Small Business Week, which usually happens in April or May each year, 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 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.

Whether you're a local retailer, restaurant, service provider, or other small business, every company 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 strategies to help turn your small business advertising ideas into real-world customer conversions.

1. Local search

Organic search engine optimization (SEO) helps ensure that your brand is visible when customers search for related products and services online. For small businesses with a brick-and-mortar presence, making sure your store locations show 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 You can also analyze your existing search engine ranking and the keywords currently generating the most traffic to your site—along with those of your competitors.

2. Digital audio or video ads

No list of small business advertising strategies would be complete without digital audio and video ads. Americans spend almost 20% of every day—about four hours and five minutes—with audio content these days,³ and on Spotify, average daily streams of video content like video podcasts have increased by more than 39% year-over-year.⁴ Better yet, our research shows that 60% of Spotify users’ ad engagement carries over from the audio content they hear immediately beforehand, including music and podcasts.⁵

3. 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.

4. 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 Ads Manager, small business advertisers can start a campaign for as little as $250. Our robust targeting tools can help you reach local audiences and get the word out about your SMB.

Digital audio and video 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 market your company, don't miss the opportunity to incorporate digital audio or video into your campaign.