Small biz, big impact – big brand tactics you can use for your small biz
Think that some bits of marketing are just for the big brands? Think again, there are many tactics that big brands use that you can implement within your wonderful small business to.
So I know what you’re thinking, babes I can’t afford the likes of Mel C voicing my ads àla Ocado, the cast of MiC unboxing my goodies or to spend a bajillion pounds on social ads and I get it, however there are some tactics that are relatively low cost and when done right by a business of any size can bring in some brilliant results.
So let’s get stuck in…
Influencer Marketing
First up we have influencer marketing. So, this is something big brands do a lot of and that’s because it helps to build credibility, gets their products in front of an audience that may not have been following them and improves engagement.
It’s also something that you as a small biz owner can do to. Whilst you may not be able to work with influencers that have a huge following (just yet) working with influencers that have a smaller audience can still provide excellent brand awareness opportunities as nano (1K–10K followers) and micro (10K–100K followers) influencers tend to have highly engaged, niche-specific followings.
Some may accept freebies in return for content or some may ask for a small fee depending on how they like to work and what your offering is.
Keep it authentic by finding influencers to work with whose content style and ethos aligns with your values and that of your target audience. Always set goals at the start of the campaign so it makes it easy to measure the ROI.
You may already be using email as part of your marketing strategy but it might be time to take it up a notch big brand style.
You may send newsletters regularly and order confirmations but what about the rest of the customer experience? For example, have you thought about setting up an automation that sends a welcome email with a promo code when people sign up to your mailing list? Or an email that celebrates your customers milestones e.g. 1 year anniversary with you.
This extra layer of customer service helps to build longer-lasting relationships and makes the customer feel like you appreciate them.
Not got a large email list? Lead magnets are a great way to attract people to sign up to you list. Offer a freebie or a download that gives a flavour of what its like to work with you in return for an email address.
Radio
Depending on your target audience and budget, radio is a great way to spread your brand messages. Research shows it takes between 7 and 15 interactions with a brand before we click that buy button, radio provides that level of repetition.
It’s also a form of content that can be consumed anywhere, the car, train, café, home, office etc so your ideal customer has a good chance of hearing your ad regardless of how and when they are available to interact with your marketing messages. Research shows that on average brands using radio advertising can get their money back nearly eight times over, which is a whopping ROI.
Whilst this option can get pricey for ad’s at peak times, such as breakfast and on national stations, local radio offers a more cost effective option whilst still brining in some great results.
Collabs
You’ve probably seen your fave brand collaborating with celebs right? M&S x Holly Willoughby, Primark x Rita Ora, Billie Eilish x Nike and countless others and whilst you may not have the influence to bag an A-lister (yet) you can put a small biz spin on this by teaming up with other small business owners that have the same / similar ideal customer to release an exclusive product or run an event.
When choosing that perfect partner to collaborate with ensure they have similar values and ethos to yours so that the partnership doesn’t feel jarring to your audience. Then when creating your offering think about what your customers will want and will benefit from, for example if you are a PR it could be that you partner with a nutrition expert to offer a unique programme or you could be a jeweller that specialises in silver creating a mixed metals range with a fellow maker that only works with gold.
By working together, you can create some exclusivity around the product / service / event (e.g. this is only available for a limited time / limited number) and reach a wider audience with your content as you’ll have both of your audiences to market to.
Referral & Reward Schemes
Whilst you may not be able to offer the same level of reward as an advantage card, sparks card or my personal fave, the lidl plus app (free pastries are a regular feature) you can still set up a reward scheme for your customers.
It could be a 10% promo code every time they spend £100 or a free product when they’ve visited you a certain amount of times. Whatever you choose it needs to be something that is useful, relevant and makes people want to shop with you to get that reward.
In a similar vein, referral schemes are also a great tactic to implement as you are essentially getting your lovely happy customers doing your marketing for you – hurrah!
Most referral schemes offer a % discount for referrers but again if you wanted to gift products in return for referrals that can still work. It’s all about adapting for your budget, customers and your business goals.
Competitions & Giveaways
Social media competitions and giveaways can be powerful tools for boosting awareness and engagement.
They can be a simple campaign of like, share and comment to be in with a chance to win or you can get a bit more creative. You could also add in a layer of UGC (User Generated Content) and ask entrants to submit video / images of them using your product. You can then reshare and repurpose these further down the line, giving you content and examples of happy customers.
Whilst competitions and giveaways will (hopefully) see an influx of new followers it’s important to ensure you are sharing interesting and sharable content on a regular basis to keep those new followers engaged and also interacting with what you are sharing.
Podcasts
Podcasts are still super popular and are used by brands of all sizes. They are a great marketing tool as they enable you to speak directly to your potential customers and share your industry insights, expertise, and stories in a really engaging manner. Plus, they have a really long shelf life as people revisit them or find them thanks to a recommendation and then listen to the back catalogue.
As a small business you can leverage podcasts in one of two ways, by launching your own podcast (which is a whoooole other blog post) or by featuring as a guest speaker on someone else’s.
When choosing the podcast to pitch to think about your target audience vs the podcast listener profile do they match? Then also think about what benefits you can bring to the podcast / listeners do you have a really interesting founder story or do you have some great hacks to share? If so add this to your pitch email along with a short bio and any links to any other relevant recordings or content so the host and podcast team can see how much of a good fit you are for their show.
Similarly if you are approached by a podcast host, before agreeing to feature really think about their audience, values and ethos and if it aligns with yours. Then also think about the key messages you’d like to get across in your episode. Most hosts will send over a loose list of questions that they will ask to start the conversation so you will have time to plan out what you are going to talk about.
Journo Requests
Finally another big brand tactic is leveraging PR and opportunities to comment on and be featured in magazines, TV, radio and newspapers to increase their brand awareness and position themselves as experts in their fields.
A great place to find similar opportunities is on this X feed this is essentially a feed jam packed full of PR opportunities. Simply review the feed and follow the call the action for the feature that is relevant to you and your business. You can’t guarantee that you’ll be featured, however its great practice and a great way to add to your network.
If you do get featured make sure you shout about it EVERYWHERE I am talking, social, email, website, email signature the works.
Most importantly measure your success
Big brands know the importance of measuring the success of their campaigns it not only helps you to see what revenue is coming in, but it can also help you to spot trends in the way people interact and share your content helping you get ahead of major changes.
Set up a dashboard based on your goals and pop some time in the diary each month to look at the data thoroughly so you can see whats working well and what you may need to change up. You may also find that sometimes you just need to tweak the format or timings slightly to see some improvement.
One big advantage you have over big brands…
Flexibility! Regardless of the tactics you choose one big benefit of being a small business is that you are able to change up what you are doing quickly. So if the market changes you can adapt your strategy to meet your customers changing needs more rapidly.
Need some more support with ways to connect with your ideal customer? Why not book in for a power hour, we can talk about your business, goals and devise a plan to get you to where you want to be.
