The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your Small Business [2024]
Introduction
Your business could sell the best product in the world but still FAIL if it doesn’t have a good marketing strategy.
Thankfully, though, you don’t need a Harvard Business degree (or even any experience) to create a strategy for attracting customers. In fact, all you need is to understand the WHAT, the WHO, the HOW, the WHERE, and how to WORK your marketing system, and you’ll soon be making sales each and every day.
In this article you’ll learn the 5W Marketing Strategy framework, how it works, and how to implement it to grow your business.
1. WHAT do you have to offer?
Step 1: Decide what product to promote.
We start with the simplest question: what do you want to market?
While your business might sell several things, you’ll get the best results with your marketing strategy if you choose just ONE product to promote, at least at first.
If you’re choosing between several products, start with whichever you consider to be your company’s main product. Still not sure? Go with the one that is most aligned with your overall purpose for the company and the results you want to create for your customers.
Choosing the product doesn’t mean you’re done with the “What” stage yet, though. We need to go a bit deeper and work on your product’s positioning to make it an “irresistible offer” that will be easy to sell.
Step 2: Analyse competition.
In most industries, multiple companies sell similar products. They may only be somewhat similar – accomplishing the same general outcome for customers – or they may be virtually identical.
Analyzing the similar products sold by your competitors will enable you to create the strongest foundation for your marketing strategy – a strategy that takes into account the landscape you are marketing in.
After all, wouldn’t you consider the terrain when planning a hike? Not doing so could be disastrous, as there might turn out to be boulders, trees, or entire mountains in your way. Of course, these obstacles wouldn’t prevent you from hiking, but it would be important to be aware of them so that you could plan how you would navigate them – sidestepping trees, finding your way around large boulders, and packing sufficient supplies to summit the mountain.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Before we figure out how to navigate the obstacles, we need to identify them.
So, to complete Step 2, create a list of the top products that are similar to yours. Maybe you can already list several off the top of your head, but, if not, a bit of Googling can quickly supply this information. You can also consider asking ChatGPT, “What types of products do customers buy when they want to [insert the end result your product provides].”
Step 3: Identify differences.
Once you have created a list of the products that yours is competing with, it’s time to identify the differences. How does your product differ from the others on the market?
I find that, often, it’s easiest if you don’t initially worry about trying to identify aspects of your product that make it superior. Just start with a list of all the practical differences.
Once you know what the differences are, then you can consider each of them and ask yourself, “Why did we make our product different in this way?” Typically, this reveals flaws you see with the other products on the market and proves how and why your product is better for the use-case or users you designed it for.
Step 4: Define your USP.
The final step to complete the WHAT block of your 5W marketing strategy is to define your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP.
A USP is a sentence that explains how your product is superior to the competition. Writing a USP will help you to crystalize and communicate why customers should choose your product over any of the alternatives. This not only makes your marketing more persuasive, but also ensures that your team is all on the same page and everyone is equipped effectively talk about what you offer.
Use this template as a starting place to write your USP:
[Product Name] is the only [type of product] that uses [differentiating factor].
Unique Selling Proposition examples:
Kettle Chips are the only potato chips that are hand-made with natural ingredients and deliver an insanely satisfying texture and crunch.
Bose speakers are the only speakers that every other speaker brand compares themself to.
Creator Fast Track is the only YouTube strategy course designed to grow channels to 1,000 subscribers in just 3 months.
$100K Mastermind is the only program that guides course creators to build high-converting evergreen sales funnels and fuel their funnels with ready-to-buy leads, providing a complete system for consistently generating passive income.
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2. WHO is your product for?
Once you’re clear on the value of what you’re selling, you can move on to defining your WHO. Why is this step important? Well, if you don’t define the WHO, you’ll run into two big problems:
Your content and marketing messages won’t appeal strongly enough to any group of people to convince them to purchase your product.
You’ll waste your time (and marketing budget) advertising to a whole lot of people who don’t (and never will) want your product.
The fact is that your product is most useful to ONE type of person – this person is first defined by the fact that they want the result your product provides. For example, if your company sells headphones, then your customers will all, first of all, be people who want to listen to music or other audio content.
Now, as you can see by this example, defining your customers simply by what they want can fall a little short! While many people want that general outcome (the ability to listen to audio content), some will choose to buy $20 headphones, while others will spend $200, or even $2,000.
Why is this?
Well, in short, it’s because different consumers have different motivations (reasons why) they want to listen to audio content.
Some simply want to hear the song or podcast, and the $20 headphones will do the job.
Others want to have a great experience while they listen. These folks will be willing to pay the extra bucks for the $200 pair.
And still others are professionals who need to listen to audio content to edit and improve it. These people will choose to purchase the $2,000 pair as a way to invest in their career.
Who is your product for? Start defining your WHO based purely on the result your product gives, then consider the motives that would cause someone to choose your product instead of an alternative option.
Step 5: Define your WHO based on the result your product provides.
Step 6: Narrow your WHO based on the motives that would cause some people to choose your product instead of an alternative option.
3. HOW will you promote your business?
So you know WHAT you want to promote and WHO you want to promote it to, and now the question is HOW.
How will you get the word out?
How will you get people interested?
How will you overcome your competition?
How will you close sales?
If you’re action-oriented then this is probably the part of the plan you’ve been waiting for because it’s the part that defines what you will actually DO to market your business.
Step 7: Choose goals for your marketing plan.
It’s kind of hilarious how many businesses create “marketing strategies” without first defining their marketing goals. How can you strategize if you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve?
Following the 5W marketing framework, you’ve already defined WHAT you’re selling and to WHOM, putting you well ahead of the game. Now, setting your marketing goals can be as simple as declaring how many “WHAT’s” you want to sell to those “WHO’s.”
Marketing Goal Example:
“Sell 500 bottles of Red Pills to truth-seeking women.”
A marketing goal like this ☝ is a fine starting place, but, as you build out your marketing strategy you’ll do well to add additional goals for each platform or marketing tactic you choose to employ.
Wondering how big your goal should be? Work your way up. Your first goal should generally be to sell 10 units to test the validity of your idea.
Once you achieve that goal, make a reasonable estimation of how many units you might be able to sell in six months.
Once those six months have elapsed, use your results to project what you’ll be able to achieve in a year.
After that, each year you can aim for a multiple of your previous year’s results, such as a 10%, 50%, or 100% increase. (e.g. If you sold 500 units this year and your goal is to increase sales by 20% each year, then next year your goal will be to sell 600 units.)
Step 8: Map your customer journey.
How will customers find your brand? How will you get them interested in your products? And how will you ultimately close the sale?
While, occasionally, customers might find your business in unexpected ways or might decide to buy your product due to reasons outside your control, intentionally designing the journey you intend for customers to follow will greatly increase the number of people who successfully make their way to your products and choose to purchase them.
Your customer journey plan should have three legs:
Visibility: Where will your customers first discover your brand or products?
Engagement: How will your customers then engage with your brand and learn more about your products?
Close: What will prompt customers to choose to actively purchase your product and how will you complete the sale?
Here are some examples of each of these steps to guide you as you outline your own customer journey:
Visibility
Customers will see our ads advertising our product while browsing Facebook (Meta) and click to visit our website.
Customers will find our products on Google when they search for relevant terms.
Customers will find our business in XYZ directory via Google when they search for relevant terms.
Customers will discover our brand by watching our educational videos on YouTube.
Engagement
Once customers arrive at our website, they’ll read our content to learn more about our products and company.
Once customers arrive at our website, they’ll opt-in for our free course, which will educate them on our methods.
Once customers arrive at our website, they’ll sign up for our free email newsletter. Our email welcome sequence will teach them about our brand, products, and methods.
Close
Customers will choose to purchase when they receive promotional emails from us. They’ll click on a button in one of the emails, which will take them to a checkout page where they’ll complete their purchase.
While browsing our website, customers will see our current promotion and, after reading our short sales page, will be ready to purchase our product. They’ll click the “buy now” button, which will take them to our checkout page.
Step 9: Create your marketing strategy.
With your customer journey mapped out, your marketing strategy will practically write itself! All you need to do is turn each of the steps your customers will take into an action item for you.
For example, if your plan for how customers will discover your brand is:
“Customers will see our ads advertising our product while browsing Facebook (Meta) and click to visit our website.”
Then your visibility strategy is simply:
“We advertise our products on Facebook (Meta) to attract new customers.”
And no, you’re not cheating. Writing your marketing strategy really can be this easy.
So, to complete Step 9, just take each piece of the customer journey you mapped out in Step 8 and turn it into a component of your marketing strategy.
4. WHERE will you promote your business?
You know what I love about the 5W marketing framework?
(Well, aside from the fact that it’s a simple yet highly effective way to strategize how to market your small business!)
I love that it’s one of those methods that gets easier and easier as you work through its steps.
In other words, the first few steps require a fair amount of decision-making and are, therefore, somewhat challenging.
But, as you progress through the system, the steps get easier and easier – making it a lot more likely that you’ll successfully finish creating your marketing strategy!
Step 10: Select your marketing channels and platforms.
Choosing what platforms to use to market your business is something that many small business owners really struggle with… so why do I say that the steps are getting easier and easier??
Well, while this is often a task that gives people anxiety, the groundwork you’ve laid with the three W’s you’ve already completed (What, Who, and How) will make this decision incredibly easy.
In fact, you may have already done this preemptively when you mapped your customer journey!
Think about it – if your visibility strategy is to “attract new customers with Facebook ads,” then, clearly, one of your platforms will be… Facebook!
Or, if your engagement strategy is “publish content on our website to educate prospective customers about our methods, products, and company,” then your website will be amongst your platforms as well.
Now, right about now you might be saying, “Hold up! But what about Instagram? Or YouTube? Or X?? I didn’t mention any of them when I mapped my customer journey, but I need to be on those platforms too, right??”
In fact, you might not have mentioned any organic social media in your customer journey or marketing strategy.
And that’s okay.
Social media, while an incredibly powerful tool, isn’t necessary for growing a business online… and it’s certainly not necessary for making sales.
It certainly might fit into your arsenal, but it doesn’t have to.
Eventually, as your business grows, your team will too. And, as that happens, you’ll be able to effectively promote your brand on more and more platforms.
But, most small businesses get a lot more mileage out of doubling down on just 1-3 platforms – so they can get visibility, engagement, and close sales. Trying to use multiple platforms for any one of those marketing objectives tends to spread small teams too thin and be counter productive.
Our rule of thumb when it comes to increasing a business’s marketing platform count is that it typically takes at least one additional team member (working at least 20 hours/week) for each platform you add.
(Yes, really.)
Of course, we’re NOT saying that it wouldn’t be possible to post on 10+ platforms as a solo-preneur. In fact, people do it all the time!
But it’s very, very rare for this strategy to create a net gain (in terms of audience growth or revenue generated) compared to focusing that same amount of time and energy on just ONE platform.
All this being said, if you look at your strategy-informed marketing stack and see that it would “only” involve Facebook ads, your website, and email marketing, but you’d really love to also use some social media… go for it!
But, before you charge full-steam ahead, pause to consider your motivation for wanting to be on these other platforms AND your goals for them.
For a few examples:
Maybe you’ve built an audience on Instagram and want to keep reaching those people, with a goal to use this as a secondary visibility strategy.
Maybe you love podcasting and one of your personal goals is to host a successful podcast.
Maybe you’ve been posting on X for years (okay, you’ve actually been posting on Twitter for years, but anyway), you enjoy it, and, while it doesn’t generate very many leads, it’s also not really taking much time or any emotional bandwidth.
If you love a platform and it’s working for you, then, by all means, keep at it! Just be aware that you can justify any platform (and any NUMBER of platforms) and, again, you’re most likely to get the best results if you keep your “platform-stack” as short as possible.
5. How will you WORK your marketing system?
With the broad strokes of your marketing strategy sketched out, it’s time to get into the tactical. How will you execute this plan every day, week, and month?
Step 11: Create your content strategy.
Now that you’ve decided what platforms you’re going to use to promote your business, it’s time to think about what you’re going to publish on these platforms.
Your first decision, regarding what type of content to create, will practically make itself since you’ve already chosen your platforms and different platforms demand different content formats. For example, if you’ve chosen “podcasting,” then you’ll need to make… podcasts. Or, if Instagram Reels, then you’ll need to make short-form videos.
Next, consider the substance of your content. What topics will your content cover? As you plan to these topics, keep your marketing objective for each platform in mind. For example, if you’re planning to use Instagram Stories for visibility, then plan topics that will attract new, prospective customers.
When planning topics, there are two different “layers” to consider. The first is the more general – essentially, what “category” the content might fall into, such as:
Minimalism
Home organization
Digital marketing
Meal prep
Creativity
Beauty product recommendations
Real estate investing
But the second layer, equally important, is the ideas that you want to repeatedly communicate. For example:
You can do this!
It’s not as hard as it looks.
This will make your life better.
This strategy will get you better results.
This is good for your health.
You can trust me.
The final aspect of your content strategy to consider is your posting frequency.
This could vary anywhere from a new blog post or group of ads once/month, all the way up to multiple Instagram stories every day. To choose the best posting schedule, you’ll want to analyze your competitors to see what’s working for them as well as consider your personal schedule and how much time you can reasonably devote to each platform.
To summarize this step:
Choose 3-4 general content topics.
Identify 5-10 ideas you want to regularly communicate in your content.
Decide how frequently you’ll publish new content.
Step 12: Leverage social media.
If your marketing strategy involves any social media platforms then it’s important to really WORK those platforms if you want to get the most out of them. That’s because social media success tends to be a game with an exponential relationship between effort and results. In other words, putting 1 hour/week into a social media platform might generate “1” result, putting 2 hours in might equal “10” results,” and putting 3 hours in might equal “100” results.
Leveraging social media means that you:
Put 2-3X as much time and effort into your content creation. (Again, this typically results in multiplying your results by 100X or more.)
Taking the time add captions and configure the settings of your content.
Engaging with your followers in the comment sections.
Collaborating with other brands on that platform.
Step 13: Optimize your website for Google with SEO.
It’s important to optimize your website for Google so that it’s easy for prospective customers to find it, especially if you’re planning to use your content to achieve “visibility” and attract new customers.
Obviously, SEO is a huge topic, so we’re not going to try to give it thorough coverage here, but the basics include:
Creating content about keywords (search terms) you want to rank for.
Writing very thorough, helpful articles on those topics.
Configuring the meta data (title, description, image captions, etc.) to make it easy for search engines to understand what your content is about.
Getting other websites to link to your content – these are called “backlinks.”
Keeping your website speed fast.
Step 14: Track and analyze your results.
How can you measure your results and make sure your efforts are paying off?
The importance of answering that 👆 question can not be overstated.
Measuring results doesn’t have to be complicated, but it will vary depending on what platforms and tactics you’re using.
But, here’s what you should always do: measure according to your goal for each platform.
For example, if your goal for TikTok is to attract new customers, then make sure you’re measuring that – not just how many views or followers you’re getting.
Or, if your goal for your website is to convert visitors into newsletter subscribers, measure your conversion rate and how much your email list is growing each month.
In short, measure your results compared to your goals, not just according to whatever metric the platforms try to get you to focus on.
For best results, we recommend setting up a simple spreadsheet, tracking your results weekly, and analysing them at the end of each month or quarter.
Step 15: Keep learning and plan for continual improvement.
Marketing your small business is a long game – and one with a snowball effect; your results may be small at first, but they’ll grow more and more quickly as time goes on, as long as you keep working your system.
But… marketing also can evolve quickly, with old platforms fading away, new apps popping up overnight, and “what’s working” changing from month-to-month.
Keeping up with you competition – and, more importantly, keeping your business growing – is a fine line between constantly innovating and playing that slow-and-steady long game.
Tracking and analyzing your results (as discussed above) will ensure that you are AWARE of whether what you’re doing is working or not, which is the most crucial piece of intel when it comes to making decisions about how to market your business as time goes on.
Continually studying what’s working on your platforms of choice and for your competitors will keep you in-the-know and ready to pivot if your current strategies ever stop working.
Ultimately, it’s important to have a “growth mindset” when it comes to promoting your small business. Your ability as a marketer isn’t fixed – however skilled you are at marketing today is only a starting place. By crafting a marketing strategy, executing that strategy, and continuing to study the craft, you’ll get better over time and grow your business with ever-increasing ease.
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