Top 5 Marketing Channels for Small Businesses, Creators and Soloprenuers
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 35 seconds. Contains 919 words
This is an article from The Business Boost & Build Newsletter.
It’s once a week and includes one tip from me and three resources from others.
Focusing your time on the right marketing channels is key to the success of your business.
Especially if you have limited time or budget, and this is usually the case for small businesses, creators and soloprenures.
Here are the top 5 free and low-cost marketing channels I use.
Newsletter
Effort 8/10
Building a newsletter should be a priority for all small businesses, creators and soloprenures.
Unlike other marketing channels, email is an owned asset. You have full control.
When you send an email you don’t need to worry about the algorithm and it’s completely free.
I recommend starting a weekly, bi-weekly or (as a minimum) monthly newsletter.
What to Write About in Your Newsletter?
Don’t try and sell, provide value and build a relationship with your email list.
- Share advice or a useful tool
- Weekly link roundup of helpful content
- Talk about what you do
Recommended Email Platforms
Video Shorts
Effort 6/10
Short form video content is here to stay, and it doesn’t have to be expensive to produce.
The more relaxed and casual videos actually work better than the flashy high production ones.
I recommend posting one short video everyday (7-30 seconds).
That sounds like a lot of work but you can batch record them every week in an hour or two, and repurpose the same video on four different platforms.
Video Platforms
Content Ideas for Video Shorts
- A quick tip and advice
- A process you use
- Surprising stat related to your niche
- Book or product you recommend
- Tool you can’t live without
Twitter and LinkedIn
Effort 7/10
Twitter and LinkedIn are amazing platforms for growing an audience.
I would recommend focusing on one platform if you’re just starting out, otherwise it can get a little bit overwhelming.
It’s important to remember these are rented platforms, meaning you’ll never know when your account might get deleted or the platform turns into a ghost town.
So make sure you’re clear on your goals before starting.
For example, mine is to grow my newsletter - not my followers, which I think is a vanity metric.
These platforms are also a great place to network and make connections, so don’t be afraid to reach out to people.
Tips for Twitter and LinkedIn
- Post 2-3 times a day
- Schedule your posts for the week (I use Hypefury)
- 30+ valuable comments a day on accounts related to your niche
- Keep a lower following to follow count
You might be interested in my article 7 steps to growing your personal brand on Twitter where I go in-depth on my process for Twitter.
Long-Tail SEO Targeted Blogs
Effort 8/10
Every time you post articles on your website, it’s another opportunity to build trust with you customers.
Just like I do every week, I share my expertise for free to all my newsletter subscribers.
These articles can also rank in search engines, attracting new subscribers and potential customers.
It’s actually a very simple process, you just need to add the right keywords in your titles, content, images and meta tags.
They key is choosing the right keywords.
How to Choose Keywords for Your Blog
- A page should only target one keyword or keyword grouping
- Google is clever, you don’t need to stuff keywords in and ruin the flow of your content
- Long-tail (or longer search terms) are usually much easier to rank for
- Aim for keywords with actual volume
You might be interested in my article how I do keyword research in less than 5 minutes where I go in-depth on a quick and easy process for choosing keywords for your own blogs.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
Effort 5/10
I do a lot of paid ads for my clients, when it’s done right it’s a license to print money.
Most people won’t purchase just off an ad they’ve seen for the first time though, you need to think of it as a funnel.
The Ads Funnel
- Top of funnel
Letting customers know who you are and problem you solve
- Middle of funnel
Building connections and trust with advice/content
- Bottom of funnel
Call-to-action for purchase with offer (discount or free consultation)
Remarketing Ads
If you already have a lot traffic to your website, the first quick win is to run re-marketing ads.
The quick and short of it goes like this:
- Add Facebook Pixel and Google Remarketing Tag on your website
- Let the tracking code build up an audience of website visitors
- Run ads reminding these visitors to come back and purchase
Remarketing ads will be the cheapest ads you can run, because you know these people are interested in what you have to offer and they know who you are.
Traffic Ads
If you don’t already have an audience, you’ll need to run a broad traffic ad to your offer, and introduce yourself and your service to new customers.
Then you run a second remarketing ad to remind people who clicked through on the first ad.
Generally, traffic ads are more expensive than remarketing ads.
The ad platforms are very good at finding the right audience now, so try to keep the targeting quite wide and focus your efforts of making sure your offer is good and what you’re selling is something that people want.
There is a small “learning phase” while the platforms find the right audience for your offer. This can take around a week and you’ll need to make sure you have a decent daily budget.
If you have any questions on anything in this article, please feel to reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help.