Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

In today's super fast digital world, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need to have smart marketing strategies to keep up. Luckily, new tech like AI and automation can really help level the playing field, and maybe even give you an edge over the competition.

Your marketing strategy will vary depending on your business goals, target audience and budget, but understanding your options and benefits is the first step to building you knowledge and becoming a smarter business owner.

Let's dive into some actionable marketing strategies that can help boost your presence and drive effective ROI.

1. Embrace Personalization

For a small business, "personalization" means leveraging customer data to provide customized experiences to a broad audience by using technology and automation. Essentially, it involves tailoring you message based on your customer needs through relevant offers and content across various channels such as email, website, and social media, based on their individual behavior and preferences. 

Organizations can achieve this by leveraging first-party data, vendor platform data, or a combination of both. By understanding who your customers are and what drives their decision-making, you can communicate effectively to deliver what they need at precisely the right moment. Through behavioral and predictive signals, we can determine where consumers are on their purchase journey and engage with them at optimal touchpoints. This data-driven approach enables continuous measurement and optimization of customer engagement strategies to maximize conversion rates and lifetime value.

Sentric Marketing Solutions can assist in creating a strategic plan for personalization tailored to your specific needs, objectives, and budget.

2. Local Marketing and Community Engagement

For SMBs, connecting with your local community is paramount. Local marketing not only drives foot traffic but also builds trust and brand loyalty among nearby customers. In fact, studies show that over 80% of consumers rely on local search to find businesses in their area.

Specific Tools to Consider:

• Google My Business and Yelp help optimize your local presence by managing your business listings and reviews.

• Moz Local and Yext can streamline your local SEO efforts, ensuring that your business is easily discoverable online.

• Leverage hyperlocal social media marketing by engaging with local groups on platforms like Facebook Groups, Nextdoor, and community-specific channels.

These tools and strategies help you build a strong local presence, connecting you directly with your community and driving both online and in-store engagement.

3. Leverage Advanced Data Analytics

Data-driven marketing is more than a trend—it’s a necessity. Analyzing customer behavior and campaign performance allows you to fine-tune your strategies for better outcomes. Businesses that adopt data-driven strategies are six times more likely to be profitable year-over-year (wordstream.com). There are several tools that can be used depending on you business needs and budget.

Specific Tools to Consider:

• Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics provide deep insights into user behavior and campaign performance.

• For more granular analysis, tools like Mixpanel and Hotjar offer user journey tracking and heat mapping, while Tableau helps visualize complex datasets.

By investing in these platforms, you can make informed decisions that lead to optimized ad spend and a higher ROI.

4. Invest in Paid Video Advertising

Video content continues to captivate audiences, making paid video advertising a powerful channel for reaching potential customers. Platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok offer robust targeting options and diverse ad formats.

Specific tools to consider:

• YouTube: With over 2 billion logged-in monthly users, YouTube’s variety of ad formats—skippable, non-skippable, bumper ads, and sponsored cards—allows you to choose the best fit for your marketing objectives.

• Instagram: Video ads on Instagram appear naturally within feeds and Stories, offering an immersive way to showcase your brand. The platform’s advanced targeting ensures that your message reaches the most relevant audiences.

• TikTok: With its dynamic, short-form video content, TikTok is perfect for engaging a younger demographic through in-feed ads, branded hashtag challenges, and branded effects.

Additionally, Comcast’s recent launch of Universal Ads has simplified the process of purchasing video ad space on major streaming services for small business owners. Discovery. This innovative platform offers a user-friendly interface to access premium content and reaches audiences that were once primarily targeted through social media (tubefilter.com). At Sentric, we help you navigate these diverse platforms to design paid video advertising campaigns that drive results.

5. Utilize AI-Powered Tools

AI is transforming how we operate business. From writing assistants to content creation, AI is helping, you can streamline processes, offer instant support, and create compelling content. According to Guidant Financial, 2025 Small Business Trends, 83% of small business are not using AI. These leaves a lot of room to get ahead of competitors and leverage Ai to get ahead.

Read our Small Business Guide to AI to get a deep dive on the best AI tools for Small Business.

6. Engage with Social Commerce

Social media accounts for roughly 33% of all digital ad spending and growing as these platforms are evolving into comprehensive shopping ecosystems. TikTok and Instagram now integrate seamless shopping features, allowing consumers to make purchases directly from their apps.

Specific Tools to Consider:

• Facebook Shops and Instagram Shopping integrate directly with platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce, making it easier to manage online sales.

• TikTok Shopping and Pinterest Buyable Pins offer native solutions for converting engagement into sales.

For campaign management and performance tracking, tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social can streamline your social commerce initiatives. By leveraging these tools, you can create a seamless and interactive shopping experience that converts engagement into revenue.

7. Implement Email Marketing with Automation

Email marketing remains a cornerstone of digital communication, especially when enhanced with automation. Automated email campaigns—such as welcome series, cart abandonment reminders, and tailored product recommendations—can generate up to 320% more revenue than non-automated emails (wordstream.com).

Specific Tools to Consider:

• Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, and Brevo offer robust automation workflows that can nurture leads throughout the customer journey.

• Klaviyo is particularly popular among e-commerce businesses for its deep integration with online storefronts.

At Sentric, we work with these platforms to design and implement email strategies that boost engagement and drive conversions.

8. Prioritize Customer Experience

A positive customer experience can transform one-time visitors into loyal advocates. Ensuring every interaction—from website navigation to post-purchase support—is seamless is key. Studies show that a well-designed user interface can increase website conversion rates by up to 200% (wordstream.com).

Specific Tools to Consider:

• Zendesk and Freshdesk offer comprehensive customer support solutions to manage inquiries efficiently.

• HubSpot Service Hub and Intercom can help integrate customer service with your marketing efforts.

  
  

For gathering customer feedback and analyzing user experience, tools like Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, and Hotjar are invaluable. These platforms help ensure that every touchpoint with your brand is optimized for customer satisfaction.

9. Optimize for SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains one of the most critical components of digital marketing. A strong SEO strategy increases your visibility on search engines, drives organic traffic, and improves credibility. In fact, over 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine, and SEO leads have a 14.6% conversion rate compared to 1.7% for outbound methods (wordstream.com).

Specific Tools to Consider:

• Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools: Essential for monitoring and optimizing your website’s performance in search results.

• SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz: Provide comprehensive keyword research, competitor analysis, and backlink tracking to refine your SEO strategy.

• Yoast SEO: A user-friendly plugin for WordPress that helps optimize on-page content for better search rankings.

By optimizing your website with these tools, you can boost organic traffic, enhance online visibility, and ultimately drive more conversions.

At Sentric Marketing Solutions, we’re dedicated to helping SMBs implement these dynamic digital marketing strategies using the best tools available. Our data-driven, personalized approach ensures that your marketing initiatives are aligned with your unique business goals.

Contact us today to learn how we can support your growth and success in 2025 and beyond.