Whether you have been a business owner for 6 months or 60 years, it’s always a good idea to think of ways to grow your business.
When payments are delayed or never arrive at all, you start to introduce cash flow problems that can seriously hinder your business ability to survive (let alone grow) even if you have plenty of business. Simplify your business. Simplify your business. Weed out the unprofitable and the hard-to-sell.
- 51 Marketing Ideas To Grow Your Small Business Whether you have been a business owner for 6 months or 60 years, it’s always a good idea to think of ways to grow your business. No matter what your budget, we have provided a list of marketing ideas to help you increase traffic, leads, sales, and reputation for your business.
- Start their own podcast: Free Podcast Course. Free Podcast Course is a 15-day day email and video course that walks you through EVERY step of creating and launching your podcast – it even shares the Top 5 Ways to Grow and Monetize Your Podcast!
No matter what your budget, we have provided a list of marketing ideas to help you increase traffic, leads, sales, and reputation for your business.
If you are short with time, the Broadly Team has created multiple tools for business owners to turn visitors into leads, manage those leads, and gain online reviews from happy customers.
Small Business Content Strategies
A well put together content strategy is often a very cost-effective way to grow a company over time. A content strategy connects is when your company’s content is created with your businesses goals and user needs in mind. Below are a list of content strategies you can get started with today.
- Create a website – Here are 22 benefits of having a website for a small business.
- Create a blog – This is often the first contact a person has with your company and opens the door to work with them further.
- Create a Video – How your small business can use video marketing to increase revenue.
- Create Ebooks & Case Studies – These are a way to showcase the benefits of working with your company.
Small Business SEO Strategies
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a favorite for business owners because the visitors that come to your site are “Free”. Having an increase of sales, without paying for ads are S understandably a favorite for business owners. Here are a few tips and links to follow!
Increase Your Sales
As the saying goes “increasing in sales cures all ails”. Who doesn’t want to make more money without doing more work? Below are a few strategies to help improve the amount of sales for your business without putting in hours of overtime.
- Online Chat Tools – Use web chat tools to talk directly to customers.
- Sales Tracking Software – Use a sales tracking software so nobody falls through the cracks.
- Manage Customers On The Go – Manage contacts while on the go with the right phone apps.
- Customer Loyalty Program – Implement a program to keep customers coming back.
Small Business Facebook Marketing Tips
With 2.32 billion monthly active users makes Facebook as one of the largest online communities in the world. Having a simple presence and strategy can turn Facebook into a viable channel to grow your company.
Community Promotions
Getting involved with the local community can be a great way to engage with potential customers. Here are a few ways to get your business involved with your community.
- Team up with other small business to refer customers to each other.
- Join a small business group such as the local chamber of commerce.
- Give back to the community with charitable donations.
- Work with small business influencers, news stations, & content creators.
- Host events, happy hours, & experiences
Small Business Google Marketing Tips
Since the majority of people use Google’s search engine to do all of their online research it is important to have your business set up on Google. Here are some tutorials to get your business set up right on Google.
Offline Marketing
Offline marketing strategies utilize offline media channels to create awareness of a company’s products and services. These campaigns can actually be used to drive people to online campaigns or to call your business directly. Here are a few examples of what offline media channels are, and what you can do to expand your business.
- Launch a direct mail campaign.
- Send past customers free samples, fridge magnets, etc keep your business top of mind
- Billboards
- Radio Ads
- Speak at events
Small Business Yelp Marketing Tips
Yelp is a marketplace that is set up to focus exclusively on helping people find businesses and services in their local area. Businesses providing a local service like pet care or home services can really benefit by having a good Yelp strategy. Here are some tips to help your business on a Yelp.
- Set up Yelp ads to target customers in your area
Getting Reviews From Small Business Customers
In the era of the internet, online reviews are often where people turn to find out if they should use a specific company. In fact, 84% of customers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation (online statistics source).
- Ask current customers for referrals
- Use a review management software tool to respond to all reviews, even if they are positive or negative reviews
- Send out a survey to get customer feedback
Email Marketing
Email marketing is the strategy of sending emails to prospects and customers on a regular basis. Effective marketing emails can convert prospects into customers, and turn one-time buyers into loyal, raving fans. Here are some tips to get you started with email marketing.
- Create an email opt in on your website
- Create an email opt in for your email signature
- Offer a free download or incentive to encourage people to add their email address to your list.
- Create an email nurture sequence to educate them why they should buy from you
- Create a newsletter to keep and build a relationship with your customers
Paid Ads Marketing
If you have some extra budget for marketing then paid advertising can be a good way to test out different channels to see what works. These ads are great because you can easily turn them on or off and helps you find out where your audience is and how to best reach them. Here are some of the most popular paid marketing types.
- Search Ads (Google Ads, Bing Ads, etc)
- Social Ads (Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, etc)
- Display Ads
- Retargeting Ads – This is showing ads to people who have already been to your website
Conclusion
These are some of our favorite small business marketing tips. Did we miss any? Please let us know in the comments. We hope these affordable promotion strategies spark ideas for you and your small business to grow and thrive!
Are you looking for easy ways to grow your business? Running a social media contest is an ideal way to raise brand awareness, attract potential customers, and gather qualified leads. Yet with so many companies using this tactic to boost their business growth, coming up with new ideas is a challenge.
To help you get started quickly, we’ve created a list of social media contest ideas and examples to grow your business faster than ever!
Let’s dive in!
1. Share a Photo Contest
Our first social media giveaway idea is to run a social media photo contest. It’s a great way to gather user-generated content from your audience and you can use it to showcase features of your products or services. Simply ask users to snap photos of how they use your products in return for entries.
Choosing a winner can be as simple as asking people to vote for the best photo or even via a panel of judges.
Gansetts beer ran a photo contest in the lead up to Valentine’s Day. To enter, fans had to share a photo of what Valentine’s meant to them and tag it with the brand’s hashtag. The winner received a dozen roses to give to a loved one.
2. Submit a Video Contest
Similar to a photo contest, video contests require users to submit a video in return for entries. You can use a video contest to increase subscribers on your YouTube channel by creating videos announcing and promoting the giveaway.
For bonus entries, you can ask users to share the video contest with a friend, watch a specific video, and more. This will help you expand your reach and attract more participants.
3. Sweepstakes Social Media Giveaway Ideas
Sweepstakes are a bit like raffles where users can enter their contact details to win a prize. The winner is usually drawn at random to keep things fair.
This is a great way to generate leads for your brand and since it’s easy for people to participate, it’s a must-have for your list of social media contest ideas. Usually, users have to sign up with their email address to enter, making it the perfect tactic for growing your email list.
Universal Studios have an excellent example of how sweepstakes can be fun, vibrant, yet easy to enter. For this opportunity to win a trip to Hollywood or Orlando, all users have to do is enter their contact details.
4. Refer a Friend to Win
Running a referral contest is the perfect way to increase your business reach. The entry requirement for this type of contest is to share the giveaway on social media. Then, as more people share your giveaway, more people will see it, and so on.
You can also include bonus entries to follow your social media channels to help grow your followers.
5. Write a Caption Contest
Caption contests let users create a caption to go with an image in return for entries. You can either pick the best caption as the winner or draw a winner randomly. This is another easy way to attract lots of entries as little effort is required to enter.
With this type of contest, it’s a good idea to include additional ways to enter and share the contest.
For example, Sebastian & Co asked users to follow them on Instagram and caption their photo for a chance to win.
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6. Comment to Win Contest
Commenting contests require users to leave a comment on your social media post for a chance to win. Since it’s easy for people to enter, it can generate tons of new leads for your brand.
The great thing about this type of contest is you can run it for any social media channel. All you have to do is create your post with a caption explaining the entry rules and details.
Alternatively, you can host the contest directly on your website using a giveaway tool like RafflePress. Then you can promote your contest on all your social media channels for maximum reach.
7. Vote to Win Social Media Giveaway Idea
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The winner of a voting contest is the user with the most votes. This is another way to spread the word about your giveaway as participants will share the contest with friends and family to secure more votes.
You can ask users to vote for a winner in the comments section of your post, or host the contest on your website and use a giveaway tool to keep track of votes.
This type of contest is easy to pair with a submission-based campaign. For example, Drovers began their campaign as a photo contest, then asked users to vote for the winner on their Facebook page.
If you’d like to keep track of votes, use the Surveys and Polls entry action included in the RafflePress builder. Then you can quickly see who has the most votes at a glance and pick a winner.
8. Submit an Essay Contest
Essay contests are ideal for collecting user-generated content around your customers’ experiences. You can then allow users to vote for the best entry and share the contest on social media to maximize your reach.
With essay contests, you can ask for submissions on any topic, but it’s best to keep things relevant to your brand.
For instance, you could ask for essays on:
- Why users are passionate about your products
- Stories about your industry people want to share
- People’s experiences using your products
You can combine this with a voting contest to motivate users to share the giveaway on their social channels.
9. Tag a Friend to Enter
Tag a friend contests are technically a comment and share wrapped in one. And when people participate, it creates a ripple effect where one friend tags a friend, who then tags a friend, and so on.
A great example of this in action is this giveaway from Broke Green Mums.
They teamed up with a complimentary brand for their contest and asked participants to tag 2 friends in the comments. They then bolstered this with optional entries to follow both profiles on Instagram to get more Instagram followers.
10. Follow to Win Contest
Follow to win contests are the most straightforward solutions for broadening your audience. They’re also usually paired with a request for a like and share to maximize engagement.
But you don’t have to stick to the standard format. Instead, you can run a follow to win contest to reach a specific follower goal. Then when you reach the goal, you can randomly draw a winner.
11. Regular Social Media Contests
You may already know that it’s easy to lose followers quickly on social media. Yet if you run regular contests on your social channels, you can attract loyal followers who’ll stick around longer, rewarding you with a steadily growing follower count.
Costello’s Bakery runs a weekly giveaway on Instagram with significant effect.
Every Wednesday, they give away one of their cupcake boxes to one lucky random winner. All people need to participate is to leave a comment and follow their profile.
Their giveaway posts receive tons of likes and engagement while helping to grow their followers.
12. Follower Milestone Contests
Reaching follower milestones on social media is an excellent opportunity to thank your audience and reward them. So why not run a giveaway celebrating your milestone?
Create a post thanking everyone who’s followed you in the past. Then highlight that you’re running a giveaway to celebrate. To help spread the word, ask users to follow, like, or comment for a chance to win.
Alternatively, you can use a giveaway app to get people to follow you on other social platforms. Then you can grow your audience there too.
13. Play to Win
Another unique way to engage your audience and secure those crucial leads is to turn your contest into a game. For a chance to win, ask users to play the game and enter their details to notify them of the winner.
This is what Trident did with the Chew Tunes contest to win a trip to the Grammys or a cash prize.
Users had to play each record and vote for the favorite to enter. Since users had to sign up with their email address, it gave Trident the ability to reach those people with marketing messages in the future.
If you don’t have the budget to create a game from scratch, consider running a spin-to-win campaign.
14. Social Scavenger Hunt Contest
Scavenger hunts don’t automatically spring to mind when running a social media contest. Yet they’re a great way to engage people’s curiosity and promote your brand simultaneously.
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One way to run a social media scavenger hunt is to hide clues across all your different platforms as photos, videos, and more.
Alternatively, you can ask a series of questions, and ask users to find the answers in posts scattered through your channel.
To complete the entry requirements, participants can leave their answers on your giveaway widget and join your newsletter.
15. Hashtag Challenge Contest
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Hashtag challenges have been around for some time. Yet with the growth of sites like TikTok, they’ve seen a surge in popularity. Because of that, it’s now easier than ever for brands to create a branded hashtag that prompts users to get involved and become brand ambassadors.
Chipotle is an excellent example of this in action. To celebrate Cinco de Mayo and drive usage of their app for orders, Chipotle created the lid flip challenge.
After just 6 days of the challenge going live, 110,000 videos were submitted to the challenge, resulting in 104 million video views. More importantly, it created record-breaking digital sales, driving app downloads, and delivery among Chipotle’s target audience.
16. Use a Filter to Win
Another creative way to promote your brand and engage your audience is to create a filter challenge to win a prize.
Lots of companies have created branded filters to promote their products and raise brand awareness.
For example, the Kiss The Brides bridal show ran a filter contest to win tickets to their next show.
To enter, participants had to follow the show on Snapchat, visit a participating location, take a selfie using their branded filter, and send it to them in a story.
17. Pin it to Win it
It’s easy to forget the power of Pinterest to drive followers and leads to your business. As one of the largest platforms for visual content, it’s the perfect place to get your audience engaged with your products.
One way you can run a Pinterest contest is to ask users to create a Pinterest board of their dream home using your products. Alternatively, travel companies can get users to pin their dream vacation.
You can then reward the winner with free products or a prize bundle of relevant goods.
That’s it!
We hope this article helped you find some great social media contest ideas and examples you can use for your own campaigns.
And if you’re ready to start creating your own social media contest, check out this step-by-step guide.
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