20 Small Business Marketing Ideas You Need to Try in 2025

If you’re a small business in 2025 and you don't have at least 3 marketing channels, then we have good news.

There are 20 different marketing ideas you can do to grow your business in 2025. 

Some of these will cost you $0 and just some elbow grease, like video marketing, social media growth, or launching a website. Other ideas are more expensive, such as paying for advertisements or sponsoring influencers. But, you’ll get a faster return on your investment.

By the end, you’ll know enough marketing ideas to turn this 2025 into profit.

Here’s what we’re covering:

• How to Do Marketing for a Small Business
• Why Marketing is Important for a Small Business
• Small Business Marketing Ideas
• Top Marketing Tools for Small Businesses
• How to Create a Marketing Plan for Your Small Business

How to Do Marketing For a Small Business

The secret to marketing for small businesses is to be as efficient as possible with your efforts. 

Small businesses like yours have limited manpower and budget compared to larger companies. That's why you need to use AI tools like invideo AI or ChatGPT to create quality content quickly. 

AI tools help you work smarter, not harder, so you can keep creating awesome content without burning yourself out.

At the end of this article we’ll also provide a list of beginner AI tools for small businesses. So keep an eye out for that.

Why Marketing is Important for a Small Business

Small businesses have more opportunity to grow rapidly with marketing. 

Large, established businesses are already well-known. Their marketing efforts help them gain a few more customers, but they've already reached a lot of people.

On the other hand, a small business that's starting to market now has a huge opportunity to make a splash. They can reach a whole new audience and see a much bigger jump in customers and growth.

It's like the difference between trying to get a little stronger when you're already very fit, versus seeing big gains when you first start working out.

This is exactly how marketing helps transform small businesses into medium-sized companies. 

20 Small Business Marketing Ideas for 2025

A lot of the marketing ideas below are designed to work with each other. So, you can repurpose content from one marketing channel and use it on the other. Save yourself time and grow your companies on two or more platforms. 

1. Video Marketing on Social Media

Video is king when it comes to digital marketing. Any video you publish will have more engagement, views, and attention than just a regular written post.

But, shooting videos and editing them yourself takes a lot of time and skill. Not to mention the cost of buying the equipment to shoot HD footage. And, hiring a professional video editor isn’t cheap either. 

This is where our first AI tool, invideo AI, comes in. 

Invideo AI can generate videos in any format for your social media. All you have to do is write down the description of your video and maybe paste a video script. The videos come with background music, AI voiceovers, and generative media.

All it takes is 5 easy steps. 

Try this process now because you’ll be using videos for a lot of these marketing ideas.

Step 1: Open Invideo AI. Create an invideo AI account for free using an email, Google account, or Apple ID.

Step 2: Pick a Video Workflow. You’ll see 2 suggested workflows at first.

If you open up Explore all+ you’ll find:

• YouTube Shorts
• YouTube Explainer
• Script to Video
• News Video
• TikTok Video
• Instagram Reel

For this example, click on Instagram Reel. 

Step 3: The Prompt and Details. Invideo AI needs a prompt and some of your preferences to start generating a video.

For now, just copy-paste this prompt:

“Make a 30-second Instagram Feel about the value of video marketing for growing your social media, becoming an authority in your niche and space, and why video is the best medium to do all of these versus written content like blogs or pictures. Use an American, female voiceover, add subtitles, and make the background music upbeat.”

Your prompt should look like this:

We’ve already mentioned some of the preferences through the prompt. So, you can skip filling in the language, background music, and subtitle settings and just click Continue.

Step 4: Generate Your Video. Click on Continue and then Generate a video.

You’ll see some follow up questions after that, like who is the target audience for the video, how do you want the video to feel like, and more. Choose accordingly and click Next.

Generating the video will take a couple of minutes, so keep reading in the meantime. 

Video marketing is usually the biggest difference when growing a small business. Why?

Because video content is traditionally hard to do and expensive to create. So, only a few businesses ever get to publish videos - leading them to stand out from the competition. If you want to join those competitors, then you need to do the same. With invideo AI, you can bypass the expensive cost and create high-quality videos for your business. 

Your video should be finished by now. Go check!

Step 5: Review and Fine-Tune. You can adjust and edit your video after it’s generated. There’s a “magic box” where you can tell invideo what to edit. Or, you can click Edit and that lets you manually edit the script, music, and even the video files. 

Video marketing is a broad strategy. That’s why we have the easiest video marketing guide in the business to help you get started.

Another visual platform offers immense potential: Instagram. Here's how to leverage it for your business.

2. Instagram 

Marketing on Instagram has changed over the last 14+ years. But, there are still some tried and tested marketing strategies you can use to grow your business.

First, Instagram is for visually-driven brands. It’s perfect if your service emphasizes on moving people from a bad place to a better place.

Examples of these are life coaches, business coaches, trade services, and so on.
These kinds of businesses have a clear “before-and-after” picture. Meaning you can take photos or videos of where your clients were before (bad place) and where they are now (after working with you). Videos like this boost your credibility as a service and your authority in the space.

The big caveat with Instagram is that you need to be more careful with your brand. Your videos and pictures will perform better if they’re consistent. As in a consistent color, font, editing style, and so on. 
What you need: 

• Quality camera
• Canva for graphic creation
• Invideo AI for Instagram Reels
• Brand guidelines or a marketing asset folder to store your logos, colors, and so on.

The Instagram audience is more laid back. They’re not as quick to buy as TikTok or even Facebook (that’s next). But, if you can convert them to follow your brand and become a customer, they're loyal supporters.

3. Facebook Marketing

Facebook leads are colder than other platforms. Plus, Facebook’s search engine is subpar compared to Google or even TikTok. But, it's easier to find local businesses on Facebook than anywhere else.

That's why Facebook is a must-have if you’re a local business. 

Small mom and pop shop? Facebook.

Running a car wash, window cleaning, or other service-based services? Facebook.

To succeed on Facebook, you need to be professional and real. Facebook users are older gentlemen and women. 

So, keep it real. Publish videos of yourself on the site, doing work, showing how it’s done. Or, record a longer video talking about the client you’re working for. Why couldn’t they do the work themselves (especially if they’re elderly)? How did you transform their homes or lives with your service?

What you need: 

• Smartphone-quality videos are more than enough
• Minimal editing skills, just to make cuts, trims, and stitches in your videos
• Branding to keep your colors, Facebook profile picture, banner, and comments consistent.

Marketing on Facebook will get you a lot of local clients. And, these clients usually refer you to their friends via word of mouth. 

4. YouTube Videos 

Making money through YouTube takes more effort and time compared to the other platforms. You need high-quality video footage, a brand book to stand out and be consistent. And, you need to be a good editor to keep people entertained.

But, if you can succeed on YouTube, you become very influential in your space. 

That’s because people understand that YouTube takes more time and effort compared to other platforms. It's the platform that will give you the most credibility. If you’re an expert, thought-leader, or a business based on expertise, you need to get on YouTube. 

With invideo AI, you can bypass the years of experience you need to create great videos. Instead, you’ll have YouTube-ready videos with an hour of work. Tweak the script, the music, video footage, and you’re done!

What you need:

• Quality camera
• Quality microphone
• A brand book to keep your videos and editing style similar across all videos

YouTube is a platform where anything can work. But, I only recommend going on YouTube if your business is unique because of expertise. If you can share your expertise and become an authority, you’ll get a lot of good results after 6 months and onwards.

5. Linkedin Marketing

LinkedIn is like Facebook, but if the users are professionals, freelancers, and businesses.

I would only recommend Linkedin marketing for SaaS or startup businesses.

Linkedin is all about value. Fast-paced, unpolished content like TikTok videos won’t work on this platform. Content for Linkedin is usually case studies of your business, authority content (short 200+ word posts), or growth content.

• Case Studies show your successes and demonstrate the value you provide to clients. For example, a marketing agency could create a case study detailing how they helped a client increase website traffic by 50%.
• Authority Content positions you as an expert in your field. It involves sharing valuable insights, debunking common myths, and providing in-depth analysis on topics relevant to your audience.
• Growth Content is for expanding your audience and generating leads. This could include contests, giveaways, quizzes, or downloadable resources like ebooks or checklists. By offering valuable incentives, you encourage engagement, capture contact information, and nurture potential customers. 

The key to Linkedin is balancing value and personality. Your posts need to be informative, but you shouldn't sound like a robot.

What you need:

• HD head portrait of yourself
• Canva for basic graphics
• AI tool to help you write content

The end goal of Linkedin is networking with potential clients by forming relationships. It will take a lot more time to get results from Linkedin. But it will pay off in 6 to 12 months if you can get a following and become an expert. 

6. Founder-led Marketing on LinkedIn

“People trust people, not brands”. That’s the basis of founder-led marketing.

Imagine seeing a CEO give updates on their business every week. What happened, what they’re going to do, and what plans they have for the month. 

As a customer, you'll feel excited and reassured that the company is resolving issues or adding features. As an investor, you get to see a transparent company, making it easier for you to invest or know that business. 

Founder-led marketing really only works for tech startups. 

If that's you, get on Linkedin right now and be vocal about your company.

What you need:

• A good copywriter or AI writing tool
• Canva for basic graphics

Linkedin is the best platform for mixing professionalism and community. As a founder, you can stand out by providing original, authentic value to the platform. 

7. TikTok Marketing

With over 170 million Americans on TikTok since January 2025, there’s a lot of traffic on the platform you can convert towards your business.

TikTok is the place for fast, short-form content. Everything there uses trendy music, lots of quick-cut editing, and creative skits. 

If you’re selling visually appealing products like gadgets, fashion, and so on, you should be on TikTok. The same applies for food and beverage businesses that target Gen Z and Millenials, such as bubble tea shops or cafes. 

Creating videos for TikTok isn’t complicated. Small businesses can use ChatGPT to generate creative video scripts and those scripts into invideo AI to produce high-quality videos. Then, schedule those videos to publish throughout the month on TikTok. This method won’t cost you an editor and is easy for small businesses to start.

What you need: 

• Invideo AI 
• Good quality camera or smartphone
• Daily time on the app to monitor trends you can hop on
• Consistent posting schedule (at least 4 times per week)

TikTok is the solution if you need brand growth, bigger reach, and more publicity for your brand. Try this out if your business is not getting enough attention.

8. Join Podcasts 

Building on the theme of expertise, joining podcasts as an industry expert is a great way to market your small business.

There are thousands of podcasts out there that get 50 to 500 listeners. Sure, the numbers aren’t millions like Joe Rogan. But, these podcasts will have high-value listeners, like website owners, coaches, and others who could use your business. 

There are 2 tricks to being an authority in your space by going into podcasts.

First, you need to only go on relevant podcasts, the ones your target audience listens to. Second, you need to position yourself as an authority in your niche.

So, either build out your YouTube channel or make your LinkedIn profile look pretty. The better it looks, the likelier podcasts will be happy to host and interview you.

What you need:

• Social proof that you’re an expert and worth interviewing
• A good camera + microphone set up if you’re doing podcasts online 
• A distinct background to make yourself recognizable in every podcast
• A regular shirt, haircut, and appearance. This is to build brand familiarity in the audience when they see you

Even though there are thousands of podcasts, remember you only need a few clients for your business.  

9. Hyper-Targeted Outreach 

What if you could skip the part where you wait for people to find you?

Outreach is the marketing strategy where you send DMs or messages to 1,000s of people in the hopes that they could use your business. It’s like a shotgun. 

Hyper-targeted outreach is when you change the shotgun for a sniper. Reduce the number of prospects to 100 people and make sure those prospects are all in pain, need your solution, and can afford your price. Then, you send a personalized message to each of these people.

Hyper-targeted outreach works for service-based businesses.

The trick to this strategy is having lots of follow ups. Send up to 8 follow up messages before you give up on that lead.

What you need:

• Some cleverness on your side to find people who fit your requirements
• A CRM database (customer relationship management) for all your contacts and their status

Hyper-targeted outreach bypasses the long, content building process. But, you will sacrifice the long-term benefits of building out your own social media profiles. After 6 months, you won't be an authority and you won't have a credible social media profile.

10. Work and partner with influencers 

People are 92% more likely to trust influencers than models, singers, and actors. 

This marketing strategy is great for businesses in lifestyle, service, e-commerce, or anything with quick fulfillment. 

Before you partner with any influencer, make sure they are relevant in your niche. You can ask for screenshots of their engagement and demographic before partnering up. This way, you can check if that influencer has an active audience with buying power.

Otherwise, their content might get views but you won’t get any purchases or new customers from your investment.

What you need:

• CRM for your influencer
• Affiliate marketing system to track leads or customers that come from that influencer 

This strategy has more upfront cost, but it’s worth it if the influencer can deliver clients to your business.

11. Launch a Website 

Websites show to the world that you’re a professional business with some credibility.

Small businesses need the most credibility and a website helps you get there. The size of your website depends on your business type. Some businesses will need a larger website with SEO to accommodate blogging articles. Other businesses can work with just a one-page website for their portfolio, info about the team, and so on.

Think of your website as your business portfolio or resume. Publish everything your clients need to know about you. And, add every proud accomplishment you have that's relevant to your business.

What you need:

• Some basic eye for design
• High-resolution photos to make your website professional and personable
• Affordable web-hosting for your website and domain

Launching a website works for any business. Although it will take some designing and work, it's very much worth it.

12. Blog Articles

A couple of years ago blog articles got your attention and growth. 

Now, blogs establish authority in your space and convince people to buy into your service.

I recommend blogging for SaaS and expertise-driven businesses.

Focus on “how to” articles instead of the usual “what is” content. “How to” articles are for readers who need your service but don't know you offer it. They'll see your expertise in How-to guides and convert to sales.

You can also create comparison articles, like product A vs product B.

This is middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) content. Aimed at nurturing your leads by showing your expertise and guiding them to a decision (working with you).

What you need:

• Website for your blog articles
• Basic SEO work (to keep costs low, aim for low-hanging SEO strategies)
• A good understanding of writing that keeps people engaged

Blogging takes a lot of time to come off the ground. At least a year if you're completely new to blogging and SEO at all. But a website with competitive blog articles shows a lot of authority and is worth it in the long run. That's why you focus on MOFU content, so at least whatever traffic goes to your website is warm and might buy your service. 

13. Case Studies

Case studies show the world how you solved a problem. These studies show the client, their problems, how you solved their problems, and where they are now. This is the BEST way to establish authority in your space.

In fact, case studies are perfect for high-ticket businesses. These businesses have customers who need a LOT of reassurance before buying. 

You can create case study content through YouTube videos, IG reels, or even TikTok videos. You can even write out your case study and post it as a blog article or as a standalone webpage on your website.

What you need:

• Good storytelling to highlight the pain your client was in before you worked together
• Good documentation of your work with that client
• Invideo AI for long-form YouTube videos

If you have a great client experience, you should turn it into a case study.

14. Customer Retention Campaigns

(source: https://www.seobility.net/en/wiki/images/f/fa/Retention-rate.png creative commons license)

Customer retention campaigns are all about rewarding old customers.

If you take care of older customers, they will share your business through word of mouth.

You can run campaigns like giving vouchers 2-weeks after a person’s purchase. Ask them for some feedback on your products and offer help if they're having a bad experience. If your company is service-based, then keep in touch with your client’s socials and support their posts.

What you need:

• CRM to manage and track all old customers
• Aftercare structure (how to do the vouchers, follow ups, etc)
• Automated software for follow ups

A customer retention campaign is anything that keeps yourself top of mind on your old customers. The challenge here is figuring out how to quantify your efforts and get the most by still doing less. 

15. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM databases are the first step to quantifying your customer journey. 

Every business should have a CRM, especially if they're managing more than 10 clients. And, it’s not uncommon for e-commerce businesses to have 1,000+ customers.

A CRM keeps track of what your customers purchased, the last time you reached out to them, and much more. It's an entire spreadsheet or database full of your customer's details. Age, demographic, email, phone number - everything.

What you need:

• CRM software
• Lots of customer data
• Automate the data entry process between your CRM and your capture forms

Establish a CRM as early as now in your business so it can grow with you. 

16. Referral System

A referral system is all about increasing word of mouth for your business. By incentivizing existing customers to refer their friends and family, you can tap into a powerful network of new clients.

A simple strategy is offering discounts to the referrer and his or her referral. This creates a win-win situation where both parties benefit. You can improve this strategy with loyalty programs, tiered referral rewards, and more. 

Referral marketing is a versatile strategy and works with service-based businesses and e-commerce.

What you need:

• A clear referral offer (don't make it complicated)
• A CRM to track referrals

With recommendations and word-of-mouth, you can build a loyal customer base that might even feel "exclusive."

17. Email campaigns 

Some businesses aren’t a one-time purchase. Customers buy into your product or service with the expectation of using your service regularly. 

This business model thrives on long-term relationships that turn into predictable income streams. To keep it predictable, businesses need to consistently engage with customers.

This is where email campaigns shine. Emails to your customer create a direct line between you and them. Not only does it keep your brand top of mind, but customers can also reply to your emails easily. Much easier than opening a support ticket and filling out their contact details.

Email marketing is a tool for online businesses with a loyal customer base. 

What you need:

• Email marketing platforms like Mailchimp or ConvertKit
• Email list of all your current customers or fans
• Email strategy

If you’re having trouble growing out your email list, try growing it with videos.

18. Newsletters 

If your business provides value consistently, then launch a newsletter.

Newsletters are more regular and expected. People will actually wait for your email instead of being surprised you’re finally reaching out. Businesses use newsletters to create a closer relationship with their readers. They do this by sharing behind-the-scenes insights, or offer exclusive content and promotions.

What you need:

• Your newsletter must feel exclusive
• Email marketing platform (Mailchimp or ConvertKit)
• Consistent publishing schedule (e.g. weekly)

A newsletter is all about building trust and loyalty. Encourage your readers to reply to your emails, and make sure you respond back. This will create a sense of connection and show them that you value their engagement.

19. Community Engagement

Sometimes being talkative pays off. Active engagement with your audience will boost visibility for your business page. 

You can do this by regularly posting, commenting on others' posts, and supporting fellow creators.

Every comment, post, or interaction is an opportunity to make an impression on potential clients. When you frequently contribute to conversations and share valuable insights, people start to notice. Your profile picture and name become familiar, and your business begins to resonate with others in your niche.

To maximize the impact of your engagement, make your profile picture clear and memorable. Find a distinct writing style that sets you apart, like being funny or using Gen Z lingo. The key is to be frequent, authentic, and personable.

20. Advertisements

Lastly, advertisements are always a great way to get people on your door quickly. This is perfect for service and e-commerce businesses.

Although it will cost you more up front, ads are worth the price if you can make it back from selling your products or service. It’s also a lot easier to get clients this way compared to other marketing ideas that rely on producing content to grow your socials.

If you decide to go with ads, videos ads are the best for growing socials. Understand the 5 types of social media ads and figure out which one works for your niche.

What you need:

• Ad budget 
• Video or graphic content for your ads 
• A good copywriter to make sure your ads get conversions
• Ad platform like Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn

Ads are great, but remember they aren’t a long-term solution for growing your online presence. If you want a long-term business, you should always invest in solidifying your presence in whatever niche you’re in.

To implement these marketing strategies effectively, you'll need the right tools. Here are some of our top recommendations.

Top Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

Invideo AI and ChatGPT are the top marketing tools you should start using right now.

Create videos with invideo AI for video marketing and use ChatGPT to help you with the captions and video scripts.

For social media management, you’ll need Chatfuel and Feedhive. Chatfuel creates chatbots for your social media platforms, so potential customers receive instant replies when they reach out. This makes small businesses look professional and keeps potential customers happy while waiting for you. 

On the other hand, Feedhive is a social media management platform. You can draft, schedule, and publish all your posts from there. Feedhive even collects all your messages from Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms and puts them in one inbox. This way, you can manage all your messages in one place.

We have a whole article on the best 12 AI marketing tools in 2025, so check it out if you want to learn more tools. You’ll find tools on chatbots, automations, social media management tools, audience research tools, and more.

Having explored the best tools, let's now focus on guiding your marketing success: your marketing plan.

How to Create a Marketing Plan for Your Small Business

A marketing plan is your roadmap for running all of your marketing strategies. It’s crucial that you make a marketing plan so you can record what works and what doesn’t. This will help you avoid headaches later on and make your next round of marketing ideas perform better.

Creating a marketing plan goes in 9 steps:

1. Write a summary of your marketing plan.
2. Create a buyer persona of your target audience.
3. Declare the quantifiable goals of your marketing plan.
4. Write down your business summary to help align your marketing and business goals together.
5. State your marketing budget.
6. List down the marketing channels you’ll use for this plan.
7. Declare the marketing strategies and each of their goals.
8. Identify the KPIs (key performance indicator) of your marketing plan.
9. Create your marketing plan timeline. 

We go over the full details of each step in our full guide on creating a marketing plan.

Conclusion

Don't be overwhelmed by the 20+ marketing strategies available. As a small business, you have the most potential for growth with just a handful of these strategies.

If you want to maximize your efforts for minimal work, prioritize video marketing. 

You can use videos on all social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Plus, you can even embed videos into your email campaigns, advertisements, and your own website. Because invideo AI makes it so much easier to create video content, there’s no downside to investing your time in video marketing.

You don’t think video content is the way to go for your small brand? You can still join podcasts, do founder-led marketing on Linkedin, and create blog articles on your website. Referral systems and engaging in your community are still better than doing nothing at all. 

The most important marketing for a small business is any kind of marketing. As long as you start, you’ll grow. 

Check out our YouTube channel for tutorials and tips. We also have other articles on marketing that will help you!

• Top Marketing Channels to Grow Your Brand
• 17 Expert Marketing Tips