For one week each spring, "shopping small" means big business.

Small Business Week, happening April 30 through May 6 in 2023, is a prime opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to raise brand awareness about their products or services—and bring customers in the door.

Doing this, however, requires a little outside-the-box thinking. Giving your marketing efforts a local twist is one way to get the word out.

Here's a list of SMB marketing strategies designed with local businesses in mind.

What is Small Business Week?

Small Business Week is all about highlighting the resilience of local retailers, restaurants, service providers, and more. It's a 50-year-old tradition of recognizing "the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners,"¹ and it creates an opportunity to introduce smaller brands to new customers—or strengthen relationships with existing ones.

In short: Every small business has a story, and Small Business Week is a chance to tell yours.

Five ways to bring your small business marketing ideas to life

Small business promotional ideas should be engaging without breaking the bank. Here are five budget-friendly strategies to help turn your small business advertising ideas into real-world customer conversions.

1. SEO

Organic search engine optimization (SEO) helps ensure that your business is visible when customers search for related products and services online. Start by analyzing your existing search engine ranking and the keywords that are currently generating the most traffic to your site—along with those of your competitors. Optimizing your website for greater exposure on those search terms can drive more visits during Small Business Week and beyond. If you're stuck in an SEO rut, there's always the option of boosting your presence with paid media or paid search ads.

2. Local search

Making sure your brick-and-mortar store shows up in localized search results is crucial. Whether customers are searching for "cat collars in Eastport Maine" or "dog grooming Chicago," it's important that your business pops up on the first page. Try adding local and regional search terms to the About Us section of your site, or consider partnering with other local businesses to get backlinks and boost your page ranking.²

3. Digital audio

No list of small business advertising strategies would be complete without digital audio. Given that U.S. adults now spend more time with digital audio daily than they do on social networks or watching video content on their smartphones,³ it's a promising avenue for reaching potential shoppers ahead of Small Business Week.

4. Social media

Social remains a go-to destination for small business brands. Promoting your local business by posting photos taken on-site can entice customers to visit in person—but don't forget to tell your larger brand story. Sharing historical facts and information about how your business contributes to the local community or posting photos and stories about staff can help humanize your brand, as well as build loyalty and trust among followers.

5. Email marketing

If you already have an email list, use it to let existing customers know about your Small Business Week sales, in-store promotions, free product offers, and local events. You can even consider running a contest for the occasion and collecting email addresses as entries. Then, follow up with compelling and location-relevant content—including links to multimedia or blog posts.

How Spotify can level up your local ad campaigns

With Spotify Ad Studio, small business advertisers can start a campaign for as little as $250. This gives you access to our intuitive self-serve ads manager, which includes robust targeting tools. Ad Studio makes it simple for SMBs to create ads likely to reach and resonate with the audiences they care about most.

Research shows that Spotify audio ads have 19% more brand impact compared to all other forms of media,4 which makes digital audio a smart choice for small business owners and local businesses. Ads heard on Spotify are also recalled at a rate that's five times greater than a model based on chance.⁵

Digital audio advertising ideas for your small business could include podcast ads or video ads designed to help boost your brand or timely, event-specific ads targeted to niche audiences. If you're looking for Small Business Week ideas to help you market your SMB this year, don't miss the opportunity to incorporate digital audio in your campaign.

Ready to launch a campaign? Ad Studio is a great place to start.