9 Proven Strategies to Attract More Customers for Your Business

In today’s digital landscape, small businesses face a constant challenge: how to stand out from the crowd and attract customers in a competitive online environment. This comprehensive guide dives into 9 powerful marketing strategies for small businesses.

We’ll explore a range of tactics, from building a user-friendly website to harnessing the power of social media and content marketing. We’ll also delve into more advanced strategies like influencer marketing and strategic partnerships.

This guide draws inspiration from Twine’s success story, a platform connecting freelancers with exciting projects. Through our implementation of these very marketing strategies for small businesses, Twine has seen remarkable growth.

By the end of this blog post, you’ll be equipped with a toolkit of actionable customer acquisition strategies to attract, engage, and retain customers for your online business.

So, let’s dive into …

9 Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses:

1. Make It Easy for Customers to Find You

When considering marketing strategies for small businesses, one of the most critical factors is ensuring that potential customers can find you easily.

I can’t stress enough the importance of a great website. It’s your digital storefront and the first impression that makes or breaks your relationship with your audience. A well-optimised website is key to successful customer acquisition strategies. Here’s what we focused on to make our website a conversion machine:

Website Design Tips

Your website should be more than just visually appealing; it needs to be functional, intuitive, and aligned with your brand identity. A successful website plays a pivotal role in how to get customers to stay and engage.

We went beyond aesthetics to create a site that was both functional and interactive, helping us grow our customer base. Clear navigation ensures visitors find what they need fast, while consistent branding with colours, fonts, and images builds trust. Speed is also key—by optimising images and minimising plugins, we ensured lightning-fast loading times, enhancing user experience and boosting customer acquisition.

If designing and building a website is a little outside your comfort zone, don’t worry. Twine has skilled web designers ready to assist you.

Mobile Optimisation

In today’s digital landscape, mobile optimization should be a central part of any marketing strategy for small businesses. With over 50% of global web traffic coming from mobile devices, a mobile-friendly website is no longer optional—it’s essential to grow your customer base. A mobile-optimised website not only improves user experience but also increases your chances of attracting new visitors.

In our case, 41% of our traffic comes from mobile devices, so implementing responsive design was crucial. This ensures our website adapts to any screen size, with large, easy-to-tap buttons and readable text. The fast loading times also guarantee a smooth user experience, which is critical when you’re thinking about how to get customers who engage primarily via mobile devices.

Call-to-Action Best Practices

Effective calls-to-action (CTAs) are crucial for turning visitors into customers. In any discussion of customer acquisition strategies, CTAs should not be overlooked. They bridge the gap between a visitor’s challenges and the solutions your business offers. For instance, maybe a small business owner needs help with a marketing strategy but doesn’t know where to start. CTAs provide that clear next step.

We craft our CTAs to align with customer pain points and the specific services we offer, making it easier to convert visitors. Here’s how:

Action-Oriented Language: Instead of using generic CTAs like “Sign Up,” we use phrases like “Search for Experts” (for businesses) or “Find Work” (for freelancers), which aligns with the customer acquisition strategies that help us grow our customer base.
Sense of Urgency: Urgency can nudge visitors to take action. Phrases like “Limited Time Offer” or “Only 3 Spots Left” give customers the motivation they need to act now.
Strategic Placement: We position CTAs throughout the customer journey—at the top of the page, at the end of content sections, and in the header or footer for continuous visibility.

By focusing on pain points and the value you provide, you can craft CTAs that are much more effective in how to get customers to engage and convert.

2. Be Active on Social Media

Source: sproutsocial.com

When developing marketing strategies for small businesses, being active on social media is essential to get customers and expand your reach. With over 1M community members on Instagram and 100k+ followers on LinkedIn, we’ve seen firsthand how social media can help grow your customer base and engage with your audience. However, it’s not just about being present on every platform—it’s about being strategic and choosing the right platforms for your customer acquisition strategies.

Choosing the Right Platforms

The key to successful social media marketing lies in choosing platforms where your audience is most active. We focused on platforms that align with our target market, such as Instagram and LinkedIn. Here’s a quick breakdown of major platforms and how they can be leveraged as part of your customer acquisition strategies:

LinkedIn: Ideal for B2B companies and professional services. Great for establishing authority and networking.
Instagram: Perfect for visually-driven brands and younger audiences. We used it to highlight our freelancers’ work, helping us to grow our customer base.
Facebook: The granddad of them all, Facebook boasts a broad demographic reach. It’s a great place to build communities and connect with local businesses. Has the most reach with older generations.
X (Twitter): If you crave real-time engagement, this is your spot. People use Twitter for breaking news, live updates, and even customer service interactions. Some sub-communities thrive here (tech, politics, journalists, etc).
TikTok: Get ready for the young crowd. This platform is all about short-form, trend-driven content, and boasts incredibly high engagement rates.
Pinterest: Consider it a visual search engine. Popular in lifestyle niches like home decor, fashion, and DIY, Pinterest allows users to discover and share ideas through images. Great for e-commerce.
Discord: Rapidly growing platform that caters to a specific audience: gamers and online communities.

There are dozens of others like Snapchat, Reddit, Telegram, WhatsApp communities and YouTube.

At Twine, we found that Instagram was particularly effective for showcasing our freelancers’ work and building a community, while LinkedIn was important for B2B relationships and recruiting top talent.

If managing social media feels overwhelming, Twine can connect you with a social media marketing expert who can help elevate your startup to the next level.

Creating Engaging Content

Once you’ve selected your platforms, the next step in developing marketing strategies for small businesses is to create engaging content. Here are some tried-and-tested methods to boost engagement and help grow your customer base:

Tell stories: Share customer success stories, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or your company’s journey
Use visuals: Incorporate high-quality images, infographics, and videos
Provide value: Share tips, industry insights, or how-to guides related to your product or service
Encourage interaction: Ask questions, run polls, or host live Q&A sessions
Stay consistent: A regular posting schedule keeps your brand top-of-mind and strengthens your customer acquisition strategies.

At Twine, we focus on producing content that resonates with freelancers and provides value. Whether it’s sharing freelancer tips or showcasing company culture, every post is aligned with our goal to grow our customer base.

Hashtag strategy

Another critical aspect of marketing strategies for small businesses is understanding how hashtags can expand your social media reach. Much like SEO for websites, hashtags are essential for how to get customers on platforms like Instagram. We developed a hashtag strategy based on:

Who do you serve?
Describing your target audience – 5 hashtags (e.g.: #graphicdesigner #logodesigner)
What do you offer?
The topic of the content – 5 hashtags (e.g.: #designtips, #digitalmarketingstrategy, #timetrackingtool)
Why do you offer?
Describing the pain point of the customer – 5 hashtags ( e.g.: #productivity, #lowengagement #motivation, etc)
Brand – respective channel name ( #jointwine, #twineanimations)

By crafting a thoughtful hashtag strategy, we were able to boost visibility and make it easier for potential clients to find us, ultimately supporting our customer acquisition strategies.

Figure: Hashtag strategy, source: @majestymtktg

3. Leverage SEO Optimised Blog Content

When developing marketing strategies for small businesses, leveraging SEO-optimised blog content is essential for how to get customers and drive traffic to your website. SEO ensures your site appears in front of potential clients who are searching for solutions you provide. Major companies like Amazon, Airbnb, and eBay have relied on SEO as a primary customer acquisition strategy. Similarly, most of Twine’s traffic comes from search engines, making SEO one of our most valuable assets to grow our customer base.

Basics of SEO

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the practice of improving your website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords. It’s a critical part of marketing strategies for small businesses that want to grow their customer base online. SEO has three primary components:

On-page SEO: Optimising individual pages on your website
Off-page SEO: Building your site’s authority through backlinks and social signals
Technical SEO: Ensuring your site is crawlable and indexable by search engines

Keyword Research Tips

Effective keyword research underpins successful customer acquisition strategies. Here are a few tips:

Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find relevant keywords
Focus on long-tail keywords (3-5 word phrases) that have less competition
Consider search intent: Are people looking to buy, learn, or find a specific page?
Look at your competitors’ top-ranking content for inspiration
Use Google’s “People also ask” and “Related searches” sections for content ideas

We use tools like Ahrefs to identify relevant keywords. We don’t just focus on broad terms like “freelance marketplace” – that competition is fierce! Instead, we target long-tail keywords like “find a freelance writer for my blog” or “remote graphic design jobs.” These are more specific, have less competition, and better reflect what our users are actually searching for. This strategy is key to how we get customers.

Source: wordstream.com

On-Page and Off-Page SEO Strategies

To maximise the impact of SEO on your marketing strategies for small businesses, you need to implement both on-page and off-page strategies.

Optimising title tags and meta descriptions
Using header tags (H1, H2, H3) effectively
Including your target keyword in the first 100 words of your content
Optimising images with descriptive file names and alt text
Internal linking to other relevant pages on your site

Off-page SEO strategies include:

Building high-quality backlinks from reputable sites in your industry
Guest posting on relevant blogs
Creating shareable content that naturally attracts links
Using social media to increase content visibility, which can enhance customer acquisition strategies

We optimise every page for its target keyword. Title tags and meta descriptions are clear and concise, accurately reflecting the content’s value. Headers are strategically placed, using H1 for the main title and H2s and H3s for subheadings. Our target keyword is included naturally within the first 100 words of the content but never forced.

We don’t forget about images! They’re not just decorative – they can also help with SEO. We optimise image file names and alt text with relevant keywords, making our content even more discoverable by search engines.

Off-page SEO is all about building authority. At Twine, we focus on creating high-quality content that other websites naturally want to link to. This could be a comprehensive guide to freelance rates or a data-driven report on the remote work landscape. We also engage in guest posting on relevant industry blogs, reaching new audiences while building backlinks to our site.

By following these SEO best practices, we ensure our blog not only educates and informs but also helps grow our customer base.

Twine can help you hire an SEO expert to get your campaigns off the ground.

4. Guest Blog on Relevant Websites

Guest blogging is a powerful strategy that can help you reach new audiences, build your authority, and drive traffic back to your site. It’s a win-win for everyone involved. You get to share your expertise with a new audience, and the host site gets valuable content for its readers. But it’s not just about exposure – guest blogging offers the below benefits,

Benefits of Guest Blogging

Exposure to a new audience: You get to showcase your expertise to readers who might not have found you otherwise.
Builds credibility: Being featured on established websites in our industry isn’t just about exposure – it’s a credibility booster.
Networking opportunities: Guest blogging can lead to valuable connections with other experts in your field.
Backlinks: Most platforms allow you to include a link back to your website within your guest post. These backlinks are like gold for SEO – they act as votes of confidence from other websites, telling search engines that your content is valuable and relevant. This can significantly improve your website’s ranking in search results pages, making it easier for potential clients and freelancers to find your company..

Importance of Free Exposure

Guest blogging provides free exposure that can be more valuable than paid advertising. Why? Because it comes with an indirect endorsement from the host site. Readers are more likely to trust and engage with your content when it’s featured on a site they already know and respect.

Here’s a template you can use to reach out to potential sites for guest posts:

Subject: Guest Post Idea for [Website Name]

Dear [Editor’s Name],

I’m [Your Name], [Your Position] at [Your Company]. I’ve been a long-time reader of [Website Name] and particularly enjoyed your recent article on [Relevant Topic].

I’d love to contribute a guest post to your site. Based on your audience’s interests, I think they would find value in an article on [Proposed Topic]. This piece would cover:

– [Key Point 1]

– [Key Point 2]

– [Key Point 3]

I’ve previously written for [Other Relevant Sites], and you can find samples of my work here: [Link to Your Writing Samples]

Let me know if you’re interested, and I’d be happy to provide a more detailed outline.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

[Your Name]

Remember to personalise each outreach email and ensure that your proposed topic aligns with the site’s content and audience.

Remember, if writing isn’t your strong suit, Twine can connect you with a top content writer who can craft standout blog posts for your startup.

5. Grow Your Email Lists

When Twine first launched, our email list was non-existent, and starting from zero can feel intimidating. However, building an email list is one of the most effective marketing strategies for small businesses. Every interaction with a potential customer is an opportunity to grow your customer base and reach a wider audience.

Building an Email List

Create multiple opt-in opportunities: Place sign-up forms on your homepage, blog posts, and social media profiles.
Use exit-intent popups: Capture visitors who are about to leave your site.
Leverage social proof: Show the number of subscribers or feature testimonials near your sign-up forms.
Leverage blog and newsletter: At the end of each blog post, we add a call-to-action inviting readers to subscribe for more content. Make sure to highlight the value they’d get from subscribing. We regularly promote our blog/ email newsletter across our social channels, giving followers a reason to sign up.
Run contests or giveaways: Offer an incentive for signing up.
Build a lead email list: Use tools like Apollo, Snov.io to acquire the email addresses of relevant employees, particularly for B2B outreach.
Offering Something for Free: One of the most effective tactics we’ve used to grow our email list is offering something of value for free in exchange for an email address. This strategy is often called a “lead magnet “. A lot of companies use this as a highly effective tactic. For example, if you go to Hubspot and check any of their templates it’s all gates. To download/access the template, users need to provide their email address, which helps them build their email lists

Automation and Segmentation

Once we started growing our email list, we quickly realised email lists wouldn’t help us convert unless there’s some level of personalisation. How can we achieve that? By automating and segmenting the customer list. These strategies have allowed us to send more targeted, relevant content to our subscribers, resulting in higher engagement rates and conversions.

We use automation and segmentation in many ways, for example, we create a series of welcome emails for new subscribers. This sequence introduces them to Twine, provides valuable content, and guides them towards taking desired actions on our platform.

We segment our list based on various factors, including user type (freelancer vs. client), engagement level, and interests. For example, a freelance graphic designer will receive different content than a business owner looking to hire a writer.

We’ve also used segmentation to re-engage inactive subscribers. By identifying users who haven’t opened our emails in a while, we can send them targeted campaigns to rekindle their interest.

Building and nurturing an email list is more than just collecting addresses—it’s about creating an engaged community that finds value in your communications. This strategy is one of the cornerstone marketing strategies for small businesses, helping you build relationships and grow your customer base effectively.

6. Hosting Live Sessions: Connecting with Your Audience in Real-Time

Source: 1prismgroup.com

One of the most impactful marketing strategies for small businesses is hosting live sessions. Live sessions provide a unique opportunity to engage directly with your audience, answer questions, and showcase your platform’s capabilities. This real-time interaction helps to grow your customer base by building trust and credibility.

Webinars: Webinars are a popular way to engage with an audience through in-depth discussions, product demonstrations, and educational content. For example, Mailchimp regularly hosts webinars on email marketing best practices and industry trends. These events not only educate attendees but also serve as effective customer acquisition strategies, helping to showcase their value and get customers interested in their services.
Instagram Live: This engaging platform allows you to connect with your audience in real-time, answer questions, and host interactive sessions. Nike leverages Instagram Live to showcase their latest athletic wear collections with live product demonstrations by athletes and influencers. They also host “Ask Me Anything” sessions with sponsored athletes, allowing fans to directly interact with their idols.
TikTok Live: TikTok Live is another powerful tool for real-time engagement, especially with younger audiences. Brands like Duolingo use TikTok Live to host fun and educational sessions, which is a great way to grow your customer base by offering valuable, entertaining content. By using this platform, small businesses can showcase their expertise and provide sneak peeks or tutorials, further boosting customer acquisition strategies.
Podcasts: Podcasts, while not strictly “live,” have been excellent for building thought leadership. Build a loyal audience with interview-style sessions, industry discussions, or even live recordings of your shows.
YouTube Live: This platform is ideal for hosting live events, product launches, and interactive Q&A sessions. Brands like Red Bull use YouTube Live to stream extreme sports events, reaching millions of viewers worldwide and creating a sense of excitement and community.

7. Building a Community: Creating a Loyal Customer Base

Speaking of community, building a community around your brand is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful marketing strategies for small businesses that helps to create a loyal customer base. At Twine, we’ve witnessed how a strong community can drive growth and provide invaluable feedback.

When we focus on building a community, we’re essentially humanising our brand. We’re not just a faceless company selling a product; we’re a group of people passionate about connecting creative professionals with exciting projects.

This approach has allowed us to forge deeper connections with our users and implement effective customer acquisition strategies. By understanding how to get customers through community engagement, we’ve created a welcoming environment that resonates with our audience.

We’ve experimented with various platforms for community building. Facebook Groups worked well initially, allowing us to create a space for freelancers to connect and share opportunities. However, as our community grew, we found that Instagram offered more flexibility and better aligned with our user base.

We’ve managed to build a community of over 1,000,000 followers by consistently showcasing the work of talented freelancers on our platform. This not only provides exposure for our users but also inspires others and demonstrates the quality of talent available on Twine. By focusing on community and using effective customer acquisition strategies, we can continue to grow our customer base and strengthen our brand.

8. Adopting Influencer Marketing: Leveraging External Credibility

Source: @aliabdaal

Influencer marketing has been a game-changer for many companies in recent years. However, the key is not just finding influencers with large followings, but identifying those who truly align with brand values.

Notion, the all-in-one workspace and productivity tool, provides an excellent example of influencer marketing in the tech startup space.

When Notion was still a relatively new player in the productivity software market, they faced the challenge of standing out in a crowded field dominated by established giants like Microsoft and Google. Their approach to influencer marketing was both innovative and perfectly aligned with their product.

Instead of traditional celebrity influencers, Notion targeted “productivity gurus” – individuals who were already creating content about the organisation, time management, and workflow optimisation. These included YouTubers, bloggers, and social media personalities who had built audiences interested in productivity hacks and tools.

One of their most successful partnerships was with Ali Abdaal, a YouTuber known for his videos on productivity and study techniques. Notion didn’t just ask Ali to promote their product; they encouraged him to create in-depth content showing how to get customers engaged with Notion in his daily life and work.

Ali created several videos demonstrating how he uses Notion for everything from managing his YouTube content calendar to organising his personal life. These weren’t just product demonstrations, but genuine use cases that resonated with his audience of students and young professionals looking to boost their productivity.

What made this campaign particularly effective was:

Authenticity: Ali and other influencers genuinely used and loved the product, which came across in their content.
Education: The content wasn’t just promotional; it taught viewers how to use Notion effectively, adding real value.
Targeted audience: By partnering with productivity-focused influencers, Notion reached people already interested in tools to improve their workflow.
User-generated templates: Notion encouraged influencers to create and share their own Notion templates, which drove engagement and gave users immediate value upon signing up.

The result was significant growth for Notion. Their user base expanded rapidly, showcasing effective customer acquisition strategies, and they became a go-to tool for individuals and teams looking to organise their work and lives. This approach allowed Notion to effectively grow their customer base. The influencer-created content also served as ongoing, organic marketing as new users discovered these videos and articles over time.

9. Partnering with Similar Businesses: Expanding Your Reach

Partnering with businesses that share our target audience but aren’t direct competitors has been a fantastic way to expand our reach. At Twine, we’ve partnered with companies that offer complementary services to freelancers, such as accounting software for self-employed professionals or online course platforms for skill development.

To identify potential partners, we start by thinking about our users’ needs beyond what Twine offers. What other tools or services do your customers regularly use? We then research these companies, looking at their values, target audience, and market positioning to ensure a good fit. This research is essential in developing effective customer acquisition strategies that align with our business goals.

When reaching out to potential partners, we focus on creating mutually beneficial relationships. Here’s an example of an outreach email we’ve used:

Subject: Twine + [Company Name]

Dear [Name],

I’m [Your Name] from Twine, a platform connecting freelance creatives with exciting projects. We’ve been admirers of [Company Name] for some time, and I believe there’s a great opportunity for us to collaborate.

Our user base of over 1,000,000 freelancers aligns closely with your target audience. I’d love to discuss how we could create a win-win partnership, potentially through:

– Co-hosted webinars on topics relevant to freelancers

– Cross-promotion on our respective platforms

– Exclusive offers for each other’s users

Would you be open to a brief call to explore this further? I’m confident we could create something valuable for both our communities.

Looking forward to your thoughts,

[Your Name]

Once a partnership is established, we make sure to promote it extensively across our social media channels. We’ve found that our community is always excited to learn about new tools and resources, so these partnerships often generate a lot of engagement. This engagement helps us understand how to get customers interested in the offerings from both parties.

We also make sure to track the results of these partnerships closely. This allows us to refine our approach over time and focus on the types of partnerships that bring the most value to our users and our business.

So, What’s the Takeaway?

I can’t stress enough how crucial these marketing strategies for small businesses have been for Twine’s growth. From SEO to building a vibrant community that’s now over a million strong on Instagram, each of these approaches has played an important role in our success.

Building a community has been transformative. It’s not just about numbers; it’s about creating a space where freelancers feel supported and inspired. This community has become the heart of Twine, driving our product decisions and helping us stay true to our mission of empowering creators. Utilising effective customer acquisition strategies has enabled us to foster this supportive environment.

Business partnerships have allowed us to expand our reach in authentic, meaningful ways. By collaborating with individuals and companies that share our values, we’ve been able to introduce Twine to new audiences who are likely to find value in our platform. This collaboration also helps us understand how to get customers interested in our offerings.

Remember, the key to all of these strategies is authenticity and providing value. Whether you’re hosting a live session, building a community, working with influencers, or partnering with other businesses, always focus on how you can genuinely help your audience and what feels right to you. Don’t try to be something you’re not.

As you implement these marketing strategies for small businesses, experiment and adapt. What works for one business might not work for another, and what works today might not work tomorrow. Stay flexible, listen to your audience, and always be ready to evolve. Always be curious about how to grow your customer base by observing what other companies do, especially in different industries. If a tactic you see translates to your sector, it might give you a competitive edge.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, I hope these insights prove valuable. Remember, building a successful online business is a journey.

Enjoy the process, learn from your experiences, and always keep your users at the heart of everything you do.

Need help bringing your marketing ideas to life? Twine’s skilled freelancers are ready to assist with your startup’s marketing needs:

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9 Proven Strategies to Attract More Customers for Your Business

9 Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses: