In this mega-guide, you’re going to learn how to create a small business marketing strategy that tackles these two key challenges. From setting the groundwork to tapping into the power of Google and social media, you’ll have everything you need to grow your business and achieve your revenue goals.

Chapter 1: A Winning Small Business Marketing Strategy



You wouldn’t climb a mountain without a map. So why grow your business without a plan?

Creating a winning small business marketing strategy is predicated on these things:

Who your customers are Where they can be found Why they want to buy from you



In this chapter, you’ll learn how to understand your customers on a deeper level to truly appreciate their pains, motivations and goals.



When you have this information, you can create customer-generating marketing messages that will show that you truly get them.

Customer interviews

What’s the single most effective way to understand your customers?

The answer: talk to them.

Customer interviews are a mainstay strategy among the tech startup world. And yet it’s vastly neglected among small businesses. For some, it can be daunting. But it doesn’t have to be!

No matter your business model, you and your employees have an opportunity to generate this sort of customer insight on a daily basis:

Your salespeople can ask your customers why they’re considering your products or services and why this challenge is important to you.

can ask your customers why they’re considering your products or services and why this challenge is important to you. Your customer support teams can ask why they decided to do business with you and what the biggest benefits of using your products/services are.

can ask why they decided to do business with you and what the biggest benefits of using your products/services are. And you can pick up the phone and talk to your best, most loyal customers (which will show you care about them and boost loyalty).



So, what kind of questions should you ask them? Here’s a few to get you started:



How do you feel about using our product/service? What is the primary benefit you get from using our product/service? How would you feel if you could no longer use our product/service? Who else do you feel would like our product/service? How could we improve our product/service to better meet your needs? Where do you go for information on [relevant topic]? What people do you trust for advice on [relevant topic]? What challenges are you trying to solve in your job day-to-day?



The last two questions will help you find out where they “hang out” online and the blogs/publications they read.



Email surveys

Of course, customer interviews aren’t the only method of learning more about your customers.

If you have an email marketing system in place, you can send your list of customers and subscribers a survey to find out more about them.

Don’t have an email marketing system in place yet? Don’t fret -- we’ll cover this in the next chapter!

You can use a service like Typeform or SurveyMonkey to put your survey together: