Small Businesses Can Make More Money in 2023 by Using This Secret Weapon

Cropped shot of an attractive young woman working in her floral boutique.
pixdeluxe / Getty Images

As a small business owner, you’re always searching for ways to attract new customers to increase your revenue and grow the company. Chances are that you’ve spent a significant amount of money on various marketing strategies to promote your business. It can be challenging to decide which type of marketing channel you should invest in, since there are many ways to reach new potential customers.

The good news is that there’s a secret weapon that you can use: inbound marketing. Here’s a look at how you can make more money in 2023 for your small business with this secret weapon

What Is This Secret Weapon All About?

Inbound marketing is about utilizing high-quality content on your brand’s social media platforms and website to create buzz. Instead of trying to find customers by spending money on ads, you can use inbound marketing to build long-term relationships with customers and prospects — you achieve this by creating content that pulls people into your small business through SEO, social media and content marketing.

The goal is to find customers by generating buzz around your brand and products. When people find this content through social media or web browsing, you want to turn them into paying customers. 

How Is Inbound Marketing Different From Outbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing differs from outbound marketing because you let customers find you. Through your creating high-quality content, customers come across your business when they research a product or scroll through social media.

Make Your Money Work Better for You

Outbound marketing is initiated by the person doing the marketing with cold calls and targeted display ads. You often have to spend money on outbound marketing methods, while inbound marketing is about utilizing free channels like Instagram or content marketing on a blog.

Stages of Inbound Marketing

Your goal with inbound marketing is to bring customers to you. There are generally four stages of inbound marketing:

  1. Attract: You pull customers in with your blog content, social media posts or video marketing. The platform that you use will depend on the type of business that you run.
  2. Convert: You then have your potential customers click on a landing page or fill out a survey based on their needs.
  3. Close: You convert this viewer into a customer of your small business.
  4. Delight: You want to reward your customers for working with your brand and ensure they stick with you for the long run.

How Can Inbound Marketing Help Your Small Business Make More Money?

As a small business owner, it’s important to consider the possible return of every investment into marketing and lead generation. Here’s how inbound marketing will help your small business make more money:

  • You attract quality leads. Instead of hoping that your targeting works with outbound marketing strategies, you can focus on creating content that brings qualified leads to you. Since these people are seeking answers, you already know that they’re qualified.
  • Build brand awareness. Sometimes your business isn’t growing because people aren’t aware of its existence. With a plethora of advertising, it can be difficult to stick out in a crowded marketplace. You can change this by creating content that attracts the right customers so that users seek your guidance. 
  • You can establish authority and credibility. If you create enough momentum with your inbound marketing, your small business can become the authority on the niche that you’re in. If enough potential customers find you through channels like YouTube or Instagram, you’re going to have credibility with your marketplace.
  • You can grow your business without spending as much money. When you invest in targeted ads and cold calling, you could be spending money that doesn’t yield any return. With inbound marketing, you’re focusing on creating helpful content that benefits consumers and prospects.
Make Your Money Work Better for You

How To Apply Inbound Marketing to Your Business

If you’re not sure where to start with inbound marketing, here are some of the strategies that you can utilize today.

Create Exceptional Content

By utilizing customer research and the power of storytelling, you can create helpful and entertaining content that engages potential customers. Your goal is to create memorable content that attracts your target customer.

When creating outstanding content for your inbound marketing, here are a few things to consider: 

  • Try to optimize your blog content for search engine optimization (SEO) so readers can easily find you when searching for relevant information.
  • Find relevant hashtags for social media. You want customers to be able to find you through a quick hashtag search. The goal is to build enough hype that you could potentially go viral.
  • Make your content more visual. Try to include graphics and images that attract potential prospects.
  • Learn more about your customers. Your content will become more engaging when you take the time to research your customers so that you know what they’re looking for.
  • Offer something more. You can have a free email course or offer a free consultation to anyone who engages with your inbound marketing.

Offer Content Across Different Multimedia Platforms

With inbound marketing, you’re not limited to one platform or delivery method. You can try to create videos for YouTube, audio for podcasts, short-form content for TikTok, detailed guides for your blog and quick tips for Twitter.

The goal for your small business should be to conduct research to determine where your target market spends its time, so that you know what kind of content you should create. You can then invest the resources into creating the right content to pull in your target market — instead of hoping that someone interacts with your ad.

Closing Thoughts

Your small business will increase its revenue when you invest in inbound marketing by creating the best possible content that does the advertising for you. The investments that you make today into inbound marketing can pay off tremendously in the future, when potential customers find your informative content through hashtag searches or search engine browsing.

Make Your Money Work Better for You

Growing your revenue becomes much easier when you have customers coming to you.

More From GOBankingRates

BEFORE YOU GO

See Today's Best
Banking Offers