What Are the Best Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses?
If you’re running a small business — for example, a cleaning company like yours in Melbourne — you might sometimes feel like you’re competing with much larger firms with deeper pockets. The good news is: there are marketing strategies that cater specifically to smaller operations, and when done well, they can yield great results. I’ll walk through some of the most effective ones in simple, actionable language. 1. Understand Your Audience and Define Your Brand Before spending money or launching campaigns, it’s crucial to be clear about who you’re talking to and what makes you different. Understand your audience Do some research: what types of clients hire you (commercial offices, vacate cleans, industrial sites, owners corporations)? What are their pain points (e.g., reliability, quality, trustworthiness)? Create a “persona” (just a short description) of your ideal client: e.g., “Melbourne commercial office manager who needs after-hours vacate cleans and values punctuality and minimal disruption.” According to one marketer, this kind of audience research forms the foundation of any successful marketing. Then ask: where do they spend time, what problems do they search for, what words do they use? Define your brand and unique value What makes your small business (let’s call it “you” for this advice) different from your competitors? Maybe you specialise in owners-corporation cleaning, or you guarantee eco-friendly products, or you provide same-day service. This is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Build consistent brand visuals and messaging: a clear tone (friendly, professional, reliable), consistent colours/logo, consistent promise. That consistency builds trust. By laying this groundwork, every other marketing step you take becomes more effective. 2. Build a Strong Online Presence In today’s world, even local service businesses need to be visible online. For a Melbourne‐based cleaning company, this means being found when someone searches “vacate cleaning Melbourne” or “industrial cleaning Melbourne”. Your website is your hub A clean, mobile-friendly website that clearly states your services (commercial cleaning, vacate cleaning, owners corporation cleaning, industrial cleaning) is essential. Make sure your phone number, service area, and a brief “why choose us” section are obvious. Include testimonials or case studies (“we cleaned X office and reduced their complaints by Y%”), which builds trust. Local/on-site search visibility Set up and optimise your profile in local listings (for Australia: Google My Business / Google Business Profile). People often search for “cleaning service near me” or “cleaning company Melbourne”. If you show up on the map, you gain trust. Make sure your Name, Address, Phone number (NAP) are consistent across website + directories. That consistency helps with search engine trust. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) SEO means making your site show up higher in search results. You do this by using keywords clients search for, creating helpful content (blog posts, service pages), and making your site technically sound (fast, mobile-friendly). Because you’re a local service business, you can focus on “local SEO” – e.g., “Melbourne vacate cleaning”, “owners corporation cleaning Melbourne”. These lower competition keywords can give quicker wins. 3. Use Social Media and Content Marketing to Build Trust Smaller budgets mean you’ll get more leverage from organic and relationship-based strategies rather than big ad spends. Social media Choose platforms where your ideal clients spend time. For a cleaning company, LinkedIn might be good for commercial/owners-corp leads; Facebook or Instagram could show before/after photos of cleans for residential/vacate clients. Post regularly: e.g., “Before and after vacate clean”, “3 things to check after your tenant leaves”, “Why owners‐corporation cleaning matters for your strata building”. These build authority and keep your brand top of mind. Engage with comments and messages—people appreciate quick responses. Content marketing Write simple blog posts, create short videos or photo posts: “What to expect in a vacate clean”, “How to prepare for an industrial clean with minimal disruption”. This positions you as the expert. You can repurpose content: one blog → several social posts → part of your email newsletter. 4. Email, SMS & Direct Communication – Keep Your Customers Engaged Once people know about you, you want them to remember you and ideally refer you. Email marketing Ask clients to sign up for a newsletter or special offer. Send occasional updates: new service, cleaning tips, seasonal offers. Segment your list: e.g., vacate clients vs industrial clients vs owners-corp clients. Tailor messages to each group. Personalized messages perform better. SMS marketing For local service businesses, SMS can be highly effective (very high open rates). If you already have a database of clients, you might send “Book your post-holiday party clean now – special rate for returning customers”. Make sure to comply with spam regulations (in Australia: ensure opt-in, include opt-out etc). Follow-up & retention After a job, send a thank-you message and ask for feedback or review. A simple “We hope you’re satisfied – if you’d like to refer a friend, here’s a discount” goes a long way. Retaining clients is cheaper than finding new ones. 5. Referral & Partnership Marketing Small businesses often gain the most by leveraging networks and referrals rather than big advertising budgets. Referral programs Encourage your existing clients to refer others. Example: “Refer another strata block and get 10% off next month’s cleaning”. Make it easy: provide referral cards, email links, or an offer. Partnerships / Collaborations Partner with complementary businesses. For a cleaning company: property managers, real estate agents, strata managers, event organisers (for post-party cleaning) could be great. You could do joint offers: e.g., the property manager recommends your vacate clean service, you in turn mention them in your network. This expands your reach with minimal cost. 6. Paid Advertising – Use It Smartly While organic methods are strong, well-targeted paid ads can accelerate growth—if done right. Local Google/Facebook ads For example, run an ad for “Vacate cleaning Melbourne—book now” targeted to Melbourne suburbs. Start small, test the ad copy, monitor which ad brings inquiries, then scale what works. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) & Remarketing PPC means you pay when someone clicks your ad. Because you serve a local market, you can set your area and schedule carefully. Remarketing:
Why SEO Matters for AI Search
Why SEO Matters for AI Search The “SEO is dead” takes have been seen by you. They’re not correct. The surface, not the fundamentals, has been altered by AI search. You still need traditional SEO if you want to be seen in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, along with more precise responses and a more structured format. SEO first. GEO on top. GEO cannot be completed without first completing SEO. It is included in technical audits, link acquisition, content strategy, and schema. To locate, index, rank, and cite information, AI systems depend on SEO. AI systems won’t use your website if it is unstructured, unreliable, or slow. Bing Search is used by ChatGPT. Google Search is used by Google’s AI Mode. Perplexity cites sources and does real-time web searches. If Claude has browsing enabled, he can search. SEOs now manage two organic surfaces: Traditional Search: Traditional result pages with links that are rated. Organic AI-Driven Results: Responses from LLMs in search modules, chat, assistants, and browsers. You need presence in both. The inputs overlap. The process should be one. How AI search works Most products follow the same steps. The user poses a query.The question is rewritten into several sub-questions by the LLM. This is known as the “fan-out.” A conventional search engine processes each sub-question. Bing is routed by ChatGPT. Google is accessed through Google AI Mode. Results from the engine are ranked. The same SEO signals are applicable. Facts, tables, and excerpts are extracted by the LLM. It includes citations and creates a summary. This explains why eligibility is still set by SEO. Your material will not go to the extraction stage if it is not crawlable, indexable, or competitive. Your text will be skipped by the model if it is unclear. If your information is inconsistent online, people will stop trusting you. Traditional rankings still matter AI systems don’t begin with nothing. Initially, they minimize the issue by retrieving a limited number of plausible sources. The top results for the primary query and nearby variants resemble that pool quite a little. Your chances of being cited increase if you place in the top ten. Your chances increase once more if you are in first place. The precise figures differ depending on the platform and question. There is consistency in the direction. This is not a novel idea. Position is enhanced by authority, links, and high-quality content. Impressions are increased by strong positions. These impressions now include chat responses and AI components. Power compounds are ranked across both. It’s a straightforward practical action. On the head term, defend the top ten. Get in the top 10 for the subtopics that support the response. Why you still see sources outside the top ten Pages that don’t rank for the head phrase will show up in AI responses. Typical causes: Personalisation and caching: Results vary depending on context and user. The set is altered by location, device, history, and temporary reordering. An outdated index may be reflected in cached snapshots. Query fan-out:A number of similar searches are performed by the system. For a sub-question, passage relevance may be more important than general relevance for the head term. Even if you don’t rank for “iPhone 15,” you can still show up in an answer to “iPhone 15 battery life compared to iPhone 14” if you place in the top ten for “battery life test iPhone 15.” Freshness windows: For time-sensitive queries, recent, well-organized updates can be added to the pool. An outdated authority page can be outperformed by a current table or changelog. Takeaway:Avoid focusing solely on the head phrase. With a clear structure and genuine depth, map and cover the sub-queries. What Google and others say According to Google, information that does well in conventional search is qualified for AI Overviews. No unique AI tags exist. Strong SEO is required. Refer to Google’s instructions: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features Bing is used by ChatGPT. Google and Bing share a lot of ranking principles. Market share varies. The same thing is implied. SEO is crucial. A GEO layer facilitates the extraction and citation of your content. Conclusion: AI visibility is driven by SEO. Rank for the subject. Post responses that are straightforward to understand and extract. Make sure your sites load quickly, your information is up to date, and your facts are in line. One system. Don’t complicate things.