There are so many options available to business owners who are looking to market their business online today - so how do you decide where to start?
Technology has allowed us to communicate directly with customers and tailor our messaging to connect with them on a much more personal level than ever before. Every month there are new tools and technologies, and legacy systems get updated and developed.
But with so many new platforms and AI tools available, how do we decide where to spend our valuable time, effort and money? Let’s take a look at seven easy steps to design a marketing strategy that works in 2026.
It’s really simple, but it’s crucial for ensuring your marketing strategy starts in the right place. Open a new document, or get out a pen and paper and write down characteristics about the people you’re trying to target, such as:
Personas are a great way to visualise different types of customers and who they are. With this in mind, you’ll have a clearer idea of where to find them and how to advertise to them. While there are AI tools today that can generate buyer personas for you in seconds, it is still worth doing this exercise yourself to really understand them.
Hubspot offers some great templates to help you get started:
Many guides will say ‘do SEO’ or ‘do Google Ads’… but is that really the right option for you? It’s important to think more strategically about where your customers make decisions relating to a purchase. If your customers aren’t really using a platform to make a purchase or choose a service, then it’s not going to be right for your strategy.
They might be browsing for ideas on TikTok or Pinterest, or they might be looking for answers from AI assistants like ChatGPT or a community on Reddit. If you work in B2B, they might want to find expert advice on LinkedIn. And it’s this thought process that should inform your marketing strategy. Using your personas and doing a little research, you’ll quickly build an idea of which digital marketing channels are going to be more important.
Ultimately, most customers want to see expertise in some form or another. If you sell a great product, customers want to know why it’s great and that you know what you’re talking about. If you sell a service, customers or clients want to know they're working with the best people for the job, so they’ll do their research somewhere before making that crucial decision.
Content is key. But because it’s so easy for anyone to auto-generate content now, your real, human expertise matters more than ever. Content doesn't just mean blogs, but also short-form video, podcasts, and interviews to demonstrate your expertise in that space.
This content can be anywhere, such as your website, in emails, and of course on social media. The best place for it is wherever your customers are.
It’s important to remember that marketing requires you to spend money to make money and often there is a degree of trial and error. So how do you know how much to spend?
Instead of thinking purely about cost, start by deciding how much a customer is worth to your business - that’s the most important starting point. If they’re likely to sign up to a subscription worth £120 per year, you might decide that it’s worth spending £20 acquiring that new customer - maybe even more if they’re likely to remain for multiple years. Then decide how many new customers you’d like to bring on per month. Working backwards like this helps frame budgets in the right way.
Setting up a Google Business Profile is a great way to not only verify your existence as a legitimate business, but also to grow your brand in your local area.
A lot of companies rely on local support, and these profiles are now exactly where AI search features look first when recommending local providers to users. If you’re purely online then you won’t qualify for a My Business listing, but there are still plenty of other ways of showing that you’re a legitimate enterprise, such as listing on review sites like Trustpilot.
It’s important to have a vision. A vision about what your business is and what you’re trying to achieve. Whether that’s to make the best bread ever tasted, or to create the most sustainable logistics company. Whatever it is, it’s important to ensure your messaging, adverts, service and activity stays true to that. Because if you believe in it, other people will too.
Whether it’s through social media, newsletters, events, or private groups, communities help people to feel part of something bigger than just being a customer or a service user. They encourage debate, provide a sense of belonging, and let you provide answers to questions or requests that a customer or user may have - crucial content in the age of AI.
Communities encourage long-term loyalty and, while you’re helping customers, they will also help you to improve your product or service and become a better company. The important thing to remember is that your community should offer value. It’s not just about advertising, but about offering something useful, meaningful and insightful.
It’s tricky to summarise these steps in such a short article, but hopefully these points will help you on your journey to market your business online successfully. The stepping stones are important before you worry about more complicated things like the ins and outs of Google Ads, what the SERPs are, and how social algorithms work.
It’ll be a long road to achieve true success but it’s important to remember some of the fundamentals that help to separate your business from some of the others out there.
If you need expert help marketing your business in 2026, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today.
