Business Marketing Basics to Help You Wow Everyone You Know

For new brands, marketing can be intimidating. Should you use social media, or is it a waste of time? Should you write in-depth blogs or spend that time making videos? And what exactly is TikTok, anyway? 

Because some entrepreneurs feel intimidated by their choices, they leave opportunities on the table, and that can equate to money lost. But with a few business marketing basics, anyone can give their brand a boost.

Social media marketing basics

You may feel torn on using this type of marketing, especially since social media can negatively impact young people who use it too much. It’s true; social media is probably best in small doses for all of us, but it can also be an effective form of marketing.

If you’re a discerning adult who’s trying to grow your business, you may consider using social media. Because for all its problems, social posting to platforms like Instagram and LInkedIn can help you increase revenue.

Take us, for example. We dabble on most social media platforms, and I assumed these accounts would do little more than legitimize our brand. And I was okay with that! You have to start somewhere, right?

What I didn’t realize was how much these accounts would directly contribute to our business. Not only do we get consistent traffic from our social media accounts, but we’ve also gotten leads from LinkedIn, clients from Instagram, and ecommerce sales from TikTok. This is honestly so interesting, especially considering our posting cadence is fairly conservative.

We post to Instagram at least once a week, LinkedIn biweekly, and TikTok—well, we’re still figuring that one out. So, as you can see, our social media marketing is far from perfect, but it does work. And if we increase our cadence and continue to experiment, it could work even better.

What to post: business marketing basics for social

Posting to social media can feel nerve-racking, but start with baby steps. If you’re not sure how to make videos or reels, you don’t have to yet. Even though video performs well in engagement and clicks, pictures and words still work. Until you’re comfortable making videos, you can work on developing your presence.

While algorithms seem to favor accounts that post more, you also don’t want to experience burnout too early. So, start with a cadence that feels doable for you. Once a day, once a week, or even a few times a month can be enough to leave your followers wanting more (rather than less).

Social media is also a perfect way to ride the high of current trends and pop culture moments, though you should be thoughtful in your approach. Capitalizing on fun pop culture is very different from weighing in on a broader conversation for profit (a la Pepsi/Kendall Jenner).

Instead of proving how well you understand the current trend, it might be better to fulfill a need. For instance, we had a major influx of sales right before Valentine’s Day when we created these Bill and Frank cards inspired by The Last of Us—an HBO series based on a popular video game. 

A one-off episode was gaining major traction, and we thought it would be fun to take advantage of its popularity during the most romantic time of the year. Hollye posted a video about the cards on TikTok, and the rest is history!

We sold dozens of Bill and Frank cards in a matter of weeks. In this case, social media was the best way to market this product, because the timing was right.

If you also sell items, you can post photos of your products and videos of yourself using them. 

If you’re the face of your brand, you might open up about what’s going on in your life lately. After all, good social media often comes down to quality storytelling, and people love stories. 

Finally, if you offer a service, you could post testimonials, miniature blog posts, or snippets from your actual blog.

Social media tips:

Try these business marketing basics for social media.

• Make entertaining/informative posts

• Pay attention to what other people are doing well

• Experiment with different styles (videos, stories, long posts, short posts, etc.)

• Post consistently

• Engage with pop culture authentically

Content marketing basics

As with all forms of marketing, social media and content marketing often work together. While we have a whole post on what content marketing is, it’s basically the content you create to draw people to your brand. And for the purpose of this section, we’ll distill it down to blogging.

While social media is perfect for those zeitgeisty moments, blogging is a great way to build your brand and revenue over time.

Image source: Statista

Long-form content like blogs, guides, and ebooks show prospective customers you know your stuff. You can prove you’re an expert in your field by publishing helpful, educational content consistently.

Blogging also shows your relevancy. When you’re posting new content every day or every week, you show visitors (and search engines) you’re still here and still going strong. 

Content marketing helps people organically find your site, and it’s also an easy way to supplement your other marketing strategies. Can’t think of something new to post to social media? Advertise your latest blog post. Getting the same question over and over from followers? Link to a post with all the answers.

You can even use your blog to advertise your social media accounts, email list, services, products, and much more. 

Content marketing tips:

Try these business marketing basics for content.

• Try to answer commonly-searched questions 

• Make your content accessible (e.g. alt text, color contrast, etc.)

• Use SEO resources to learn what people are searching for

• Rank for small keywords first

• Create helpful, entertaining, and/or educational posts

• Publish consistently 

• Break up your text with space and images

Email marketing basics

For many entrepreneurs, sending marketing emails may seem like overkill. Why use email when we have social media, right? 

But email marketing fills the gaps social media can’t. Like social media, emails are more fleeting and can take advantage of those same pop culture moments. However, unlike social media, emails have a much better chance of reaching their audience every time they’re published.

Many social media influencers are dependent on views and likes, which are dependent on the platform they use—and its algorithms. This means people can lose hundreds of thousands of viewers over the course of a few hours.

With email, on the other hand, your followers are much more likely to see your content every time.

And like social media, emails can be sponsored if you have enough followers (subscribers), which means you can make money with your email marketing if your brand is big enough.

But even if you only have a handful of subscribers, email is still an excellent way to stay top of mind with customers. You can instantly tell subscribers about new sales, new products, and new blog content.

In our own email newsletter, we use our blog posts to create themed sends. That way, if our readers missed something or want to learn more about a certain subject, they have an email to help.

Email marketing tips:

Try these business marketing basics for email.

• Send unique content to subscribers

• Use an email marketing platform (e.g. Mailchimp, Flodesk, etc.)

• Make your content accessible (e.g. alt text, color contrast, etc.)

• Don’t spam subscribers by emailing every day

• Stick to a dependable email cadence 

• When in doubt, keep emails short and helpful

• Link to your blog and other helpful resources

Video marketing basics

Now that video is so prevalent on social media, separating video marketing and social media marketing is difficult. But for the purpose of this post, we’ll try.

If you’re interested in increasing brand awareness, video’s an excellent way to reach people outside your community. You can use platforms like TikTok or YouTube, although each one will have its own unique requirements.

Currently, TikTok videos can be up to ten minutes long. They’re generally bite-sized and looping, with no time between videos. Many people use TikTok for quick stories, simple tips, easy recipes, and basically, anything digestible. TikToks don’t need to be high-quality, and they’re often recorded in cars or on the street. 

On the other hand, YouTube videos tend to be longer and higher-quality (but not always). And although TikTok is growing rapidly in popularity, it’s still behind YouTube in numbers.  

Your TikToks have to be short, but your YouTube videos will be rewarded for being long. YouTube’s algorithm favors longer videos, likely because longer videos keep people on the app for more time.

YouTube is also similar to blogging, in that it can help you rank organically in Google. What’s more, many website platforms allow you to embed YouTube videos directly into your pages and blog posts, once again allowing you to combine your marketing strategies.

Image source: Hubspot Video Marketing Report

Video marketing tips:

Try these business marketing basics for video.

• Make your videos visually interesting

• Ensure good sound quality

• Make your content accessible with captions

• Create interesting titles and stills (YouTube)

• Use SEO best practices (YouTube)

• Use hashtags (TikTok)

Other forms of marketing

There are so many forms of marketing, and these approaches are just the beginning. In addition to the strategies listed above, there’s also direct mail, paid search, SEO, influencer marketing, and more. But remember, we’re talking about business marketing basics, with a focus on keeping your strategy simple and doable.

So, for now, just focus on a few marketing strategies. You can always take on more later.

Conclusion

If you run a small business or you’re developing your brand, you can definitely do one—or all—of the marketing strategies listed above. If content marketing is too intimidating, stick to social media. If you’re not on social media, focus on your email newsletter.

And if you’re still feeling unsure, don’t worry. We can help! Our agency empowers businesses like yours to find their look and feel. We have a wide range of services, including marketing assistance and business consultations. Plus, the first meeting is always free. You can contact us here to get started.

So, what are you waiting for? Try these business marketing basics and let us know which approach works best for you.