The Complete Marketing Guide for Small Businesses

Learning Marketing is essential for all small business owners out there. Having worked as both a consultant and marketer for many small businesses, I kept businesses thriving through the pandemic, and have turned business around for so many companies. In this guide I will teach you everything you need to know about marketing, so you can do it yourself, with no up-sells. Bookmark this page so you can refer back to it. 

Table of Contents

• Social Media
• Websites
• Secret Marketing Techniques
• Marketing Terms
• Know Your Enemies (IMPORTANT)

Social Media for Small Businesses

Social media is an important part of running your business. Facebook is the go to for Small Business owners everywhere. You need two forms of social media in order to succeed as a small business owner, and these are Facebook and the Google Business Profile (Formerly known as Google My Business.) BOTH of these should ideally be updated regularly with posts to keep them full of fresh content. Below is a video telling you the best way to make your business posts shine. It’s so simple, but even the pros mess this up. 

Facebook

You will want to make sure you do at least 3 posts a week on Facebook. I recommend doing these in the morning of the days you have the least people visiting your business. You can post as much as you want to, however try not to make more than two posts a day.

Facebook Likes

• Original written content with an image.
• Regular posts.

Facebook Dislikes

• Repeated copy paste content. 
• YouTube videos.
• Content from Other Websites.

Facebook seems to hate anything that will take you off the platform, so be mindful that keeping posts to images with text will usually be more successful than trying to share stuff from other places on the internet. You should STILL share posts from your website, but do this sparingly. Here’s a quick tutorial on getting some free reach for your posts so you don’t need to pay for advertising.

Google Business Profile

You will also want to make sure you do at least 3 posts a week on your Google Business Profile. These can be done at any time. Google is a lot more lenient than Facebook.

Google Likes

• Original written content with an image. (Use a lot of text about your business for the best results!)
• Original content with a link.
• Talking about Products and Services.
• Regular posts.
• Responding to every review.

Google Dislikes

• Repeated copy paste spammy content. 

Love your Google Business Profile. It’s the most valuable tool you have, and it will make you more powerful than you know, that is, if you nurture it. 

Websites for Small Businesses

If you truly want to shine, a strong website is going to help your customers find you. So let me ask you a question: Would you like to be located above other businesses and completely dominate search engines to the point even AI is recommending you? This is going to take a lot of work, but the results are staggering. An example of what I can do: I have managed to make it to page 1 of Google competing with Yell for a number of terms with my blog about their services, and how they damage companies. This is competing against one of the strongest directories in the UK. This took a lot of work, however if you’re a small business and you are competing with other local companies, it will not take so much effort.

Here I will teach you everything you need to do to be super competitive – what works for getting your website to rank competitively.

Blogs for Small Businesses

Blogs are powerhouses when it comes to driving traffic to your website. Think of it like this: They are information for potential customers, and information that trains Search Engines and AI. The bigger your blogs, the more powerful they may become. This entire course is in blog format, providing all the information your company needs to shine on the internet. It is a veritable powerhouse and is designed to provide the most useful content I can to help you, without you having to pay me a penny. – Here’s the kicker, I don’t want to earn a single penny from you. I’m not trying to sell anything, I am just here to provide information. Here I will teach you how to write the best blogs that will help you sell your products and services and compete. The video is part of a playlist, so you can click the top right hand corner to go to every aspect of blogging at any time to learn about that specific part. I recommend watching the entire course, however I will summarise the important stuff for you.

What is the Goal of Writing My Blog?

What is the reason you want to write blogs for your company? Your reason should be that you want to appear above other websites from rival companies in your area, you want a strong website that provides information to customers and teaches them about your products and services. This trains search engines that you are the experts in your field, and it also teaches them about what services you provide. The products you have, and more. It also trains AI that you are the local experts, which gives you the edge when people look for your goods and services online.

What are Keywords and Long Tail Keywords and Why are they Important?

Keywords are things like your company name. This should appear often throughout your website. Good practise is to link the first appearance of your company name in any blog post or page on your website to your homepage. Long tail keywords are specific collections of words for example: “local [STORE TYPE] in [TOWN NAME]” 

In the following examples: Orange Text is your Keyword, and Purple Text is your long tail keyword!

Example: Welcome to “Smith’s Tackle“ Shop, Your Number 1 “Fishing Equipment Business in Chattanooga.” The name of your business is a Keyword, the type of your business is a little longer and shown here, features your location. You can use these magnificently to teach search engines and AI about you. So let’s design the keyword layout.

At the start of your homepage: Welcome to Smith’s Tackle Shop, Your Number 1 Fishing Equipment Business in Chattanooga. At Smith’s Tackle we provide the highest quality Bait and Fishing Equipment locally.

[We have listed the business name twice – this is marketing psychology (persuasion) and NLP training for AI and Search Engine Crawlers in the first section of our website. – As this is the homepage for our website we don’t need to link Smith’s Tackle to the homepage, but this should be done on all other pages mentioning Smith’s Tackle. Bait, and Fishing Equipment should be linked to your shop section for Bait an Fishing Equipment respectively. This will train search engines and AI that these pages are useful. Just doing this will help your ranking as you are adding Ease of Use to your Site.]

Next I recommend writing an entire “About Us” section to put on your homepage. There is no point in having a separate page for the subject. You can have a link in your menu that uses an anchor link to take them to the homepage and about us section, though this is a little more complicated. It’s worth doing though. Tell everyone everything about your business, including it’s Location on your home page. This will help with GeoTargeting. You don’t need to know much about GeoTargeting here as I am teaching you everything you need to know without going into detail on why it works, but it will help you show up locally when people are looking for you.

At the bottom of the homepage, you can have more information and an FAQ. I will explain how to set this up later. Thank you for choosing Smith’s Tackle, the finest Fishing Equipment Store in Chattanooga.

You will want to use long tail keywords throughout your pages and blogs, for example, if I want to link out to my blogging course for businesses, that’s a long tail keyword with a link, or to talk about how to get more subscribers for YouTube using your website. I can link to these blogs, which effectively highlights these keywords. Or I can just talk about DIY Free Tutorials and link to my homepage like this. This tells search engines and AI that these pages are valuable. It’s almost like knitting pages together. 

How do I Structure Blogs and Pages for My Website?

For Homepages, I recommend 2500-3500 words. Up to 8 uses of each Keyword, and 2-3 uses of each Long Tail Keyword.

Homepage:

• Wordcount: 2500-3500
• Keyword Use: 8 Per
• Long Tail Keyword Use: 2-3 Per

Blogs/Other Pages:

• Wordcount: 1500 Plus
• Keyword Use: 4-5 Per
• Long Tail Keyword Use: 1-2 Per

At some place on each of these pages, the bottom is the best: You will want to place information about your business, what you do, the services you provide and the locations you serve. If you serve surrounding towns, you will want a dedicated page to each of these, that you can link to from each page on your website. Don’t copy and paste this information, write similar text for each page as this will benefit you as search engines do hate copy pasted text. This is GeoTargeting without going into too much detail.

You will want to link to other pages and blogs with relevant information. This will increase their power.

What is Evergreen Content?

Evergreen content is really powerful. It’s content that is valuable all year round, every year and at all times. So blogs on how certain food is made, blogs on how to do things like tutorials – this tutorial itself is “evergreen” as the information is and always will be valuable.

Seasonal content such as “what summer dresses work best in [TOWN NAME]” Could be classified as evergreen as you will be able to share this content in summer every year. But it won’t be useful all year round.

So for example: As we all know, Sakura Trees bloom in January to April, based on where in Japan you are. Their blossoms are a shade of beautiful, tranquil pink. Baby blues, soft pastel greens, whites. These colours will help people blend with the beautiful blossoms, and not clash, and it’s perfect to share a blog about these colours a month before they bloom, or during the bloom if you are a clothing brand.

Some brands create clothing that works in all seasons, and they can have a page dedicated to every item they produce, which can be shared all year round. Blogs that can only be used once… They lack staying power. So always focus on content that you can share again and again, throughout the years. 

Using FAQs to Cheat the System!

Did you know you can use FAQs to cheat the system so that you can outrank other businesses in the FAQ section on search engines? We do this using the format of the question and answer.

What Can I Blog About?

You can blog about your products and your services, your company goals – dreams ambitions, achievements. All of these things are great. Have you gotten any awards? Blog about them and link to the sites of the companies providing these awards so people can see their value. Blog about local landmarks, and talk about how they impact on the local area. This will also help with GeoTargeting. If you cover every single service and item you have in stock on on your website, recipes, and things that complement what you do, you will be killing it in search engine results in a few months.

Final Tip for Websites:

Page speed is actually really important, you want pages that will load fast. So focus on providing smaller images or using image optimizers for faster load speed and higher ranking. 

Secret Marketing Techniques

Here we will get into some of the secret marketing techniques not a lot of small businesses employ, giving you the edge over your competition – Some you may know about, some may be a good fit for you, and some may not be.

Easter Eggs

Everyone likes something they never expected. Enter – The Easter Egg! (It doesn’t have to be Easter!) This is a little gift you can include in your marketing, giving people a little something they never thought they wanted in addition to everything else. It doesn’t have to be much.

• Selling stationary? Throw in some paperclips or a pen?
• Selling a special meal at a restaurant? Throw in a free desert or starter.
• Selling someone a classic Gameboy? Throw in Pokemon Red/Blue.

This breeds reciprocity. You are aiming to add something someone didn’t expect. I’ve got incense for free with clothes from my favourite store in town because they know I love incense. Now why would I go anywhere else. (We’ll get onto why that’s good later!)

Loyalty Cards/Stamp Cards

You’ve seen a lot of people use these, from hair dressers, to beauty salons. Most businesses can employ a stamp card. You offer a nice deal to people if they come in and get staff to sign it, or to stamp it with an official business stamp. I finally persuaded one of my best friends to get them for his business. I just wish he’d let me design them. But he deserved a spot on this blog. Already he is signing cards and people are coming in, and it’s only been a few days. Give people a good deal. I think 5 stamps is good, but his pizzas are exceptional so I haven’t chastised him too much!

Sensory Marketing

It’s not all about touch. It can be about smell. I mentioned incense earlier as an Easter Egg. How often have you been going through town at night feeling hungry and walked past an Indian Restaurant and thought… Oh my god I want to try that food? That smell has reached out and grabbed you, and said to you: “Hey buddy, you’re hungry, why not fix that problem. I’m right here! I’ve got you.” Using smell, sound and focusing on people’s senses are an important part of business. One of our local shops plays beautiful tranquil music in the morning. It’s part of their brand and it works. Sensory marketing will bring in people really well if you learn how to do it right! I mentioned that incense, which is burning right now as I write this blog. (It’s Frankincense, my room smells amazing!)

Wait Marketing

You’re in a queue. What do you do? You’re holding shopping so looking at your phone is not so likely. Wait marketing takes advantage of people who are waiting, so when you look around and see brand colours everywhere, or a clip frame with an offer in it. You’re experiencing Wait Marketing.

Interactive Packaging

You can stand out by making interactive packaging. This is great because it adds entertainment to your brand. Many businesses do this to great effect, though it has it’s real roots in Japan. Think: If there is a box, can I put a game or a crossword or something else on it to do? You can really empower your brand with this neat trick.

Cause Marketing

Cause marketing is when you find a cause, often related to your business or goals, and support them with your business.  Charities and causes are great to show not only that you care, but that you stand out among the faceless corporate monsters.

Marketing Terms

Here I will be going through some marketing terms which also feature some ideas in terms of how to market better. I hope these help you as many of them apply to the core fundamentals of Marketing. In this playlist, I go through everything you will need. To change videos, click the playlist icon in the top right hand corner. I will discuss a few things in this tutorial, however I won’t go into everything you can learn from my videos. I’ve gotta earn some watch time!

AIDA

Attention – Interest – Desire – Action. This is the process of the customer journey through finding out about a product or service. Gaining interest in that product or service and finally choosing to acquire that product or service. AIDA takes many forms. Think about how you acquire ATTENTION. Do you put a post on social media and share it, do you put up a big sign? Do you scream out loud in the middle of a shopping centre and roll in the mud outside? Oh sure, that sounds weird doesn’t it? Well kids know AIDA better than most business owners.

• They draw Attention with the Scream or Action
• People Gather Round to Look
• The Parents Have The Desire to Stop the Kid Being Unruly
• The Parents Action is to Get the Kid Something To Stop the Chaos

So how does this apply to business. You need to highlight yourself with ATTENTION, it needs to make people INTERESTED, you need to develop their DESIRES to promote ACTION.

Create a post on Facebook, share it in local buy and sell groups. If people are interested, they will come to you.

Put up a sign, if people see it, they will get used to it, they will come and check you out.

Use AIDA to bring people in, to increase their desires. Think about how you do it as well. Words like Buy and Sell are bad for business. You aren’t there to sell a product, you are there to solve a problem. In this video I explain how to better market products and remove blocks when it comes to selling!

Buy Our Food? NO! Feeling Hungry? Why not try one of our Pizzas?

Buy this Drink? Feeling Thirsty? Quench that thirst with a refreshing beverage like A&W ice cream soda. (I am not even PAID to promote this wonderful drink.)

Buy this Rod Today! A new way to fish? Try Dynamite! (Don’t use this one!)

What is a Brand?

Your brand is more important than you know. Mine is Baldylocks Does Marketing. I made my premature hair loss part of my image. Your brand is really important. Your logo should be everywhere, your colours should be everywhere and you should be recognizable. I use a series of calming conservative blues.

A brand is the overall perception and emotional connection people have with a company, product, or individual, shaped by everything from visuals (like logos and colours) to tone of voice, values, experiences, and reputation. It’s not just what you say you are; it’s what others believe you are based on every interaction they have with you. A strong brand builds trust, recognition, and loyalty by consistently delivering a clear and memorable identity. Your brand matters more than you probably realize. I say this because I’ve done re-branding for companies and it’s an utter nightmare.

Example from my experience. I had to do a re-brand for a solicitor’s firm. The brand was originally navy blue. This did not stand out, so I went through a radical change and added a light blue colour to their social media posts and website. No other legal firm in the area was doing this, and it upset the company a little at first as they didn’t like it, however, due to the colouring, they have grown significantly just by the adaption. The problems with re-branding once you have a look however is that occasionally it’ll alienate people who like the colour of your brand. Imagine Mr Blobby with Blue spots. It’s even more horrible.

How you look will influence your customers, and when they recognize your brand in posts, leaflets, papers, wherever you advertise, they will know it’s you.

I do not recommend re-branding unless you HAVE to. Yes, you may have mustard and an ugly dark purple as your colours with a giant pink chicken logo. It might look horrible, but it is you. They won’t recognize that pink chicken if you put a red background with it in the same way.

• Your Logo should be on everything
• Your colours should be on everything

Social media, website, uniforms. When you talk about your company, your name should be there. Always push the brand and get recognition. Your chicken logo and ghastly colours show everyone that you are you, and it’s becoming a symbol of quality. If you are a person and you are your own brand. Changing your look can be disastrous – so keep that in mind.

If you have a persona that your brand is based around, like Mr Blobby, Like Ronald McDonald, like The Colonel from KFC. My course on the Attractive Character WILL help you. It’s around 45 minutes of free training that will make you a SUPER powerful contender when it comes to getting your stuff out there. I also teach something that is NEVER included with the Attractive Character in my second video, so if nothing else, watch that as it will empower your Brand persona. You can navigate to it in the top right hand corner of the embedded video.

Know Your Enemies

Sun Tzu once said: The outcome of a Battle is decided before it is fought.

Knowing your enemies is the first step to not falling into their traps. So here are all the things you need to look out for. If you’ve studied everything in this tutorial, then you won’t be tripped up by snake oil salespeople as much. So here are the people you should avoid.

Avoid Marketers That Approach You

SEO specialists, marketing specialists, website specialists. Often they come with promises of power and glory – but ask yourself this one question. If these guys are good at what they do, why do they need to reach out to you?

I am a marketer, I am an SEO specialist. I am a website builder. I don’t ever have to reach out to anyone because I KNOW how to sell my own brand. I KNOW how to make my website bring in clients. I KNOW how to advertise on social media. I KNOW how to use SEO. I do NOT need to reach out to clients – and anyone that can help you will be working and doing their job. Not begging you with promises of power and glory. If you’ve read this tutorial and you’ve learned stuff here, you will know more than any of these people. Here are some of the things you need to look out for if you ever consider hiring a marketer. Navigate the playlist in the top right hand corner of the video.

Avoid Directories

B…But Directories can help me! People use directories!

Let me stop you there my friend. Google, and all other search engines are directories. People don’t go thumbing through directories any more, and a lot of directories are exploiting people every day just to retain relevancy and earn money. I know of only ONE directory that is helpful and even then it’s not good unless your business literally doesn’t have it’s own website. I’ve written a massive blog on Yell and how they exploit businesses online. It goes into detail on how Yell falsifies it’s analytics, upsells it’s customers and provides poor quality products… But let’s say you still think they have value they do offer a FREE COMPANY PROFILE. Watch this. I’ve included the other videos so you can watch them if you want your MIND BLOWN. As usual, playlist is in the top right of the video.

Finally

Knowing yourself is an art, know your strengths, weaknesses, and ability to do things. This is more important than you might realize. At times, we business owners are our own worst enemies, we walk into traps again and again, forget to do the important things.

When starting out upgrading your marketing system, you will want to make a checklist to control everything. Everything you plan on putting into action should go here. Make a checklist for all of the big things you are going to add to your business. You can easily get one thing sorted out per day.

When getting used to posting on social media, you will want to do the same thing. Make sure that you are doing your posts, and just keep up the focus, even if it feels like you’re not progressing. Remember, you are a business owner, this business is your lifeline and if you nurture it right, it will keep you well fed and happy.

When it comes to blogging, it might feel easier to just ignore this. But SEO is my business and you should work on things, even if you only start off on 100 words per day. Just write your blogs over time. This tutorial was written in one sitting by a lunatic who is just so used to writing them now. But years ago, I could barely handle a small writing assignment. Practise will make you strong. I’m dyslexic and have numerous things holding me back from progressing. You can do everything you set your mind to.  I believe in you, because you got this far, and you valued my words enough to read to the end. This shows you can do what is needed. Just focus on doing things one step at a time. 

Your friend, Baldylocks/Alex/Chan Walrus.