I've been marketing businesses since 2012. In that time I've sold handmade jewellery, run an online fashion and accessories retail shop, built three content websites, and alongside my husband Ben, we've marketed a handyman business and two Etsy shops. Between us we've tried most things - SEO, social media, email marketing, paid ads, flyering, local advertising, Twitter networking hours, Facebook groups, and cold outreach.

Some of it worked brilliantly. Some of it was a waste of time and money. Here's what I've genuinely learned about the importance of marketing for small businesses - and what's actually worth your effort.

Why marketing matters more than most business owners realise

You can have the best product or service in the world and still fail if nobody knows you exist. Marketing is how people find you, how they decide to trust you, and how they choose you over a competitor. It's not optional - it's the bridge between what you offer and the people who need it.

The mistake many new business owners make is treating marketing as something they'll figure out later, once the product is ready or the service is running. Marketing needs to start from day one. Even word of mouth - the most organic form of marketing there is - happens faster when you give people something to talk about and a reason to share it.

It's also worth remembering that marketing needs to be tailored to your specific business type. Boutique hotel marketing needs to showcase atmosphere and experience in a way that a product business simply doesn't. A pest control franchise requires a very different local marketing approach than a national ecommerce brand.

And for ecommerce specifically, understanding the best marketing strategies for ecommerce - from email sequences to product promotion - is its own discipline. The fundamentals are the same across all businesses - visibility, trust, relevance - but the execution varies enormously.

SEO: the best long-term marketing investment

For any business with an online presence, search engine optimisation is the most valuable marketing activity you can invest in. Unlike paid advertising, which stops working the moment you stop paying, SEO compounds over time. A page that ranks well on Google can bring you customers for years.

I built three content websites primarily through SEO - writing content that targets the right keywords, building backlinks, and improving the technical quality of each site. It takes time and consistency, but the results are sustainable in a way that almost nothing else in marketing is.

Understanding basic SEO for your website is something every business owner should do, even if you eventually hire someone to handle the technical side. Knowing what you're asking for - and whether you're getting it - matters.

Email marketing: set it up once and let it run

Email marketing is one of the most underused tools for small businesses. Done well, it keeps you front of mind with people who've already shown interest in what you do - and it doesn't rely on an algorithm deciding who sees your content.

I have an email newsletter for one of my content websites with an automated workflow built in. New subscribers receive a different email every two weeks for over a year - it took real time to set up initially, but now it essentially runs itself. It requires minimal maintenance and continues to work in the background while I focus on other things. That kind of set-it-and-let-it-work marketing is incredibly valuable when you're running a business solo.

Growing your email list is one of the best things you can do for long-term business sustainability - unlike social media followers, your email list belongs to you.

Social media: choose your platforms wisely

Social media is valuable but it's not equal across all platforms - and spreading yourself too thin is worse than doing one platform well.

For my content sites I currently focus on Pinterest and X (Twitter) for visibility. Pinterest in particular is excellent for lifestyle, home, travel and money content - pins have a long shelf life compared to social media posts, and the traffic can be very consistent.

For Ben's handyman business in Newquay, the approach is completely different. Facebook is essential - both for his business page and for local community groups and networking groups. Local Facebook groups are brilliant for trade businesses, connecting you directly with people in your area who need exactly what you offer. Ben also has Instagram and uses it for the handyman business and his DIY content website.

When I was running my online retail shop, I got a significant proportion of sales through Twitter. There were established networking hours - hashtag-based communities where small businesses would gather at set times to support each other, share content, and make sales. I genuinely credit those hours with helping build the shop's following and generating real revenue. They're less active now than they were, but the principle of community-based marketing on social media is still very much alive.

Winning Theo Paphitis's SBS: what recognition does for a business

In the early days of my online business I took part in Small Business Sunday (#SBS), Theo Paphitis's Twitter initiative where small businesses pitch themselves in a tweet and he retweets his five weekly favourites. I was one of those winners, and the SBS community still runs today.

Being recognised by someone with Theo's profile and platform gave the business instant credibility and a boost in visibility that would have cost significantly more to achieve through advertising. Awards, competitions, and community recognition are legitimate and underrated forms of marketing - and many of them cost nothing except time.

If you're just starting out, look for opportunities like these. They build trust and profile in a way that feels authentic rather than promotional. Growing your social media following is much easier when you have third-party endorsement behind you.

Offline marketing: still works, especially for local businesses

Not all marketing happens online, and for local service businesses in particular, offline methods remain highly effective.

Ben flyered the local area when he started the handyman business in Newquay - delivering leaflets directly to households in the areas he wanted to work in. He's also advertised in the local post office and in local trader leaflets and brochures that are already being delivered widely.

I did the same when I sold jewellery locally - a small ad in a community publication put you in front of people who'd never have found you online.

These methods cost relatively little and reach people who aren't necessarily searching online for what you offer. For trade businesses, complementary businesses, or anything with a local customer base, offline marketing deserves a place in the mix alongside your digital activity.

Google Business Profile is also essential for any local business - it's free, it appears in Google Maps results, and it's often the first thing someone sees when they search for a local service. Ben has this set up for the handyman business and it's a key part of how new clients find him.

Word of mouth: the most powerful marketing of all

No amount of advertising replicates the trust that comes from a personal recommendation. Word of mouth has driven business for every type of company I've been involved with - and it's free.

Word of mouth can be encouraged. Asking happy customers to leave a Google or Facebook review, making the experience good enough that people tell others about it, and referring friends schemes that reward customers for bringing new business are all ways of turning passive satisfaction into active promotion.

Paid advertising: be careful

I've tried paid Google Ads and boosted Facebook posts, and my experience with both has been mixed to negative.

When I ran Google Ads for my online shop, I didn't get the sales to justify the spend. Looking back, I probably didn't know enough about targeting and campaign optimisation to make it work - Google Ads can be very effective in the right hands, but it's a skill in itself and easy to burn through budget without results if you're learning as you go.

With Facebook boosted posts, I noticed something that frustrated me: the more I paid to boost, the more my organic reach seemed to drop. Whether that's correlation or causation is debatable, but it made me sceptical of becoming dependent on paid reach on a platform that controls how many people see your content.

Paid advertising can absolutely work - particularly with experience, the right targeting, and a clear conversion funnel. But I'd strongly recommend mastering the free and low-cost channels first, and only adding paid when you understand your numbers well enough to know what a customer is worth to you. 44 ways to market your small business covers the full range of options across free and paid.

Cold outreach: what works now

My current approach to getting new business for my online services business is direct cold email outreach - reaching out to potential clients who might want my services.

It works because it's targeted and personal. I'm not broadcasting to a general audience hoping someone relevant sees it - I'm contacting specific people and businesses who are a good fit. The response rate is never 100%, but the quality of conversations is much higher than any ad I've ever run.

If you have a service business or B2B offering, don't underestimate the value of a well-written, relevant cold email. Combined with existing connections and networking, it's one of the most cost-effective ways to generate leads.

The most important thing about marketing

Marketing isn't one thing - it's a combination of channels, methods and messages that together make your business visible and trusted. What works for a handyman business is completely different from what works for a lifestyle blog or an Etsy shop selling digital downloads. The channels are different, the audiences are different, and the content needs to be different too.

The businesses that market well are the ones that understand their audience, show up consistently, and aren't afraid to try things - including things that might not work. Every failed approach teaches you something about what your customers actually respond to.

Start with the channels most likely to reach your specific audience, do them well, and build from there. Growing your small business takes consistent marketing effort over time - but the compound effect of that consistency is what eventually makes the difference.

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Before you go...

If you're just starting out with marketing your business, 44 ways to market your small business is a great practical starting point with ideas across every budget. And if you want to understand how to use video as part of your marketing mix, how to use video on social media for business marketing covers the essentials.