There are lots of ways small businesses have a unique “edge” over big brands. Yep, you heard me! Let’s look at some of the ways you can compete with large corporations by using marketing as a tool. 

Provide excellent customer service.

Providing excellent customer service can get you great reviews, which is a marketing win! This includes being available by phone when customers call, responding to DMs on social media, etc. Customers want to know that they matter to your business, and what better way to show them than to be responsive.

Ever had a lovely encounter with Meta Business Suite’s support? LOL. It feels like you're navigating a maze, constantly hitting dead ends. The lack of human support is infuriating— you spend hours trying to contact a real person, only to receive automated responses that don’t help.

Even when you manage to reach someone, they often speak in a way that implies you don’t understand the basics, wasting time without solving the problem. This so-called 'help' rarely brings you closer to a resolution, leaving you stuck at square one.

This lack of effective support leaves you to fend for yourself, often with little success. It's a common frustration for many businesses, highlighting the need for better customer support from these massive platforms.

Small businesses can prevent this from happening through creating a community management plan and having a team to execute it. From a customer’s perspective, getting to communicate directly with the owner of a business is a rare and underrated privilege. 

Pop up at niche markets.

Depending on where you live, farmers’ markets on the weekends can rack in hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars for small businesses. Why? There are actually people out there who want to shop locally. I don’t see anyone tabling for Amazon. I see small business owners connecting with people in real-time. 

Have you ever met someone that feels like sunshine in human form? That is Sarah, a friend of one of our team members at Hapacity. She is a small business owner of a wellness boutique that sells holistic health products. That girl works every day of her life. She is out there, selling her products at every market possible. The best part is that she is a walking example of how well her products work. She had major health issues she cured with her own research and craft. She believes in these products because she created them, and they worked for her. 

Observing her marketing strategies, it’s her warmth, knowledge, and experience that allows her to create meaningful connections with everyone who stops by. From a shopper’s perspective, a pleasant experience with a business owner adds a level of trust in whatever they’re selling. There’s also something more human about buying magnesium spray from this really nice person you just met than ordering it on Amazon. People can smell the tinctures, try on the stone bracelets, and test out the balms. Happy shoppers plus quality products equals sales… lots of sales! 

Community engagement like this also increases brand recognition. Pro tip: Use a tablecloth that has your logo on it. 😉

Maintain a digital presence. 

While in-person interactions are great, it is also important to maintain a digital presence. Small businesses can use digital marketing to draw in new customers and maintain existing ones. How? We all struggle at least a little bit with object permanence: out of sight, out of mind. 

Posting regularly ensures that people remember you exist, remember your products/services, and remember how your space or team of people made an impression on them. Here are some ways to effectively market your small business on social media:

• Use targeted keywords that improve SEO.
• Use searchable hashtags (bonus points if they’re trending)!
• Hold contests such as giveaways (To enter into the contest for a FREE [insert product/service], you must follow us, like this post, tag a friend in the comments). This significantly boosts engagement. We all love free stuff!
• Interact with partner companies on social media to increase visibility, reach a broader audience, and maintain good B2B relationships with the other businesses you work with. This can look like sharing their content, tagging them in yours, commenting on/liking their posts, and inviting them to collaborate. This shows both content creators at the top of the post, which is important because it reaches the audiences of both accounts— ensuring way more views and increasing your following). 

Consider partnering with other small businesses.

There is strength in numbers, and when two small businesses combine forces, they are fierce. There is a small business in the city where I live who just did this with another shop. One sells plants, and the other sells environmentally friendly products for self-care and the home (books, soaps, hiking gear… pretty much everything except plants). A once-sterile environment now looks like a jungle. Neither of their businesses compete with one another. Instead, they complement one another. They don’t sell any of the same products, but somehow the products they sell work together. They merged spaces because it made sense. They share values and visions while wanting to divide the cost of rent and the number of hours they were working. 

Now, they work fewer hours, pay less for the space, and bring more customers in. By partnering, they also began creating social media content from both accounts, reaching twice the amount of people. 

Zero in on what you’re selling and who you’re selling to. 

Small businesses can be more innovative and bring about changes much faster than large brands. Even one customer providing feedback can affect how you curate your next selection of inventory or add new services to the menu. Every idea, Google review, and interaction can shape how you do business going forward. 

Who is your target audience?

What do they want?

Answering these two questions can help you tremendously in revising your business plan. It’s never too late to make a change. And luckily, when you’re the owner, you don’t have to run it by anyone first! That is why, with large corporations, it could take months or years before a necessary change is made. You don’t have to wait that long! As a small business, you have more control. You can pinpoint a specific circle of customers and utilize targeted strategies to sell them your product or service. 

Ask for help!

Hapacity is here to take some of the weight off your shoulders! We specialize in:

• SEO
• Social Media
• Email Marketing
• Personal Branding
• Marketing Strategy and Consulting
• Photo and Video Marketing
• Copywriting and Content Writing

We know small businesses often have tight budgets, which is why we offer free consultations for anyone who wants to learn more about our services. You deserve a cheerleader as you trailblaze your way through capitalism. That’s us; we’re here to cheer you on. 🫶🏼