offers basic analytics. It’s good practice to dig deep into your analytics on a weekly and monthly basis to analyse, review and tailor your strategy to maximise results.
Download our free guide and start improving your digital strategy today
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3. Digital advertising
Targeting specific audiences, executing data-led strategies and delivering measurable results are only a few of the benefits of marketing your business via digital advertising. The main digital advertising channels are PPC (Pay-Per-Click), display and paid social. All of them run across mobile and desktop devices.
Digital advertising can be a minefield, but it’s completely transparent and accountable – you will be able to see, down to the penny, where your budget has gone and which aspects of your campaign have been the most effective.
What is Pay-Per-Click?
Search (PPC) campaigns are often run on Google Ads, which is Google’s own online advertising network. They can help you advertise to your target audience whilst optimising any ad spend to give the best return on investment. PPC campaigns can be tailored so your ads are only shown to people who have made a search that is relevant to your product or service.
What is display advertising?
If your objective is more about brand awareness and not leads, then you should consider display advertising instead.
Believe it or not, the Google Display Network (GDN) claims to reach 90% of all Internet users worldwide. It’s a vast network of web pages, news sites, blogs, video platforms like YouTube and email providers such as Gmail.
Users browsing sites within the GDN may not be interested in your product or service just yet, but you will get the chance to pitch it to them. You can even remarket to users who have already visited your site in the past but didn’t convert to remind them of the solutions your business can offer them.
What is paid social advertising?
Whilst social media profiles are free to set up, consider investing in paid content, too, particularly on Facebook and Instagram. In basic terms, this means you assign a set budget to a post which boosts its reach, allowing it to be seen by more people, contact the best digital product design agency.-
Facebook, the world’s largest social network, is an excellent alternative to Google if you want to advertise your business in a highly targeted way. You can do this by setting up ad campaigns targeting users by age, gender, location, job title, interests and even behaviours. They’ll see text, image and videos displayed in Facebook stories, in-stream videos, Facebook search and messages, articles and the Facebook app.
If you decide to appoint an agency to look after your digital advertising:
make sure you understand what they are saying to you, and keep asking until you do
be prepared to pay a fee for their strategic advice and implementation in addition to the advertising spend itself.
4. Press advertising
To be effective in magazines and newspapers, your advertisement needs to be both big and bold.
If your advertisement doesn’t stop someone in their tracks and make them take notice, then you will have wasted your money on buying the space.