How To Market A Small Business In Scotland

Regardless of whether you are a new or established business owner, a common question you have most likely revisited several times, is how to market a small business in Scotland. 

There are many micro businesses in Scotland, from photographers, artists, joiners, and cleaners, to craft store owners and freelance accountants and advisors. The one thing they all have in common is that in order to grow, marketing a business is a must. 

In this blog, I will cover essential tips on how to market a small business in Scotland. 

How To Market A Small Business In Scotland

In order to market a small business in Scotland, you have to consider local marketing tactics. 

While many of the strategies I will discuss are global, with the right positioning in mind, they can work wonders for local businesses, especially small businesses in Scotland. 

And please don’t get discouraged if you don’t know how to go about any of these, I provide 1-1 coaching sessions which I will cover towards the end of this blog. 

Optimise Your Website For Local SEO In Scotland

The first tip I recommend if you haven’t implemented it already, is to set up your Google Business Profile. If you wish to market your business in Scotland, this is crucial to appear in local rankings. 

A Google Business Profile lets you dictate how your business and services appear in Maps and Search. When Google users type in “local business near me”, your optimised Google Business Profile will show up for local area. 

You can optimise your Google Business Profile to make the most of standing out from the competition including:

• Collect 5-star reviews from your customers
• Upload attractive-looking photos of your business, and services, or even before and afters
• Tell Google your operating hours
• Expand your presence
• Drive traffic to your website
• It’s free

Three factors that Google takes into account when ranking your website include personalisation, algorithm changes and location. Ensuring your Google Profile is optimised for local search, will let your market your business successfully in Scotland. 

Market Your Scottish Business On Social Media

Depending on what type of business you have, my initial advice would be to choose social platforms carefully. It isn’t easy as a business owner to manage the everyday tasks involved in the successful running of a business. With marketing on top of that, it can soon become overwhelming. 

Only pick the social media platforms that are relevant to the nature of your business, and that you know you can maintain consistency. 

Facebook For Small Businesses In Scotland

Creating a Facebook business page can be a great option for connecting with your already existing network. Facebook provides friendly prompts to get your profile fully optimised and ready to go. Include attractive-looking image banners and a profile photo whether that is your logo or your own face. 

Spread the word to your network, and ask them to also share your page with their networks. It causes a ripple effect that can quickly boost your following. 

People love seeing images. If you can share as many images, and updates on your business, including customer success stories, you will very soon be attracting new customers to your local business. 

Instagram For Small Businesses In Scotland

Another platform that can provide power for small businesses in Scotland, is Instagram. The photo-sharing app is great for targeting locally, and sharing all the best photos you have of your business, what’s happening, and testimonials from your customers. 

By carefully identifying the appropriate hashtags, including those that are more local, you can soon start to grow your following. 

Instagram profiles also have the ability to be upgraded to a creator, or business page, which provides a little more detailed functionality for businesses, where users can contact, and where you can access analytics to see how your page is performing, and the demographics targeted. 

LinkedIn For Small Businesses In Scotland

Another platform that is providing success for small business owners in Scotland, is LinkedIn. Many decision-makers and business owners hang out on the platform, sharing their stories along the way. 

Many business owners feel that LinkedIn is the best platform to utilise their personal brands. By personal brands, I mean talking about their values, what makes them themselves, their journey and mistakes along the way. 

At the end of the day, your customers want to work with you, because of what makes you, you. Showing them insight into you as a person, can work wonders for marketing your business in Scotland. 

LinkedIn is also great for pushing your post out to other networks because as soon as someone else engages with it, their network will see it on their feed, which prompts them to follow your page. 

If you haven’t tried out LinkedIn yet, and feel it could work for your business, then why not start one up? 

Using Other Social Networks To Market Your Scottish Business

Obviously, I can’t cover every single network out there, but you will know for yourself what networks resonate best with your business. Or if you need guidance on that, then my coaching service might be what you need. Regardless of what social networks you market on, the same tactics apply that can help market your business in Scotland. 

Blogging To Drive Quality Local Traffic In Scotland To Your Website

Many business owners can often overlook the power of blogging when it comes to driving quality traffic to their website. Not only can this help your business rank for many keywords, but it can also drive local traffic if you pick those keywords carefully. So while I mentioned that many of these tips are tactics used globally, they are in fact excellent techniques to market your small business in Scotland. 

For example, there are over 9.9k searches per month for ‘cleaning services near me.’ With cleaning business owners could attract many local searches, just writing a blog that covers ‘how to steam clean a carpet’ could drive hundreds of visitors to your website per month, for this search term alone. 

This does not just relate to cleaning businesses, there are blogging opportunities for all types of businesses. 

There are also several free keyword research tools you can use, including Google Keyword Planner, and Google Search Engine. You’d be amazed what insight you come across just by going into ‘incognito’ mode, and seeing what trending topics are coming up. I bet you have a lot of knowledge that you can put into words for a blog that matches the searcher’s intent.

Register On Local Directories In Scotland

This is perhaps one of the less exciting marketing tactics but provides great benefit to marketing your small business in Scotland. 

All you have to do is google ‘local business listing’ or ‘local business directory in XYZ’ and see what Google present you with. Local business directories are great for helping potential customers find your business. On the listing, you have an opportunity to write a description, upload a logo and other relevant images, and provide a link to your website.

Backlinks to websites are great for increasing your website’s authority, which is a signal to tell Google that your website is trustworthy. So please don’t skip this step, if there are local business directories for your town, and even area, such as your local Chamber of Commerce, submit your listing today. 

Introduce a Referral Programme To Your Local Customers

Word-of-mouth marketing is still very important, in building your brand’s trust. Perhaps you already have a handful of reliable and regular customers who would be more than happy to recommend your services. 

By creating a referral programme, you can keep your existing customers happy by providing them with a referral discount, or free service, in exchange for introducing new customers to your business. 

This is a particularly effective marketing tactic that is great when trying to market a small businesses in Scotland.

Get Involved In Local Community Networking Events

Looking to market your small business in Scotland? Then going along to your local Chamber of Commerce’s networking event is a sure way of getting the word out there of your business, and also connecting with other local businesses in your area.

Apps like Eventbrite, are great for showing you all the local networking events. Most of these should be free, and personally, I would avoid paid ones like BNI. 

Show your support for local businesses and they will show support for yours. You might just find that they are in need of your product and/or services. 

A Final Note On Personal Branding

I mentioned ‘Personal Branding’ earlier on as that is a term becoming more popular. You might have even heard of it already. Every business owner has a personal brand. It is the values that make you unique, the special moments that have got you to where you are today, and the journey and experiences that you have had so far. 

Customers want to know who they are buying from, and if you can show an insight into you as a person, that human element associated with your brand can work wonders for driving more traffic to your website, or store, and ultimately grow your business organically. 

You can utilise your personal brand on social media by talking about your personal experiences, customers’ success stories, lessons learned etc. 

How Can A Marketing Coach Help Market A Small Business In Scotland?

I have a decade’s worth of experience learning the ins and outs of marketing. 

I love to delve into the strategy of why and how of marketing and how to best apply techniques for organic growth. I’ve spent many years studying, and applying my learned techniques and I’ve also made mistakes along the way, but that’s shaped me into the digital marketing coach I am today. Helping others is what I love doing and I have many happy customers.

If you would like to work with me and like the sound of my 1-1 marketing coaching sessions, then please do get in touch.

My mission is to help businesses grow organically.