How to advertise your business: 17 strategies for small business owners

As a small business, securing sales can be challenging. How do you encourage customers to choose your products or services over competing merchants? The answer lies in a well-considered and informed marketing strategy. Learning how to advertise your business within that strategy can help you stand out against competitors, reach your target audience and secure conversions to build a notable brand in your industry. If you’re not sure where to start with advertising your small business, this guide will help. Learn more about the benefits of advertising and key strategies for small businesses, with practical tips to help monitor your marketing for long-term growth. 

What are the benefits of advertising your small business?

Whether you’re starting a side hustle or turning your business idea into a full-time career, advertising is an essential part of growing a business. One of the first marketing hurdles many merchants face when starting a business is gaining attention from their target market. By implementing a clear advertising strategy, you can spread awareness of your business and attract new customers. Advertising provides you with an opportunity to highlight your unique selling point (USP) in the market, giving your target audience a reason to choose your business over a competitor. In both saturated and niche markets, this is important for connecting with your customers and nurturing customer loyalty long-term. Other benefits of advertising for small businesses include:

• Brand awareness.

• Increased engagement online and in physical business locations.

• A clear brand identity.

• Increased sales and business revenue.

Defining your goals and advertising KPIs

A successful advertising strategy starts with a clear understanding of your business identity, goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). If you haven’t already outlined these when learning how to write a business plan, let’s take a look at how you can get started.

Establish a strong business identity

A strong identity based on unique products, services or values helps your target customers connect to your advertising and builds loyalty. It gives your audience a reason to choose you over competitors. In advertising, a unique selling point (USP) should be clear and consistent throughout your messaging. To get started, here are some tips on how to create a USP for your business:

• Find a USP that resonates with your target market. This could be a shared value (like sustainability) or goal (like making healthy cooking easier).

• Create a USP that solves a problem for your audience.

• Ensure your USP is unique. None of your competitors should be advertising the same selling point.

• Build on your existing strengths and ideas for a strong and attainable USP.

When looking at marketing strategies for small businesses, creating a USP guides decision-making. You know exactly who you’re trying to reach and the business characteristics to highlight in your advertising, making it simpler to create consistent ad campaigns. Writing a mission statement is another excellent way to clarify your business identity. A mission statement is a single sentence or two that highlights the key reasons that your business exists, focusing on your USP. Use your mission statement to keep every advertising project grounded in the same key ideas. This is also useful for other key steps when setting yourself up as a merchant, including how to register a business, securing funding and establishing workplace culture.

Defining advertising goals

Your business goals and advertising goals should overlap. For example, if you’ve opened a yoga studio, a business goal might be to have 15 students attend your morning class. Your targeted advertising campaigns will focus on maximising your reach and converting your target audience into paying customers. It’s important to note that your advertising should target both short and long-term goals. Sticking with the yoga studio example, let’s say you have a short-term goal of increasing attendance to a new breathwork class you recently launched at your studio. Short-term advertising strategies might include:

• Targeted social media ads.

• Local flyers promoting the new class.

• Exclusive or limited-time offers in your email newsletters for customers to bring a friend to a class for free.

A long-term goal could be to expand your studio to a larger facility. To achieve this, you will need to ensure financial growth to account for the increase in rent for the new premises, therefore focus on:

• Increasing brand awareness through social media.

• Engaging with your community at events and networking events to attract a larger local audience.

• Increasing your organic reach through content marketing (including blogs, live streams, video tutorials and mental wellbeing guides).

Advertising strategies can often be directed by new business opportunities or business milestones that you’re looking to achieve in the future.  

A business opportunity of an ideal space becoming available, for example, could cause you to quickly shift your long-term goal to a short-term goal, changing strategy priorities. When focusing on how to start a business, some examples of relevant advertising goals that feed into business objectives include:

• Increasing revenue through a specific channel (e.g. orders through your online store).

• Establishing an engaged community on social media.

• Driving 10% more traffic to your website than the previous month.

• Reducing the bounce rate of your website (the number of people who leave without exploring more than one page) in order to boost interaction and conversions.

• Increasing brand awareness in your local community.

SMART Goals

When developing both short and long-term goals, it’s important to define your objectives in a clear statement. This ensures clarity around your vision and creates goals that are easily shared for enhanced collaboration. The SMART technique is a brilliant method for developing goal statements:

• Specific: Clearly define your goal with details of what you want to achieve.

• Measurable: Outline the metrics you’ll use to follow your progress when working towards the goal.

• Achievable: Ensure you set goals that you can begin taking steps towards today and that are within the capabilities of your business. 

• Relevant: Make sure your goals are explicitly relevant to your business, tying into your overarching objectives for measurable success.

• Timeline: Drive your goals forward and maintain progress by setting a realistic timeline. 

Whether you’re working towards setting up a limited company or onboarding a new customer every month, a SMART framework will help turn your ideas and objectives into clear statements you can act on. 

Know your key performance indicators

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a reliable way to keep track of your progress. Unlike metrics (which are real-time indicators of short-term performance), KPIs focus on long-term growth using data that’s relevant to your specific goals. Some examples of KPIs worth being aware of include:

• Return on ad spend (ROAS).

• Cost per acquisition (CPA).

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC).

• Conversion rate.

• Click-through rate (CTR).

• Cost-per-click (CPC).

For example, if you own a hair salon one of your goals might be to boost the success of your digital marketing ads. A relevant KPI that would help you monitor your progress would be ROAS. This involves metrics including cost-per-click and conversion rate (how many users click on the advert to book an appointment). When calculating ROAS you should look at the amount earned from converted customers and divide it by how much you spent on advertising. The final figure will be your ROAS, which you could use as a KPI. Apply the below formula when calculating your small business ROAS:

Understand your small business target market

Your advertising strategy is going to be influenced by your target market. There are a number of reasons for this, including how different audiences:

• Respond to various advertising mediums.

• Use social media platforms.

• Prefer traditional or modern marketing methods.

• Relate to different aspects of your small business.

• Engage with different messaging.

Let’s take a closer look at how to identify your target market for a more focused advertising campaign.

Competitor analysis

The target audience of your competitors is likely to be similar, if not identical, to your small business target audience. By learning how to do a competitor analysis, you’ll gain key insights into potential target customer personas and profiles. You can collect information on characteristics like gender, age, interests and other behavioural traits by analysing competitor social media followers, looking at recent customer reviews and reviewing competitor price points to help guide your pricing strategy. Check out the competition in person, too, by visiting similar businesses to see who’s converting in-store and what they’re buying.

Online research

There’s plenty of free and paid-for research online that can help you understand your target market characteristics and demographics to further inform your small business advertising strategy. For example, if you’re opening a vegan cafe, you could find or purchase data on where the highest proportion of vegans live, helping you to target your advertising geographically. Take a look at our guide on how to do market research for a small business to explore the different types of market research that can provide insight into your audience and target customer base.

Conduct surveys

Surveys offer an opportunity for your target market to tell you more about themselves in their own words. You can tailor your questions according to your business ideas and goals, making this a great way to collect data specific to your niche. Let’s say you’re a business that sells trainers and you’re looking to discover more about your existing customers. Relevant survey questions might include:

• What’s your budget when buying trainers?

• How many pairs of shoes do you buy a year?

• Do you use our trainers for sport or leisure purposes?

• What sports do you regularly take part in?

• What features made you choose our trainers?

This gives you a wealth of information to build clear customer personas. For example, if you find that most respondents wear trainers while running, you can use this as a clear focus for your advertising. 

Collect data on existing customers

Alongside surveys, you can automatically collect customer data through technology. On your website, for example, you can add cookies that track individual sessions. These record key insights including user location, how often they visit your website and the products they add to their cart, helping you understand who your customers are. You could also monitor user behaviour through a voluntary loyalty programme. These can record what individual customers generally buy, how much they spend and how frequently they shop with you to give further insights when understanding your target market.

How to assign a budget for advertisements

Whether you’re starting a business with no money or you’ve got investments from shareholders, it's a good idea to assign a budget to your advertising activity so that you can allocate funds between different advertising methods and track progress. A detailed budget stops you from overspending which is essential if you want to understand your ROAS. To create an advertising budget for your small business, let’s take a look at some top tips.  

Track your cash flow

A cash flow forecast is used to estimate your income and expenses over a period of time. You can use this information alongside your small business budget, ensuring you have enough income to cover advertising expenses without overstretching your finances. For example, if you have to pay for a social media advert immediately, you need to ensure you have enough income to cover the costs. Any cash flow delays, such as revenue being held by your payments provider, could cause your advertising to stall and lead to other financial issues, including potential debt. With SumUp One, you’re guaranteed next-day payouts by 7am, including on weekends and holidays. This creates a consistent cash flow that helps you keep ahead of advertising costs.

Speak to an accountant or financial advisor

If you’re struggling to find ways to promote your business that are within your budget, speak to an accountant or financial advisor. Financial experts can help you reduce your small business expenses and organise your finances for a budget that better suits your business and marketing goals. They can also advise on how to price a service or product to improve your revenue, giving you more income to reinvest in your advertising. Learn about the differences between an accountant vs. financial advisor to find the right financial support for your business.

Accounting tools for small businesses

Make advertising budgeting easier with accounting tools for small businesses. There are tools that automatically track your cash flow, like the SumUp app. As part of the free SumUp business account available to all of our merchants, it’s a budget-friendly solution for money management. Accounting tools help you track your income, monitor expenses and view the progress of your invoices for real-time financial updates. With cash flow data on demand, it’s easier to make advertising decisions that are right for your business budget.

How to advertise your small business without a budget

If you don’t have the budget to set aside for advertising, there are still ways you can market your small business. By learning the fundamentals of social media marketing, your business and brand can benefit from an effective route to market without any financial investment. Encourage word-of-mouth referrals from your first customers with incentives. These traditional methods don’t have to cost anything.

17 best ways to advertise your business

When it comes to how to promote your business, merchants have plenty of choice. To help you find the best ways to advertise your business, we’ve selected 17 top advertising methods. 

1. In-store advertising

For merchants with a brick-and-mortar shop, like restaurants, cafes, and hair salons, you can take advantage of in-store advertising. This includes in-store promotions and marketing materials, as well as the customer experience itself. Small business advertising ideas can extend to the technology that customers engage with in-store. For example, self-service kiosks provide a key opportunity for recommending additional items at the checkout. You can also promote in-store news, such as an upcoming sale or new stock, through these digital channels.

2. Social media marketing

When it comes to how to promote your business on a budget, social media platforms are a popular choice. Over 25% of small businesses in the UK use social channels, like Instagram and TikTok, as their main sales driver. It’s a versatile option with the ability to reach customers purely through organic, budget-friendly marketing. By using hashtags and engaging with your audience, you can advertise a small business without any paid-for ads. Don’t underestimate the power of going viral, either. Content that gets picked up and distributed to millions of people can transform your business’ success, generating huge reach and increasing awareness of your business and engagement and followers. The free marketing potential of social media is wonderful for small business budgets, but there are options for paid ads, too. With intuitive targeting features, you can ensure your advertising reaches your exact target market based on location, gender, interests and more. Learn more about how to use social media for small businesses and make the most of this modern marketing tool. 

3. Video advertising

Display your business value with video advertising. Easy to consume and with the ability to be shared via social platforms, video marketing is another smart solution for how to promote your business. Social media platforms are particularly interested in short-form content. These videos are between 5 and 90 seconds long, appealing to shorter attention spans. To get your video advertising campaigns started, here are some ideas for interesting content:

• Tours of your premises.

• Introductions to staff.

• Behind-the-scenes of product creation.

• Different ways to use your products.

4. Local SEO and Google Business Profile (GBP)

Search engine optimisation (SEO) and Google Business Profile (GBP) are two cost-effective advertising methods well-suited to small businesses. Both SEO and GBP help your business get found online.

• GBP ensures your business is displayed in local results in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and adds your business to Google Maps. 

• SEO helps Google match your website to relevant user search queries and pushes you to the top of the SERPs for terms related to your business or offering.

Let’s look at a local cafe as an example. After setting up their GBP profile, customers find the cafe online when searching for places to get a coffee in the local area. They also have quick access to directions from their current location and can view past reviews to build confidence in their choice. The cafe has also been working on SEO and optimising for the key term ‘cafe in Sussex’. When potential customers search this query, the cafe’s website is more likely to appear at the top of their search results, giving the business more organic traffic. GBP is free to set up, making it a budget-friendly option for small businesses. SEO may require investment and this will vary depending on:

• How competitive your industry is.

• Your desired reach.

5. Local markets and fairs

If you’re looking for ways to promote your business in your local area, check for local markets or fairs you can attend. A farmers’ market, for example, is a wonderful way to advertise local produce putting your business directly in front of an existing audience: 

• Raise brand awareness in the lead-up to the event with social media posts and event flyers.

• Create eye-catching banners and signage to draw attendees to your stall.

• Offer free samples to encourage potential customers to try your products.

• Provide free branded merchandise to ensure your advertising takes effect even after the event. 

Advertising at local markets and fairs can be cost-effective, with smaller markets being free or having a minimal fee of around £10. Larger markets in busier cities can come with a higher price tag. At Greenwich Market, for example, the most expensive stall is £200, though they also have cheaper options from £15 upwards.

6. Google ads

Google has a wide variety of ad types to choose from, including:

• Pay-per-click (PPC): Position yourself at the top of the SERPs as a sponsored result and only pay when a potential customer clicks on your ad.

• Display ads: Utilise the Google Display Network (including YouTube and Gmail) to display ads to targeted users as they’re active online.

• Local service ads: Make it easy for customers to call or message your service-based business with Google ads that appear at the very top of the SERPs.

Keep an eye on ROAS as you experiment and test Google Ads to ensure your strategies work for your business. 

7. Email marketing

If you’re wondering ‘where can I advertise my business for free?’, try email marketing. This is an advertising technique that can be outsourced, but for merchants looking for a cost-effective marketing solution, you can also carry out email marketing in-house. Sending emails to an existing client list is a fantastic way to boost customer loyalty, encourage repeat purchases and keep your customers up-to-date with relevant business news. Continue to build your knowledge of email marketing for small businesses and make sure you adhere to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a crucial legal requirement when handling customer data.

8. SMS marketing

SMS marketing is a form of advertising that uses text messages. Once a customer opts into SMS updates, you can quickly reach them by sending texts straight to their phone. For example, you can send an SMS to your entire client list to alert them of a sale or new stock, keeping everyone up-to-date. Implement personalised messaging through your SMS advertising by: 

• Sending special discounts on customer birthdays

• Alert texts to notify customers when a product they’ve shown interest in has been discounted.

SMS marketing can also improve customer satisfaction for service-based businesses. For example, if you own a hair salon you can send appointment reminders to customers. You can also follow up an appointment with an SMS to check that the customer is happy with the service they received, inviting feedback and asking for a review. As with email marketing, be sure to follow regulations and stay in line with data protection laws. Compliance is crucial when storing any customer data.

9. Websites and online stores

Small businesses can now create professional websites without a big budget. This is a key first step when looking into how to start an online business and helps cultivate a credible online presence when reaching a wider audience. Websites and online stores provide a digital touchpoint that ties your online marketing together. From SEO to social media, most of your digital marketing methods are likely to link back to your site, encouraging online conversions. There are plenty of cost-effective options, including drag-and-drop website builders that make web design simple.

10. Webinars and live sessions

For engaging small business advertising ideas, try live streaming. Social media channels and webinar platforms allow merchants to talk directly to their audience in real-time using live video feeds. Let’s say, for example, that you start a side business making woven purses as a sole trader. Start live streaming as you create custom orders for your audience, discuss the process and show the level of detail that goes into making your purses. By talking about the custom order, you also advertise this as a service. Answer questions as you go and remind your viewers that they can get in touch to place their own orders for similar purses. YouTube Live and Instagram Live are both popular platforms to get started with.

11. Content marketing

Content marketing encompasses a wide range of ways to promote your business, including:

• Blogs

• Podcasts

• Social media images and videos

• Infographics

• Interviews

As a small business, start by creating a content marketing strategy. This will outline your content goals, the platforms you’ll be publishing on and the type of content you’ll create. Keep ideas relevant to your audience and focus on quality over quantity for a winning campaign.

12. Photography

Professional photography builds credibility, shows off your products and services, and makes it easy for potential customers to understand your business identity. 

Photos tie into many other advertising methods, from website design to content marketing. Share images to sites like Unsplash.com and Pixabay.com, giving users the right to share your photography on their own website, social media page or blog. This can lead to organic mentions of your small business on other websites and earn you relevant links to your online store, helping to boost your SEO. For example, if you own a local bakery, you can add images of your products to these sites with a description of your business and where you baked the item. You might even add branded elements to the image, like a napkin with your logo. When a journalist uses this image for a news article on local bakeries, they’ll add a caption that links to your bakery website. You’ve now gained free marketing, an inbound link that could send new referral traffic to your website and a backlink that can increase your chances of rankings higher in the SERPs. 

13. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing involves businesses partnering with individuals who already have a large following (like social media influencers and bloggers). The influencer will promote your small business to their following in return for payment, the chance to try your products or services for free, an experience, or a return promotion on your account. The best way to advertise your business using influencer marketing is to work with influencers who are relevant to your niche. Let’s say that you run a sustainable restaurant, for example. An influencer who lives locally and posts frequently about either food or sustainability would be an excellent choice. This is because:

• Their audience would be expecting the content.

• Their audience would be receptive to the content.

• The partnership would appear natural and credible.

• You’re reaching your target audience.

Do be aware, though, that influencer marketing will cost you. The bigger the following, the more expensive your partnership will be. As a small business, focus on smaller, niche influencers to keep costs down while still seeing success from your small business advertising ideas.

14. Print media

Print media is a traditional advertising method. Types of print media for small businesses include:

• Leaflets 

• Brochures

• Magazines

• Menus

• Newsletters

• Business cards

It’s important to note that any print media should look professional, so you may want to consider hiring a graphic designer if you don’t have the capabilities or resources available in-house. If you’re considering how much it costs to start a business and don’t have the budget for a designer, there are plenty of free tools to help simplify the design process, including Canva and Vista Create. When creating your print media, remember to follow your branding guidelines. Add contact details to your printed advertisements and any relevant information for online platforms, like your website or social media handles.

15. Online PR

When it comes to how to start a side hustle or build a small business, press stories can create awareness of your small business. You can encourage journalists to publish news or create content about your business with a press release. Press releases summarise the news that the journalist might be interested in. For your small business, newsworthy content could include:

• Upcoming product launches.

• Awards you’ve recently won.

• Upcoming events (such as a workshop or sponsorship).

• New location openings and business expansion plans.

Send press releases to relevant and authoritative journalists and publications that cover stories in your niche. 

16. Employee advocacy

Your employees can become your biggest supporters. By encouraging your team to spread the word about your small business, you have a source of unlimited, free advertising that will quickly get the word out about your products and services. Employee advocacy is an organic advertising method that’s excellent for building long-lasting connections. To encourage your team to speak positively about your small business, focus on developing a workplace culture where staff feel respected. Inform employees of your USP, key values and why your business plan stands out. The more they believe in your idea, the likelier they are to spread the word. If you’re looking at how to start a business from home as a solo entrepreneur, you won’t be able to encourage employee advocacy. Instead, speak to your friends and family about your business USP and encourage word-of-mouth referrals among your customers. 

17. Community involvement

As a small business merchant, your community offers a wealth of advertising potential. Get involved with your local area to increase brand awareness and generate local support. There are many ways small businesses can connect with their communities, including:

• Local businesses: Start by speaking with other local merchants, showing your support for their ventures and letting them know about your small business idea. This can lead to exciting partnerships.

• Social media groups: Spread the word about your business by joining local social media groups. Facebook is a popular choice for community pages and an ideal platform to introduce yourself as a local business.

• Sponsor events: Sponsorships show your interest in the community, establishing yourself as a local business and presenting a positive business identity to your target market. 

Choosing the best strategy to advertise your business

From how to price a product to how to come up with a business name, the decision-making that goes into starting a business can drastically change its future. As a small business, budget might be a deciding factor in your advertising decisions. When you’re starting as a merchant you can look into a few different low-cost or free ways to promote your business. Start with a relatively low resource allocation so that you can test which methods see the highest ROAS. Once you’ve identified your most profitable small business advertising ideas, you can begin to increase the resources you invest in them. 

Measuring the success of your advertising

Monitoring the success of your advertising helps keep you on track with your business goals. It also ensures you’re investing money in methods that are seeing a return on investment.. You can start monitoring your advertising using the KPIs mentioned earlier. This involves breaking down your results into key metrics. Let’s take a look at a few examples to learn more:

Social media analytics

Social media platforms have a wide range of built-in metrics that are easy to view. You can track important data on individual posts and ads, including:

• Views - how many times your content has been seen.

• Engagement - likes and comments.

• Shares.

• Clicks on any links.

Aside from these metrics, you can monitor the success of your campaign by tracking your follower count. Although not all successful campaigns focus on increasing followers, it’s a good sign that your content is working.

Website traffic

Websites and online stores are full of useful data. Find out how your traffic changes over time to understand how individual advertising strategies are working. For example, an online craft shop might see 80 people visiting their website every day. Suddenly, they see an increase to 200 people visiting every day. By looking at the dates, they discover that the increase occurred when an interview they took part in with an influencer went live. This gives them evidence that interviews and influencer marketing work for their business model. Other useful metrics to look at on your website include where your traffic comes from (including search engines, social media and email marketing) and the pages your users visit.

Online conversions

Keeping tabs on your conversions provides cues on how well your overall advertising strategy is performing. 

In-person metrics

We’ve spoken a lot about online metrics, but how do you monitor the success of your small business advertising ideas in person? There are a few key metrics to keep an eye on when carrying out offline advertisements, including:

• Sales growth.

• Customer retention.

• Loyalty programme uptake.

• Customer satisfaction.

You can also look at how many people come into your brick-and-mortar shop and engage with your business in person. If you hand out leaflets, for example, track how many people take them to monitor whether this is a successful strategy. You could also add a discount to the leaflet that needs to be presented in-store, giving you a clear idea of how many people take action after receiving print media.