Promoting an SME Can Be Inexpensive and Effective

For most small businesses, it can prove to be difficult to compete against the larger organisations for a share of the market. Despite this, these small businesses can help boost their potential in the marketplace by embracing the latest innovative ideas to promote their goods and services.

The dynamic marketing environment continues to evolve, with new methods available that can help small businesses make an impact on the marketplace as they seek out new ideas to further promote their business, whilst also keeping up to date with what the consumer is interested in.

The Internet has made a significant impact in recent times in helping to improve business awareness, with the ever-increasing necessity for businesses to provide products and services online in order to address prospective market growth opportunities in this area. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is particularly becoming increasingly popular among businesses and involves redesigning a website, improving accessibility and usability for users whilst also increasing traffic through search results of targeted keywords. SEO can also help improve the position of a business in search engine listings, which can further promote an organisation, whilst also potentially converting a visit into a potential sale or perhaps gaining a new customer.

Accompanying the SEO approach is Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, which involves organisations bidding for keywords for a particular advertising campaign. This results in the advertiser placing a sponsored advert on the search engine listings, where advertisers then only pay when a user clicks on the ad and visits their website. PPC can help an organisation improve awareness of their product or service in a short period of time, which can be particularly useful during the start up phase, when it can be difficult to get noticed.

The Web 2.0 world as it is known can also make a significant impact. This approach involves improving consumer relations through online communities via the use of blogs, interaction through forum conversations, podcasts, videos and pictures to name but a few. This use of social media allows an organisation to provide useful information for interaction with potential customers, which can have a positive influence in allowing the consumer to further understand the business in mind. This therefore allows products and services to reach a wider audience, and building stronger links with communities that share a common interest in what a business has to offer.

It can be deemed beneficial to build relationships through small business marketing, as it is considered just as important to maintain existing customers as it is to gain new customers. It can also be difficult to promote products and services, particularly for an smaller business with little funds available, hence the importance of adapting inexpensive internet marketing tactics that can appeal to a wider audience in a shorter period of time.

It has grown in importance to be able to search and contact an organisation with ease, with social media perhaps becoming the online version of word of mouth. Therefore, through careful consideration of such innovative methods, small businesses can help influence the promotion of their business.

Bian Salins is the Managing Editor of BT Tradespace — an online community where businesses can advertise and sell products & services and everyone has the opportunity to shop, chat and share their opinion.