The complete guide to small business marketing

Marketing is a non-negotiable skill when you’re running a business. To beat the competition—and keep the revenue flowing in—you need to know how to get the right message to your audience through the right channels at the right time.

This BravelyGo Guide will give you an overview of the most common areas of marketing for small businesses, and then dive deep into each of those areas with tips and exercises you can use to get started.

Is this guide right for you?

If you’re freelancing or running a small business and looking for ways to find new customers or clients, increase brand awareness, and stand out from the competition, this guide is for you.

We wrote this guide to suit business owners with little to no marketing experience, but it’s also great for someone who has the basics down and wants to tap into new areas like digital marketing or social media. If you’re starting from scratch, you’ll want to follow the guide in order. If you’re interested in learning new skills, skip ahead to the topics that interest you.

Chapter 1: Market research for small businesses

Before you can create great marketing campaigns for your business, you’ll need to truly understand your audience. Knowing your customers’ needs and wants, as well as their behaviour, is one of the biggest ingredients for marketing success, and also for getting the best return on your investment.

This chapter covers why you need to know your audience and how you can achieve it. Learn how to conduct different kinds of market research properly, and where to go for information and resources.’

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Chapter 2: Branding your small business

Building a brand that can compete in the big leagues means tackling four key pieces: brand positioning (defining your brand’s place in the market), visual identity (creating a look and feel for your brand), brand story (defining how to talk about your brand), and brand standards (representing your brand consistently).

This chapter walks you through each of these key elements with easy-to-follow explanations, exercises, and tips.

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Chapter 3: How to find customers using Google AdWords

Finding customers is a top challenge for any business owner. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) can help you find qualified leads for your business with a moderate investment of time and resources.

In this chapter, you’ll learn exactly how to use Google AdWords with clear instructions, screenshots, and examples so you can have your own campaign up and running by the time you’ve finished reading.

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Chapter 4: Social media marketing for your small business

Over 80% of all internet users are on Facebook, and Instagram earned nearly $600 million in mobile ad revenue last year. That means if you’re not using social media strategically for your small business, you’re missing out in a big way.

This chapter will help you understand how to evaluate the different social media channels and use them effectively. Learn how to build a social strategy that will help drive your business goals, from growing your customer base to building your brand.

Chapter 5: Content marketing for your small business

Content marketing is one of the fastest growing areas of marketing as consumers expect more and more from brands. It’s not just about having a blog and publishing regularly—now your content needs to create value for customers and drive revenue and growth for your business.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to monetize your content and use it to build stronger relationships with your customers, generate leads, and position your brand as a thought leader.

Chapter 6: SEO for your blog

Running a blog takes a lot of time and effort, so it’s important to make sure it’s working hard for your business. One of the best ways to do that doesn’t cost anything at all—Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

This chapter teaches you how to optimize your blog to help your content get seen by showing up higher on search engine results pages.

We added this glossary to our guide to help you find clear, easy-to-follow definitions for some common marketing terms you’ll encounter as you grow your skills in branding, content marketing, social media and online marketing. No need to hit up Google search—it’s all here.

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