These days, every small business needs a website. It’s like your store-front online. It’s where people go to learn about your business, get to know your services and decide for themselves whether or not to give you their business.

Too often, small businesses believe that a small business website is all they need, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. With more than 1.7 billion websites out there, and an estimated 576,000 new websites being built every day (WebsiteSetup), you need a way to get your website in front of the right people at the right time. That’s where small business marketing comes in.

There are lots of different small business marketing strategies out there, from the highly effective to the highly ineffective. Here are the basic building blocks of small business marketing that works.

The 6 building blocks of success in small business marketing

#1. An all-in-one marketing platform

There are a lot of moving parts to small business marketing, from your website to your social media platforms, local listings (if you’re a local business), social media platforms, online reputation and beyond. While each of these parts are important on their own, they are immensely more effective when they work together cohesively.

Having an all-in-one marketing platform, like Marketing 360®, gives you a solid foundation for future success, because it combines all of the pieces of the puzzle in one place. This makes for a more cohesive, effective marketing strategy.

Not only does this make for a more successful strategy overall, but it also helps you save time and makes managing it all easier. This is especially important for small business owners attempting to do their marketing without any outside help.

#2. A dedicated marketing team

It’s not a stretch to say that small business owners are some of the busiest people in the world, with many averaging more than 50 or even 60 hours a week. Marketing takes time, and if there’s one thing small business owners don’t have a lot of, it’s time.

Marketing is an essential part of a small business’s ability to grow, and it’s not something you can push aside until you have a free minute. Even if you have an all-in-one platform, like Marketing 360, it can still be difficult to find the time to do it yourself. That’s why you need a dedicated marketing team who can put in the time and work for you.

Few small businesses can afford an in-house marketing team, and hiring a freelancer can often be a gamble. The good news is that Marketing 360 has a team of Marketing Success Managers, content writers, designers, photographers, video pros, ad specialists and more who can help you reach your goals and grow your business.

#3. A great reputation

When someone finds you online, the first thing they’ll do before deciding whether or not to give you a call or schedule an appointment is to read your reviews. It’s a gamble to trust a business you find online, especially if you don’t know anyone who’s worked with them in the past.

Reading reviews gives people peace of mind and makes them feel better about deciding to work with you. However, they only do that if you have good reviews for them to read and a strong reputation. If you don’t, they’ll simply move on to another business that does.

The right reputation management software — like Marketing 360 Reputation — will help you stay on top of new reviews, request new reviews, monitor your reputation from across the web and even gives you the ability to challenge inauthentic reviews.

#4. Effective content marketing and SEO

There’s not much point of having a website or an online presence for your business if no one sees it. It’s like the old thought experiment that says, “If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound?” If you have a website, but no one sees it, does it even matter?

In most cases, when a consumer is shopping online or researching a local business, their search starts on a search engine, like Google or Bing. Your ability to rank on a search engine relies on two main factors — SEO (search engine optimization) and content marketing.

SEO involves optimizing your website for your best keywords, and content marketing involves creating high-quality content on a regular basis. Both will help you rank higher on search, and are essential to an effective small business marketing strategy.

#5. A strong social media presence

Social media isn’t just where people go to see the latest pictures of their nephews or nieces, or to stay up to date with what their friends were up to last weekend, anymore. It’s also where people go to find new brands and local businesses.

Not only that, but social media is where lots of people spend their time online. Average daily social media users spend 145 minutes every day checking their timelines, reading comments and liking posts (statista).

Suffice it to say, if your business doesn’t have a presence on social media, you’re missing out. In order to build a strong social media presence, you need to be active and consistent. A social media scheduling tool, like Marketing 360 Social, can help.

#6. Multi-channel advertising

From Facebook and Instagram to YouTube and Google, there are a lot of places your potential customers may be spending their time online. And, if you want your marketing strategy to be successful, you need to be visible wherever your customers are looking.

Multi-channel advertising can help you get seen wherever your prospective customers spend their time. Best of all, most channels allow you to advertise to only your target audience, which means that you won’t waste your money advertising to people who aren’t likely to take advantage of what you’re offering.

Not all ads are made equal, and if you want to get the most out of your advertising budget, you need to test your campaigns and monitor your performance. You can do that and more with Marketing 360 Ads.

With the right building blocks, you can grow your business and build a marketing strategy that works. Get started today. See our plans and pricing.