Marketing Your Small Business
Billed publishes these marketing articles. They're grouped by what you're trying to do, with a line on what each one covers.
Planning and brand
Choosing your marketing approach and how your business presents itself.
- Types of marketing strategies
Types of marketing strategy for a small business, how advertising, PR and sales promotion differ, and the pros and cons of different advertising media.
- Branding for a small business
Positioning, a visual system, voice guidelines, social proof, local and digital presence, photography, legal basics and a branding budget.
- Finding more clients
Ways to look for clients, including referrals, job boards, email lists, social media groups, webinars and building authority in a niche.
Your website and local search
Setting up the places people look you up.
- Building a business website
Setting goals, choosing DIY, template or custom, site structure, copy, design and speed, SEO at launch, analytics, accessibility and maintenance.
- Creating a Google Business Profile
Gathering your details, claiming the profile, categories, the business description, photos, services, posts, reviews, messaging and the insights to watch.
- Local SEO
Your Google Business Profile, local on-page SEO, citations, reviews, local links, tracking results and "near me" searches.
Content, email and social media
Publishing and sending things your customers read.
- Content marketing
Planning topics from customer questions, choosing formats, a publishing cadence, distribution, measuring results and an editorial calendar.
- Email marketing
Permission and list building, the core email types, segmentation, writing emails, deliverability and compliance basics, and measuring results.
- Social media marketing
Choosing platforms, content pillars, batching posts, engagement, when to boost posts, measuring results and guardrails.
- Guest post outreach
Finding sites to pitch, writing the guest post, pitching it and following up.
Paid search advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads and how businesses use them.
- What PPC advertising is
How pay-per-click advertising works, its advantages and disadvantages, what it costs, the types of PPC ads and managing campaigns.
- PPC for a small business
The advantages the article sets out for PPC at a small business, including budget control, targeting, testing and remarketing, with budget guidelines.
- PPC in B2B marketing
The role of pay-per-click advertising in business-to-business marketing, and advice for B2B advertisers.
Referrals, relationships and proof
Getting introductions and showing what past clients say.
- Getting referrals
When and how to ask for a referral, a lightweight referral program, tracking referral sources and mistakes to avoid.
- Creating a referral program
Reward structures, program rules, making referring easy, B2B and B2C differences, ethics, fraud prevention and measurement.
- Networking for small business owners
Choosing where to network, following up, hosting small events, partnerships and measuring networking as a channel.
- Collecting customer testimonials
When and whom to ask, prompts, formats beyond text, legal and ethical basics, and where to use testimonials.
- Writing a case study
Choosing the client story, interview questions, a case study outline, ethics, formats, distribution and measuring performance.