Core Small Business Online Marketing Strategy

Small business online marketing is one of the best ways to generate sales and build a strong brand. However, to be successful with it you need the right strategy to help you get the results you want.

And that is why in today’s blog post, I will share with you the core small business online marketing strategy that will let you succeed online.

So, are you ready to see what these strategies are? If so, let’s dive in…

Build A Sales Funnel

I don’t know if I would call this a strategy, but in the end, it consists of many steps and it has one end goal which is a sale and maximum value of a customer.

So, it is considered a strategy, and it is going to work for virtually any small business.

A sales funnel is a series of strategically created pages that are going to take a consumer through a certain process, turn him or her into a customer, and then maximize the value of the customer that you attain…

…while upselling them other products and services.

Here is an example of how a sales funnel look like:

With a process like this, you can turn even the most cold-fish visitor who has never heard of you before into a customer.

So, how are you going to use this strategy for your small business online?

1. Determine The Traffic Temperature

This is the first step of building a sales funnel because it is going to determine how it is going to look like. There are 3 types of traffic:

• Cold
• Warm
• Hot

The first type of traffic is a cold traffic.

These are the people who have never heard of you and who usually don’t even know what is the problem that is keeping them away from reaching the desired result that you are going to solve.

The second type of traffic is warm traffic.

Those people know you, they know what the problem they have is, however, they don’t know the solution to the problem.

And the last type of traffic is hot traffic.

Those are the people who have a strong relationship with you, who know they have a problem, and who know YOUR product or service is the solution.

Based on which type of traffic you are going to drive to the sales funnel, the sales funnel is going to look like.

For example, if I am going to drive hot traffic to a sales funnel, I probably don’t need to create things like webinars to pre-frame them, I can just drive them directly to a sales page and make them buy.

But if they are cold traffic, then driving them to a sales page would not likely generate a lot of sales, right?

Well, that is exactly why knowing this is so important. So, determine the type of traffic that you are going to drive to the sales funnel, and then move on to the next step of this small business online marketing strategy…

2. Pre-Frame Bridge

Imagine that you are at a conference and two similar-looking speakers that you don’t know are about to come on a stage.

The host is going to say something about each of them before they come.

When they announce the first speaker, the host says:

“John has eaten out of a trash can, living in a homeless shelter in Los Angeles, and at the age of 18, he turned himself into a multi-million dollar entrepreneur who owns 7 companies and hundreds of units of real estate. He has achieved what most considered impossible, and today he will show you his story and talk about how you can do it too!”

And then they announce the second speaker and the host says:

“Marilyn has inherited 400 million dollars from her parents and now owns 7 successful companies and she is going to share with you what her parents told her she needs to do to be successful.”

Who are you likely to pay closer attention to and who are you likely going to take action based on?

Of course, John. Because the host has pre-framed him in a better way.

They have a similar message, they are both rich, they are both good-looking, but you are still likely going to listen to John and do what hey says than listen to Marilyn because of the pre-frame.

And when building a sales funnel it is exactly the same.

Before the person visits the place where the sale is going to happen (usually a sales page), the thing that you should do is to create a strong pre-frame bridge talking about the problem they have and about the way the problem needs to be solved.

And on the sales page you are going to position your product or service as the solution that they need to be successful.

And based on the traffic type, you are going to determine how big the pre-frame is going to need to be.

If the traffic is hot, then a pre-frame can be something as simple as an email or a social media post.

Whereas if the traffic is cold, then the pre-frame can be something like a webinar or a bridge page with a video and a short article on it.

Here is an example of a bridge page in a sales funnel:

After you create it, then you are going to need to move on to the next step of this small business online marketing strategy again…

3. Qualify Subscribers

Now when you pre-framed the traffic, you need to qualify those who are willing to give you their contact information in exchange of some sort of a freebie that is going to be valuable to them.

This is really important for two reasons. First, it is a sign that they are ready to do business with you as they entrusted you with their contact information.

Second, if they are not going to buy you can follow up with them, and if they DO buy, then you can sell them other products and services in the follow up as well.

In other words, it is absolutely essential that you qualify subscribers right after the pre-frame happens.

The easiest way to do that is by creating a lead-squeeze page that looks like this:

It is really simple. All it contains is a big curiosity-based headline, an image of the lead magnet, and a short copy with instructions and a call to action with a form.

You need to ahve something like this if you want to build a successful social media sales funnel.

4. Qualify Buyers

This is where a transaction is going to happen. After you get their contact information, you want to see who is willing to buy from you.

If you are trying to turn somebody into a customer for the first time, then you are likely to sell something really cheap in the sales funnel just to make the conversion happen.

Then you will make the most money in the next step of this small business online marketing strategy.

However, if you are selling to somebody who has already bought from you before, then the thing that you are going to sell to them can be a bit more expensive or high-ticket, depending on the part of your value ladder [front-end (cheap), middle-end (more expensive), back-end (most expensive)].

This is usually going to be done through a sales page, but if you are selling something high-ticket, it can be done through a webinar, or another kind of presentation.

After the sale is going to happen, then a very important part of this small business’s online marketing strategy is going to come…

5. Upsell Them

When the sale happens, then you don’t want to just close the loop. You also want to sell them something else so that you increase the value of the customer that you get.

You’d be really surprised how simple it is to create an upsell page like this:

But a lot of people actually buy those upsells. Sometimes it can double or even triple your revenue (no kidding).

So, you definitely have to add it if you want to make the most revenue out of every sale that you make.

But now, let’s move on to the next thing in this small business online marketing strategy…

6. Follow Up

Once the sale is made, you don’t just leave the person alone and make ’em go away. Instead, you are going to follow up and sell them other products and services that are more expensive than the thing they just bought.

It is the only way to build a sustainable business and the best way to get through tough times as you own this audience and they are loyal to your brand.

If you follow up the right way, then you can generate so many sales that you’d be blown away.

By the way, if you don’t have an email marketing software that you can use for following up, go here and try using Moosend for free. It is one of the best email service providers on Earth.