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Proven Marketing & Growth Strategies: Insights from 40 Successful Entrepreneurs

1. PPC & organic are a winning combo.

John Breaker, President/Founder, BirdieBall.

Pay-per-click and organic positioning are the most successful, pure and simple.

If you are in a market category that has active searches, pay to get seen and fight for conversions.

If you can afford to stay number one in paid search, you can get stronger and stronger from there.

Paid search forces you to convert, which in turn drives up organic by default. To convert from the number one position means you are good and getting better every day.

It forces you to get good at all of the blocking and tackling basics of customer satisfaction and business.

Satisfied customers and quality products are characteristics of the company that can be in the top paid positions in a category week after week, year after year.

2. Never forget to email customers.

Parker Slavin, President, StationeryXpress.

Email marketing keeps our customers engaged and informed as to new products, deals and sales.

Advertising on Google AdWords also works really well, as many people search Google and other search engines for what they are looking for.

3. Direct face-to-face contact with customers.

Brittany Hogan, Owner and Artisan, Nefertem Naturals.

Direct face-to-face contact works best for our business because it’s hard to sell the idea of rubbing cow fat on your face over the internet! People have to try it to believe it.

4. Meet your customers.

Jim Taylor, President and Owner, Belted Cow.

For us, it all starts with a high-quality, unique product and exceptional customer service.

We have always put most of our energy into product development.

If you can create something truly worth talking about, it’s easier to market it.

Once we had something to show people, we needed to get it in front of them and let them do word-of-mouth marketing.

We started by attending over 20 retail shows a year to get in front of people.

We continue to attend shows, expand our social media following, and update our website for improved customer experience.

We have also seen successful brand exposure by partnering with local nonprofit organizations and donating a portion of the sales from select designs.

5. Create a community.

John Wray, CEO, Hero Care Packages

We’ve tried to do lots of direct marketing as well as PPC advertising.

We just migrated to BigCommerce and are looking to directly ramp up sales now that we have the platform we want and all of the infrastructure set up.

Building an email list is key. Community involvement in what you’re building is critical.

6. Having grit is essential.

Barbara Huffman, Owner and Eco-Friendly Artisan, Southern Magnolia Mineral Cosmetics

Personally, the most successful tactic to the growth of SMM Cosmetics is my tenacity.

However, professionally, email marketing and social media have by far been the most successful.

Social media alone has allowed the small business owner a little voice over the big cosmetic companies.

I don’t have the budget to advertise or pay for clicks, so having Facebook and Twitter in particular has given me a resource to tap into and reach as many customers as possible, but doing it with a little southern charm!

7. Have a website that looks professional.

Amy Breaker, Director of Operations, BirdieBall

A banging website is what works for us!

We are continually trying to improve the website and make sure our website educates our customers on our unique products with a great user experience.

We are always focusing on getting more conversions from our efforts with Google advertising. Improving our SEO is another huge avenue for growth so we can organically get people’s attention.

8. Google advertising, newsletters and a good ecommerce platform.

Elizabeth Curtis, Owner and Marketing Director, The BananaNana Shoppe

These things have worked really well for us: Google advertising (first with AdWords, then Google Shopping), newsletters (email marketing, including suggestions for grandparent ideas), moving to BigCommerce.