These days, small business owners have a lot of marketing options to consider.  There are a number of traditional marketing platforms including newspaper ads, print ads, billboards, direct mail, and TV commercials.  Then combine these with a slew of digital and social media marketing options such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogging, a custom mobile application development, Groupon, Places, foursquare, Yelp, PPC advertising, and mobile marketing to smart phones.  Now you’ve got an extremely large pool of potential marketing combinations and strategies for small businesses to exploit.

The number of options and evolving technologies can be overwhelming for small businesses.  Staying current with various platforms can be a challenge in itself.  The amount of time required to simply manage and maintain a handful of online accounts can be daunting.  In fact, a recent survey by Hiscox revealed that many small businesses were not using social media channels to promote their products and services. Only 12% of businesses considered social media promotion a necessity, 14% indicated they don’t know enough about it, and nearly 50% of respondents weren’t using social media at all.

Over 40% surveyed said that word-of-mouth was the main way they got business. This is an interesting statistic – as social media is essentially a word-of-mouth advertising vehicle. While offline forms of word-of-mouth remain critical for all brands, and certainly for small, local businesses, social media also plays a valuable role by giving customers a louder voice for their recommendations and helping to amplify that voice beyond their immediate circle of friends, family and colleagues.

So how can a small business focus on what they do best while at the same time take advantage of social media marketing? Easy – you don’t have to go it alone. There are marketing specialists to help sift through all of the social media options and develop a custom marketing strategy that fits your business model and budget. For the same reason you wouldn’t attempt to fill a cavity in your child’s tooth, there’s no need to take on tasks which exceed your limits.

Small businesses need to open their minds and be creative.  Innovation is paving new opportunities for businesses to market themselves and secure customers.  Integrated marketing campaigns can yield meaningful results.  Whatever your objectives are, social media can be a powerful communication tool to help spread your message.

waveSpawn provides a full range of customized marketing solutions for small businesses. Please contact us to discuss your specific goals.