There is no single list of marketing activities that will guarantee results for every small business. The right marketing approach depends on your business, your audience, your industry, your resources and what you ultimately want to achieve.
The best way to determine which marketing activities are right for your business is to first understand the business itself. This means looking at your goals, target audience, industry, current marketing, available resources and desired outcomes before recommending specific channels or tactics.
Rather than asking “What marketing should I be doing?”, a better question is:
“What does my business need to achieve, and which marketing activities are most likely to help me get there?”
This shift from tactics to strategy is an important part of making better marketing decisions.
One of the questions we hear regularly from small business owners is:
“What activities are going to help me make money?”
It's an important question, but answering it properly requires more information.
Think about visiting a physiotherapist because your leg is hurting. You wouldn't necessarily expect them to immediately tell you which exercises you should be doing.
They would probably ask questions first.
Where does it hurt?
What caused the pain?
What activities do you normally do?
How is the injury affecting you?
What do you want to be able to do once you're recovered?
Only after understanding the situation can the physiotherapist recommend an appropriate rehabilitation program.
Marketing is similar.
You can't necessarily determine the right marketing activities without first understanding the business they are being recommended for.
Before deciding whether a business needs SEO, social media, advertising, email marketing, content, events or another marketing channel, there are several important questions to answer.
Marketing needs a destination.
Are you trying to generate more enquiries? Increase sales? Attract a different type of customer? Enter a new market? Launch a new service? Build awareness?
Different objectives can require very different approaches.
Your target customer also influences your marketing strategy.
Where do they look for information? What influences their decisions? What problems are they trying to solve? What questions do they ask before purchasing?
Understanding these behaviours can help identify where your marketing effort is likely to have the greatest impact.
Your industry provides important context.
Some businesses operate in highly competitive markets where search visibility is critical. Others rely heavily on relationships, referrals and reputation.
Understanding competitors and customer expectations can help identify opportunities to stand apart rather than simply doing what everyone else is doing.
A marketing strategy also needs to be realistic.
Your budget, time, people and internal capabilities all influence what you can implement effectively.
There is little value in recommending ten different marketing activities if a business only has the resources to execute two of them properly.
The objective is not to do everything. It's to prioritise what is most appropriate.
Consider two businesses operating in completely different circumstances.
One might sell a service that people actively search for when they have an immediate need. For that business, having a strong website and being visible in search results may be particularly important.
Another business might sell a complex service where customers take months to make a decision. Building credibility through educational content, referrals and ongoing communication could be much more important.
Neither approach is inherently better.
They are simply solving different business problems.
This is why copying another business's marketing activities doesn't necessarily produce the same results.
One of the biggest mistakes businesses can make is starting with a marketing tactic.
For example:
“We need to do social media.”
“We should start running Google Ads.”
“Our competitor is doing video, so we should too.”
These statements may or may not be correct.
A stronger approach is to start with the problem.
What are we trying to change?
Once you understand the problem, you can investigate which marketing activities could help solve it.
This creates a much stronger connection between marketing activity and business outcome.
A tailored marketing strategy doesn't necessarily mean creating a complicated marketing plan.
It means making deliberate choices based on the circumstances of the business.
That could mean focusing on one or two channels rather than trying to be everywhere. It could mean improving the website before increasing advertising spend. It could mean clarifying the business's positioning before producing more content.
The right answer may even be to stop doing something that isn't contributing to the desired outcome.
Good marketing isn't about having the longest list of activities.
It's about knowing what to do, why you're doing it and how it connects to the broader business objective.
If you're wondering which marketing activities your business should be investing in, the answer isn't necessarily found in a list of the latest marketing trends.
Start by understanding your business.
Look at where you want to go, who you want to reach, what challenges you're facing and what resources you have available. From there, you can make more informed decisions about the marketing activities that are most likely to support your goals.
At Little Marketing, we've been helping small businesses make better marketing decisions for more than 18 years. Our approach starts with understanding the business before recommending the marketing activities that can help move it forward.
If you're unsure what your business should be focusing on, contact Little Marketing to start a conversation.