Most small business owners don't have a shortage of marketing ideas. They have a shortage of marketing ideas they trust. Open a search for "marketing ideas for small business" and you'll find a thousand lists, written by people who don't have to live with the result. Some are clever. Some are old. Some only work for businesses with a full-time marketer. Most are written without naming who the idea is for, what it actually costs in a busy week or what kind of result a real owner should expect.
This eBook is the list we'd hand a friend who runs a small business and asked, honestly, what they should try next. Every idea in here has been picked because a small business owner can run it without a marketing team. Every one names roughly what it costs in time, what it tends to cost in money and the kind of result it produces in the first three months. The point isn't to give you two hundred ideas. The point is to give you sixty good ones, organised by what they're for, so you can pick three and start.
What you'll take away from this eBook
Six things. A way of choosing marketing ideas that actually fit your business, your customer and your week. A clear bank of awareness ideas for getting noticed. A clear bank of lead ideas for turning attention into enquiries. A bank of sales and conversion ideas for closing more of the people you're already talking to. A bank of retention and referral ideas for keeping the customers you have and earning new ones from them. And finally, a way of building this into a marketing rhythm you'll actually keep going.
Who this eBook is for
Owners of small businesses with no marketing team and no time to waste. Service businesses who already have a few customers and want a steady stream rather than feast and famine. Local trades and shops looking for the next thing to try after the obvious channels. Small online sellers wondering whether the next move is more ads or something else. Coaches, therapists and consultants who hate the word marketing and still need it to work. If you've ever closed a marketing blog tab thinking "none of this fits my business," this eBook is written for you.
It's not for businesses without an offer or a clear customer yet. Marketing ideas can't fix an unclear offer; they only help it fail faster. The earlier eBook Designing Your First Offer is the better starting point in that case.
Why this matters now
The cost of every individual marketing idea is lower than it was five years ago. The cost of running too many at once, badly, is higher. A small business that tries every channel at once now ends up with a Facebook page nobody answers, a TikTok account that hasn't posted in eight weeks, an email list with no welcome message and a website nobody visits. The owner is exhausted and the results are poor. A small business that picks three ideas, runs them properly for three months and reviews them honestly nearly always wins. This eBook is built to help you pick the three.
How the rest of the eBook goes
Chapter one sets out a way of choosing marketing ideas that fit your business. Chapters two to six are the idea banks themselves: awareness, lead generation, sales and conversion, retention and referral, and local visibility. Chapter seven turns the list into something you'll actually keep going - a small marketing rhythm you can run in two to four hours a week without quitting your real job.
One promise
Every chapter ends with a short list you can pick from this week. Not a strategy. A list. Pick one or two ideas, run them properly for a month and you'll know more about what works for your business than a year of reading marketing blogs.
- 1.How to Choose Good Marketing Ideas - A simple way of judging marketing ideas before you spend time on them, so you stop trying everything and start running a few things properly.
- 2.Awareness Ideas - A working bank of ways to get a small business in front of the right kind of person, organised by effort and budget.
- 3.Lead Generation Ideas - Ideas for turning attention into a real conversation - the work between someone noticing you and someone enquiring.
- 4.Sales and Conversion Ideas - Ideas for closing more of the people you're already talking to, without becoming a different kind of business.
- 5.Retention and Referral Ideas - Ideas for keeping customers close and turning the best of them into a quiet, repeatable source of new business.
- 6.Local Visibility Ideas - Ideas for being visible in the streets, search results and conversations of the area your business serves.
- 7.Building a Marketing Idea Bank You'll Actually Use - Turning the ideas from this eBook into a small, repeatable marketing rhythm you can run alongside the real work of the business.
Introduction
The first is about honesty. Most marketing-idea lists are written without telling you who the writer thinks the idea is for. As a result, a coaching business owner reads a tip that only works for an online shop, a local plumber reads a tip that only works for a software company, and both walk away thinking "marketing doesn't work for me." In this eBook every idea names the kind of business it tends to suit and the kind it doesn't. If an idea isn't for you, skip it without guilt.
The second is about money. None of the ideas in this eBook need a big budget to test. Most need an hour or two and a willingness to be slightly visible. The ones that benefit from spending money say so clearly and name the rough range of spend that gives a small business a fair test. We'd rather you ran two ideas properly than ten ideas badly.
What you can expect from us
Plain language. British spelling. Real examples drawn from the kinds of small businesses we actually meet: a local plumber for landlords, a bookkeeper for tradespeople, a personal trainer for over-fifties, a small homewares shop, a freelance designer. The numbers and time estimates are realistic for those businesses.
Honesty about what doesn't work. Some popular marketing ideas survive because they're easy to write articles about, not because they earn money for small businesses. We'll say so when we see them.
What we expect from you
A willingness to choose. Marketing fails for small businesses far more often through trying everything than through trying nothing. Pick a small number of ideas. Run them properly. Review honestly. Repeat.
How to read this eBook
Read chapter one in order. Then go to whichever idea bank fits the question you're sitting with this month: "how do I get noticed," "how do I get more enquiries," "how do I close more," "how do I keep customers." The companion eBook Low-Cost Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses goes deeper on the cheapest moves; the next one along, Local Marketing Ideas, focuses on businesses serving a local area.