4 Beginner-Friendly Ways to Market Your Business

If you are new to the business or entrepreneur world, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed. Running a business can feel like a lot especially when you are just starting out. There is a lot to learn about running the backend of your business, and trust me, every successful business owner has been where you are at some point.

One of the more daunting tasks (in my experience) is marketing your business. If you don’t know how to market your products or services, then it can be extremely difficult to find new clients, and without clients, your business won’t last very long. But don’t let that scare you!

You may be asking yourself, “Where do I even start? I don’t know anything about marketing!” Don’t worry, I’m here to teach you some beginner-friendly ways to get started and begin your path to a successful business. We will talk about how to use your network, social media, blogs/vlogs, and paid advertising. So let’s dive in.

1. Word of mouth/your network

While online advertising can be effective over time, sharing your business by word of mouth gets quality customers at a better conversion rate. Why? Because we are more likely to trust our personal contacts than a random campaign we see on the internet. If you are looking for someone to design a website, are you more likely to hire a company you came across on an Instagram advertisement or a company that made a beautiful website for your friend? If a service or product has worked well for someone we know, we will feel safe spending our time and money on it. 

Not only is your network more likely to work with your business, they are more likely to share your information with other people as well. The people that you know personally care about you and your success. Even if they don’t need what your business has to offer, chances are, they know someone who does and will be willing to tell them about you. It might be beneficial to get business cards printed to help your network share accurate and efficient information. Getting the word out to the people around you is an effective way to get quality customers faster, so don’t be shy when it comes to talking about your business. You have something amazing to offer. Let the people around you know that.

While word-of-mouth advertising is often effective, it does have some limitations. One of those is the scope, both in numbers and demographics, of the people you can reach. Other forms of advertising reach large groups of people faster. They are also better at getting your information in front of a wider variety of people. Perhaps you don’t have many of your target clientele in your network. In this case, word-of-mouth marketing may not be as effective for you. However, don’t underestimate what talking about your business can do for you. Creating a diversified marketing strategy will help any business have its best chance at success.

2. Social media marketing

In the modern age, social media marketing can no longer be ignored. As of 2024, 84% of adults aged 18 and older had a social media account. That means it is very likely that your target audience will be on one platform or another. Finding them through a good social media setup has never been more important. 

So, how do you stand out and reach potential customers? The first thing to do is choose which platform or platforms you are going to focus on. Not every platform attracts the same demographics of people. Think about the ideal client you made when starting your business. Who are they? How old, what gender, what interests do they have, etc? Now translate that into what platform they would most likely be found on.

While there is no hard fast distinction on what kind of people use which platform, there are some general trends to keep in mind. For example, if your target audience is made up of older adults, they might be found on Facebook instead of Instagram. If you are looking to connect with research companies, you may consider marketing on LinkedIn. If your ideal client is a small business owner looking for tips and tricks on how to succeed, Pinterest may be a good place to advertise. If you are marketing to young adults just finishing high school, it may be good to create a TikTok account. Doing some research on your target audience would go a long way in making sure you are putting your content in the right place. 

Creating a professional social media presence is a great way to make a visual impression and spread brand awareness, but it requires consistent time investment. In order to bring users to your profile, you need to create and post content frequently. Being diligent about the amount you post will also create a professional and competent-looking account for potential clients to land on and explore when they do find your content. Some social media platforms allow you to batch content and schedule the posts for later. You can select which days you would like your post to go live and relax knowing that it will all be done for you. While creating and maintaining a social media account for your business will require some upkeep, it can be a valuable part of your marketing strategy.

3. Blogging/vlogging

Blogging is an effective way to bring traffic to your website and increase client trust. It proves to potential customers that you are an expert in your field and that you offer a quality product. Business blogs are designed to offer information that is valuable to your customers. It gets them onto your website, shows them that you care about their success and needs, and can even tactfully promote your services. If you do choose to promote your own business, make sure that it is not your main focus. Readers are there to gain knowledge about the topic you are writing about not to be sold something.

You should always strive to offer well-researched and unbiased information in your blog posts. Providing free, useful content on topics related to your business shows readers that you know what you are talking about and builds trust with them as a potential client. An informative and professional blog will help drive traffic to your website and create a hub of helpful information for others who are interested in your niche.

As technology continues to evolve, so does the way people choose to consume information. While many people still turn to articles and blogs to stay updated, videos are becoming increasingly popular and may give your business the extra edge it needs. It is often easier to connect with a service, product, or topic when we visually watch it work. Vlogging adds the human element that a traditional blog can lack. As humans, we are designed to respond to faces more than we do to words. This is where vlogs can come in.

Whether it’s doing a podcast-style video, a how-to/DIY video, or an informational video, you are guaranteed to connect with your audience in a way that only a human connection can. Using a combination of both blogging and vlogging is becoming a very useful strategy as well. You can do this by recording your vlog, transcribing it into a blog format, and then posting both as an option for your audience. This provides an option to consume your content to a larger group of people while also making creating content a bit easier for you.

4. Paid advertising

Paid advertising can be a pretty vast subject. I will narrow this topic to social media paid advertising as it is a great way to get your foot in the door and is easy for beginners. Paid advertising on social media allows your content to reach a larger audience than just posting to your established network would. On most platforms, you can identify your target user group to get your ads in front of your ideal clients, or you can opt to simply reach as many people as possible.

One of the best parts about advertising on social media platforms is that you can pay as little or as much as you want. For example, you can set up an ad campaign for $2 a day that runs for 7 days, reaching a few thousand people, or you can pay $15 for a campaign that runs for a month and reaches tens of thousands! It’s all up to you and your business needs at the time.

Not every person who sees your ad will click on it, and not everyone who clicks on your ad will buy from you. That is okay! Just because they don’t interact at first, doesn’t mean they won’t. There is something called the marketing rule of 7’s that states a potential client or customer needs to interact with your brand at least 7 times before they take action. So be consistent and continue marketing your business even if you don’t see results right away. All your effort is being seen and you are building trust with potential leads.

Which method is right for you?

Now that you know a few different methods of marketing, you may wonder which is best for you and your business. The answer is, you decide. You can start out trying just one method, or a combination. The most important part is to stay consistent and don’t give up if you don’t see results after 1 month. Results take time and building an audience/following isn’t done overnight.

I recommend picking a strategy and sticking to it for at least 6 months to a year. This will allow you to become really familiar with your chosen method so you can iron out any kinks in your approach. If you decide you want to try another strategy, or if you aren’t seeing results after that time period, then feel free to change it up. The important thing is that you gave yourself enough time to truly see if it worked for you and your business.

As you grow, you will also find other methods to market your business that will allow you to reach more people. The topics we covered in this blog are (in my opinion) the easiest ones to start with, but they are definitely not the only options out there. I encourage you to explore and try new things as you work to build your brand into a thriving business. Planning, consistency, and learning from your mistakes is the best path to business success.

Once your marketing strategy is set up, you can expect more traffic coming to your business. This makes it important to have a place for potential clients to land. A website is a perfect option for this. You can create one yourself or hire someone to do it for you (like me). Either way, having a website will add legitimacy to your business and be a hub for your increased traffic.

I hope that this blog has given you a starting point for marketing your business. If you have questions or blog recommendations for future posts please email me at contact@heidibanksdesign.com.