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So, when it comes to growing your small business, a scattergun approach just isn’t going to deliver the results you need. Below are some real, practical tactics, to help give you the biggest bang for your marketing buck. After all, money and other resources are tight, so you want to consider effort versus impact and ensure you're implementing tactics that will actually get results!
Below are some examples of solid, proven marketing tactics that can help deliver a good ROI, with examples from other UK companies that have sniffed out success (sorry).
1. Targeted Advertising: Bark Up the Right Tree
If you target everyone, you're actually targeting no-one (unless you're a chocolate bar). John Wanamaker (1838-1922) was a highly successful American merchant, often regarded as a "pioneer in marketing." He established one of the earliest and most successful department stores in the United States, which eventually expanded to 16 locations and later became part of Macy’s.
He is famously credited with the saying, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half."
In contrast, today’s marketing allows us to pinpoint exactly who to target, down to the individual level. We can personalise and customise our advertising and messaging for each person, no matter the scale. We can even tailor website content based on who is viewing it.
On a smaller level, focus your marketing spend on specific audiences. Use Facebook’s location targeting to narrow your audience to your specific town, city, or even neighbourhood. This ensures your ads reach people who are most likely to visit your business or use your services.
Mitt Master for example - a UK martial arts coach (and friend of mine) uses Facebook and other social media ads, to just target people who own martial arts schools. No-one else. By zero-ing in on these very specific people, he's ensuring his ads reach just the right eyes, keeping his budget lean and effective. This tactic ensures he absolutely does know which half of his budget is delivering the best ROI.
2. Content Marketing: Let your audience chew on Quality Content
Don't make a dog’s dinner out of your content - keep it relevant and interesting. Always ask yourself; what's in it for them, and what's in it for you? Then it's a win-win.
Physical Gold is an e-commerce company (selling Gold & Silver) that leverages their Insights content to drive traffic. They're in the business of Investments and Wealth Protection (not just coins and bars) and so they share helpful insights and information that people would genuinely consider when thinking about investing in gold or silver. This not only brings in organic traffic from people who are searching for answers to their queries, but also positions them as an authority in the Gold & Silver investment space. Google recently ran an update (Google E-E-A-T) which was a critical evolution in their approach to assessing and prioritising content quality, so this is now a key consideration when planning what to write and which 'problem' you're solving.
Many years ago, I pitched for (and won) the Harveys Furniture brand advertising. Our agency helped them to understand that they weren't just selling brown leather sofas; they were selling home inspiration and aspiration. Lifestyle improvements and development. That mind-set change helped broaden the scope of ideas for content and helped generate more creative ideas, to drive more traffic to their website. Spend some time to think bigger and wider; outside of your 'functional' proposition and more into emotional territory.
3. Email Marketing: Create customers as loyal as your dog.
Email might feel old-school (and it is time consuming), but it’s still one of the most loyal and profitable marketing tactics out there. During a 2021 survey carried out among marketers in the UK, it was found that the approximate return for every pound spent on email marketing stood at £38.33. A year earlier, it was £35.41.
UK Construction Week is a huge London-based construction exhibition that I previously oversaw as Marketing Manager. Emails were our key marketing tool. I wrote, created & emailed out, twice a week, to everyone who had a) previously attended an event and b) already registered for the upcoming event. So our email messages were tailored to either sales-oriented messaging, or 'excitement'- based messaging, and we'd ensure that every week we had 'new news' about the exhibitors, speakers, key notes, seminars and sponsors etc. There was always something new to be promoting to help keep prospects and ticket holders engaged and 'nurtured'.
Carefully crafted, tailored, emails deliver higher open rates, click-throughs and conversions as well as delivering the highest ROI.
4. Social Media Engagement: Don’t Just Sit. Stay, Play and Engage
Social media isn’t just about posting cute puppy pictures (though that helps). Surreal are a UK based sugar-free range of cereals, who actively engage with their audience on platforms like LinkedIN. By being funny, responding quickly to comments and incorporating feedback into their services, Surreal has built a pack of loyal followers who do a lot of their marketing for them. It's called user-generated content (UGC) and comes in many forms, including images, videos, product reviews, a testimonial, or even a podcast.
While LinkedIn may not have Facebook’s massive user base or TikTok’s popularity among younger generations, it's a popular marketing platform for professionals aged between 25-34. So if your brand’s target audience is of this age, then LinkedIn can be an extremely effective marketing channel. Of the users between 25 and 34 years old, the majority are males. In fact, male users in this age group make up 28.6% of LinkedIn’s user base. So if young, professional males are your key target audience, then LinkedIn would likely provide a much better ROI than TikTok!
5. Referral Programs: Let Your Customers Do the Fetching
Word-of-mouth is powerful, especially when you give customers a little nudge. Octopus Energy operate a very generous referral scheme: If a friend switches to Octopus Energy using your unique referral link, you’ll both get £50 energy credit. It's a win-win situation.
Referral programs are effective because they leverage the trust and influence that existing customers have with their friends, family, or network. When a satisfied customer refers someone, it often carries more weight than traditional advertising, leading to higher conversion rates.
Referral programs also tend to have lower acquisition costs compared to other marketing channels, making them cost-effective. Additionally, they help build loyalty among existing customers by rewarding them for their advocacy, further strengthening the relationship between the customer and the brand.
So referral programmes can be quite cheap to implement but yield very valuable rewards. It’s like throwing one stick out and getting two dogs back—twice the results with half the effort.
6. Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO): Make Every Click Count
Getting visitors to your site is one thing, getting them to convert is another. Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is the process of enhancing your website or landing page to increase the percentage of visitors who take a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a contact form. By analysing user behaviour, testing different elements like headlines, buttons, or page layouts, and refining content based on data-driven insights, CRO can help you maximise the value of your traffic. This will leads to better user experiences (UX), increased sales, and improved ROI on this particular marketing efforts.
ASOS (UK online retailer) is a great example of effective Conversion Rate Optimisation, because they have a philosophy around testing and experimenting. They believe if you don’t test, you don’t grow. They consistently use A/B testing to refine various aspects of their website, such as product page layouts, checkout processes, and call-to-action buttons. By experimenting with these elements and analysing user interactions, they've successfully reduced cart abandonment rates and increased conversion rates. This approach not only enhances the shopping experience for customers but also significantly boosts sales and overall profitability for the company.
7. Local SEO: Sniff Out Nearby Customers
If you’re a local business, and you depend on local business, then you'll want to be the top dog in your area. A local SEO strategy is very important and requires several key actions on your part to boost your business’s visibility in local search results.
Start by optimising your Google My Business profile, ensuring it's complete and regularly updated with accurate information like your address, hours, and photos. Incorporate location-specific keywords into your website content, meta descriptions, and titles to attract local search traffic. Encourage positive reviews, list your business in local directories with consistent Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) information, and ensure your website is mobile-friendly.
Some good, local directories, to get you started include:
Yell.com: One of the most well-known UK business directories.
Thomson Local: A traditional directory, now available online.
Scoot: A directory that aggregates listings across multiple networks.
192.com: Offers comprehensive business and residential listings.
Hotfrog UK: A directory that focuses on helping small businesses get discovered.
And don't forget local SEO on Bing. It's important to leverage Bing Places for Business, which functions similarly to Google My Business. Start by claiming and optimising your business listing, and go through the same process you did for Google My Business. This helps start to build your own online eco-system and sends positive signs to Google.
8. Partnerships and Collaborations: Join Forces and Double Your Success.
They say two dogs are better than one, and the same goes for businesses. Successful marketing and brand collaborations occur when two or more brands come together to create a mutually beneficial partnership, that enhances each brand's reach and appeal.
Gymshark, the fitness clothing brand has recently partnered with Surreal Cereal - to co-host events and launch products, expanding their reach without hefty advertising costs. Surreal co-founder Jac Chetland said "Gymshark do gym. We do protein. Our Gymshark protein cereal is a match made in gym-heaven. We’re buzzing to be helping Gymshark’s athletes and community hit their protein goals.”
Complementary brands can innovate together, increase brand exposure, and tap into each other's audience, like Nike and Apple’s partnership to create wearable fitness technology, or Red Bull and GoPro's extreme sports content.
Partnering with a complementary brand can enhance brand credibility and trust, especially when collaborating with a well-established or prestigious partner. They often lead to increased sales and stronger customer loyalty for both brands involved and the sharing of resources and expertise often leads to cost efficiencies.
9. Upselling and Cross-Selling: Increase your average transaction value
Upselling and cross-selling are effective sales tactics that aim to increase the value of a customer's purchase. Upselling involves encouraging your customers to buy a more expensive version of a product or add additional features.
Cross-selling, on the other hand, suggests complementary products that go well with the item the customer is already buying. For example, a customer buying a laptop might be offered an upgrade to a model with more storage (upselling) or a matching laptop case (cross-selling). Both tactics will help boost your revenue and could even improve customer satisfaction by the perceived added value.
The Gold Company, Physical Gold, implement a strong upsell and cross sell strategy, by offering additional products and services at the point of purchase (POP). If a customer is looking at gold coins, a pop up will ask the if they're interested in gold bars. If they opt to have it delivered, they will receive an option to have it stored for them (at an additional cost). And if they want to keep it themselves, they will be offered a safety box to purchase.
A simple upselling strategy, implemented either in person (via sales staff) or online at checkout, can increases your average transaction value, therefore improving your ROI.
10. Collect Free Reviews for Social Proof & Instant Credibility
Reviews and testimonials are crucial, as they build trust and credibility for your brand. They serve as social proof, showing potential customers that others have had positive experiences with your products or services. This can significantly influence purchasing decisions, as people tend to rely on the opinions of others when making choices.
Additionally, positive reviews can boost your search engine rankings, improve customer retention, and provide valuable feedback that can help you improve your offerings. In essence, they help convert prospects into loyal customers.
When I first started working with The Lewin Clinic, they had no presence on Google and no online reviews. Implementing a Testimonial / Review strategy was the first thing I focused on - because it's free, low hanging fruit. Virtually hundreds of patients were being seen in their clinic every month. I prioritised setting up a Google Review URL and a Trustpilot URL to send out to each and every patient as they left the clinic, following treatment. Within a year, they had collected over 300 five-star reviews .
The last word ...from Oscar (Head of Barketing).
There we have it—10 tail-waggingly good ROI tactics that can help your business grow, by improving your ROI. Inspired by some of the UK’s top dogs, these examples show that a little strategic thinking and careful selection of where to spend your marketing budget, can go a long way to helping deliver a healthy return on your marketing spend. You’d be barking mad not to implement them.
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