3 Cardinal Rules for Advertising Your Small Business

By: Kim Teti

No matter how large or small your advertising budget is, you can still find creative ways to increase your following and get your brand in front of prospects. In this post, we’ll cover some cardinal rules for small business advertising and offer some additional tips along the way. 
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​Rule #1: Make sure your approach is proactive instead of reactive. Stay ahead of trends instead of playing catch-up to get your brand’s message heard. A proactive approach is more cost-effective because you’re investing money into your marketing strategy ahead of time and reaping the benefits later. In our industry specifically, a way to be proactive with your marketing is to check in on your ESP® product listings. Observe how they’re performing – do they have a weak score when compared to other distributors’ products? Analyze this data and decide the most proactive approach for increasing your exposure on the platform.
 
Rule #2: Find a way to cut through the digital noise. Smaller businesses need a unique online presence. With a smaller marketing budget, this can be a challenge because you have to really think about how you want to maximize your resources to ensure you’re catching attention. Start by determining which products are gaining traction in ESP. This will give you a clear idea of the items you should focus on getting in front of a larger audience. From there, consider spending some of your budget on SEO for these products or building ads around them to place on the home page of ESP. You may even want to consider sending an email marketing ad with a focus on your most popular products. 
 
Rule #3: Utilize special offers or prepare for potential future discounts. This is the time to plan ahead. Keep in mind any big events or holidays coming up – is there potential to offer something that could incentivize your customers? Within ESP, there’s a whole section for suppliers running specials, so that’s a great opportunity to promote these one-time offers. We also have ESP Supplier Stores (one-stop shops in ESP with all of your company's information, product listings and more) where you can promote those specials.
 
Being proactive, designing a cost-effective online strategy and utilizing platforms to communicate your specials are all great for building your online presence. Stay in touch with your account executive – they can help with everything discussed in this post!