The Top 10 Best Marketing Strategies for Real Growth
You’re told to be everywhere. You need a blog, a podcast, a TikTok, a LinkedIn presence, and a dozen other things. You’re supposed to master SEO, run Facebook ads, build a community, and “growth hack” your way to the top.
It’s exhausting. And it's a lie.
The belief that you need to do everything keeps most small businesses stuck. They spread themselves so thin that nothing gets done well. They dabble in ten tactics instead of mastering one strategy.
This isn't another list of fleeting tactics. This is a stripped-back guide to the foundational strategies that build durable businesses. Your job isn't to do all ten. You must read this list, find the one or two that feel right for your business and your temperament, and execute them relentlessly.
That’s it. That’s the secret.
- Focus on mastering one or two marketing strategies instead of attempting many, to achieve real business growth.
- Identify where your ideal customers are active to choose the most effective marketing strategy for engagement.
- Building a community fosters loyalty and converts customers into brand ambassadors, essential for long-term success.
- Consistent execution of chosen strategies leads to mastery and sustainable business outcomes over time.
Before You Pick a Strategy, Answer This One Question
Before we get to the list, you must answer this:
Where do my ideal customers already spend their time and attention?
A brilliant marketing strategy is useless if deployed in the wrong arena. Building the world's most engaging TikTok presence is a complete waste of time if your £100k-a-year clients live on LinkedIn. Writing the most insightful articles is pointless if your audience only listens to podcasts.
You wouldn't put up a billboard in the middle of the desert. Don't build your marketing presence there, either.
Answer that question first. Then, and only then, pick your strategy from the list below.
The 10 Best Marketing Strategies for Real-World Results
Here are ten proven approaches. Each one is a deep well of potential. You only need to dig in one or two places to find water.
1. Content Marketing: The Slow Burn That Builds an Empire
What it is: Creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. It's the act of teaching, entertaining, or informing, not just selling.
Why it works: It systematically builds trust and authority. Instead of interrupting people with ads, you become your industry's go-to source of information. This shift from “seller” to “expert” is profound, creating a moat of goodwill that competitors can't easily cross.
Real-World Example: HubSpot. They built a multi-billion-dollar software company by giving away world-class marketing advice. Their blog is a masterclass in this strategy. They answered every conceivable question their target customer might have, long before that customer was ready to buy software.
First Actionable Step: Identify the top 10 questions your potential customers ask before they're ready to buy. Write a comprehensive, genuinely helpful answer to one of them. Don't sell anything. Just solve their problem.
2. Niche SEO: Own a Digital Inch, Rule a Mile
What it is: Focusing all your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) efforts on ranking for a specific, narrow set of keywords instead of broad, highly competitive ones.
Why it works: It's an achievable goal for small businesses. You will never outrank Amazon for “running shoes.” But you have a fighting chance to become the #1 result for “vegan waterproof trail running shoes for wide feet.” Owning that niche makes you the default choice for the most qualified, highest-intent buyers.
Real-World Example: Brian Dean of Backlinko. When he started, the SEO space was incredibly crowded. Instead of writing about “SEO,” he focused almost exclusively on the niche of “link building.” He owned that single concept, allowing him to expand into the broader market.
First Actionable Step: Use a free keyword tool to find one “long-tail” search query (four or more words) that your customers might type into Google. Create a single page on your website that best answers that query.
3. Direct-Permission Email Marketing: The Asset You Actually Own
What it is: Building a list of people who have explicitly permitted you to contact them via email. It is the polar opposite of buying a list and spamming people.
Why it works: Your email list is one of the only marketing channels you truly own. You aren't subject to the whims of an algorithm change on Facebook or Google. It is a direct, reliable, and incredibly profitable line of communication with your most engaged audience. The ROI is consistently higher than almost any other channel.
Real-World Example: The Hustle. They built a media empire, which they sold to HubSpot for a reported $27 million, almost entirely on the back of a single, must-read daily email. They gave people a reason to sign up and delivered value daily.
First Actionable Step: Create a simple, one-page PDF guide that solves one specific, painful problem for your ideal customer. Offer this “lead magnet” for free on your website in exchange for their email address. A solid digital marketing plan is always built on a strong email strategy.
4. Community Building: Create a Raving Fan Club
What it is: Fostering a dedicated space—like a Facebook Group, Slack channel, or forum—where your customers can connect with you and, more importantly, with each other.
Why it works: It transforms customers into evangelists. People no longer feel like they're just buying a product; they feel like part of a movement, a tribe. This sense of belonging is a powerful retention tool and creates a defensive barrier nearly impossible for competitors to replicate.
Real-World Example: Gymshark. Before they were a billion-dollar brand, they were a community. They built an army of ambassadors and a fiercely loyal group of followers who felt they were on the inside of something special. The brand's success was built on this foundation of community, not on massive ad spends.
First Actionable Step: Start a private Facebook Group or Discord server exclusively for your paying customers. Post one interesting question or conversation starter daily for the next month.
5. Strategic Partnerships: Borrow Someone Else's Audience
What it is: Collaborating with a non-competing business that serves the same audience that you do. This could be a co-hosted webinar, a content swap, or a joint product offering.
Why it works: It’s a shortcut to trust and reach. You get an implied endorsement from a source their audience already knows, likes, and trusts. It is far easier and cheaper than building an audience from scratch.
Real-World Example: GoPro & Red Bull. This is the quintessential symbiotic partnership. Red Bull's brand is “extreme energy,” and GoPro's is “capturing extreme action.” By collaborating, they amplified their message to the perfect audience, creating a marketing powerhouse.
First Actionable Step: List five local or online businesses your customers use before or after they use yours. A wedding photographer's partner is a florist. A web designer's partner is a copywriter. Reach out to one with a simple idea for a co-promotion.
6. Painfully Personal Direct Outreach: The Unscalable That Scales
What it is: Reaching out to high-value potential customers one-on-one (via email, LinkedIn, etc.) with a message so personalised and well-researched that it couldn't be automated.
Why it works: We live in a world of automated spam. A genuinely thoughtful, personal message that shows you've done your homework cuts through the noise. It’s an unscalable activity that generates scalable results because it opens doors to opportunities that generic outreach never could.
Real-World Example: Lemlist, a B2B software company, built its entire business by practising what it preaches. They used hyper-personalised cold emails—including customised images and videos—to land their first major clients and develop their brand.
First Actionable Step: Find 10 dream clients on LinkedIn. Pick just one. Spend 20 minutes researching them. Find a recent podcast interview, a blog post, or a company award they won. Send them a connection request with a short message congratulating them on that specific thing. Ask for nothing in return.
7. Frictionless Referral Marketing: Engineer Word-of-Mouth
What it is: Actively creating a simple, formal system that encourages and rewards your existing customers for telling others about your business.
Why it works: A recommendation from a trusted friend is the most powerful marketing message. It bypasses all scepticism and sales resistance. A formal referral program doesn't just hope this happens; it engineers the process, making it easy and rewarding for happy customers to spread the word.
Real-World Example: Dropbox. Their early growth is the gold standard of referral marketing. Their offer—”Invite a friend, and you both get more free space”—was brilliant. It was simple to understand, directly tied to the product's value, and mutually beneficial.
First Actionable Step: Decide on a simple, compelling reward for referrals (e.g., a £50 Amazon gift card, a 15% discount on their next purchase). Create a dedicated page on your website explaining the program. Then, personally email your 10 best customers and tell them about it.
8. Surgical Paid Advertising: Buy Guaranteed Attention
What it is: Using platforms like Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn Ads with a laser focus on a single, profitable action. This often means skipping broad awareness campaigns and focusing on retargeting (advertising to people who have already visited your website).
Why it works: Organic reach is unpredictable. Paid advertising, when done correctly, is a predictable, scalable machine. You put £1 in, you get £3 out. Retargeting, in particular, is powerful because you're only spending money on people who have already expressed interest. You're reminding them to finish what they started.
Real-World Example: Amazon. If you view a product on Amazon, you will see that exact product in ads on other websites for the next week. They are relentless and ruthlessly effective masters of retargeting. They understand that the easiest person to sell to is someone just about to buy.
First Actionable Step: Install the Facebook Pixel and Google Ads remarketing tag on your website today. Even if you don't plan to run ads for six months, do it now. You will start building an audience of website visitors that you can advertise to later.
9. Narrative PR: Tell a Story the Media Wants to Share
What it is: This isn't about sending out boring press releases. It's about crafting a compelling story about your brand—your origin, mission, and conflict—that journalists, bloggers, and influencers want to cover because it's genuinely interesting.
Why it works: A feature story in a respected publication provides third-party validation that no advertisement can buy. It builds immense credibility and introduces your brand to a broad audience with their guards down.
Real-World Example: Dollar Shave Club. Their 2012 launch video was a masterstroke of narrative PR. It was funny, irreverent, and perfectly told the story of their value proposition. The video itself became the story. News outlets weren't covering a razor company; they were covering a viral video sensation. The result was 12,000 signups in the first 48 hours.
First Actionable Step: Write down your founder's story. Not the polished, corporate version. The real one. What was the moment of extreme frustration forced you to start this business? That emotional core is the seed of your PR narrative.
10. The Founder's Personal Brand: You Are the Loudspeaker
What it is: Intentionally putting a human face on the business—yours. It involves sharing your expertise, journey, opinions, and struggles on a relevant platform like LinkedIn, Twitter, or a personal blog.
Why it works: In a crowded market, people connect with people, not with faceless logos. A strong founder brand builds a powerful moat around your business that competitors cannot copy. People might switch from one software to another, but they are far less likely to switch away from someone they know, trust, and have learned from.
Real-World Example: Gary Vaynerchuk. Whether you like his style or not, the success is undeniable. His businesses, like VaynerMedia, are behemoths in their industry, primarily because he has built a colossal personal brand that serves as their primary marketing and lead-generation channel.
First Actionable Step: Pick the one social media platform you genuinely enjoy using (or dislike the least). Commit to posting one valuable thought, tip, or observation related to your industry—without asking for anything—every day for 30 days.
Stop Chasing Tactics. Pick a Strategy and Commit.
This list isn't a checklist. It's a menu.
Reading it won't grow your business. The power isn't in knowing these strategies but choosing one or two and dedicating yourself to mastering them.
Go deep, not wide. A business that is mediocre at ten things will always lose to a company that is world-class at one thing. Pick your one thing. Do it every week. Get better at it every month.
That’s how you build something that lasts. Building a brand that can execute these strategies starts with a solid foundation. If you're stuck, just looking at the services we offer at Inkbot Design might spark some ideas.
Frequently Asked Questions About Marketing Strategies
What is the single most effective marketing strategy?
There isn't one. The “best” approach is the one that best connects with your specific target audience and aligns with your business's strengths and resources. For a visual product, community building on Instagram might be best. For a high-value B2B service, personal outreach might be done on LinkedIn.
How do I choose the right marketing strategy for my small business?
Start by answering the question: “Where do my ideal customers spend their time and attention?” Then, from this list, choose the strategy you have the skills for (or can learn) and, most importantly, that you can commit to consistently for at least 12 months.
What's the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing tactic?
A strategy is the overall plan or goal (e.g., “Use content marketing to become the most trusted resource in our niche”). A tactic is a specific action you take to achieve that strategy (e.g., “Write one 2,000-word blog post per week”).
How much should a small business spend on marketing?
There's no magic number. A standard benchmark for a growing business is 7-12% of total revenue. However, a new company may need to spend more to gain traction. The focus should be on Return on Investment (ROI), not just the amount paid.
Is social media marketing a strategy?
No, “social media” is a channel, not a strategy. The strategy is how you use it. Your strategy could be community building, running paid ads, or building a personal brand. The social media platform is just the place where you execute that strategy.
How long does content marketing and SEO take to work?
Be patient. These are long-term strategies. You should expect minimal results for the first 3-6 months, with meaningful traction typically starting around the 6-12 months. It's a slow burn that builds a lasting asset.
Can I do marketing, or should I hire an agency?
Initially, founders should be heavily involved in marketing to understand their customers. As you grow, outsourcing tactics to a freelancer or agency can free you up to focus on strategy. Hire an agency when you have a proven approach that you need to scale.
What is the most cost-effective marketing strategy?
Strategies with a high “sweat equity” component are often the most cost-effective. Content marketing, email marketing (once you have a list), and personal branding cost more time than money. Referral marketing can also have an extremely high ROI.
How do you measure the success of a marketing strategy?
Focus on business metrics, not vanity metrics. Track leads generated, customer acquisition cost (CAC), conversion rates, and customer lifetime value (LTV). Success means your marketing is generating a profitable return.
Is email marketing still relevant?
Absolutely. It's more relevant than ever. It's one of the few direct lines of communication you have with customers that isn't controlled by an algorithm. It consistently delivers the highest ROI of any marketing channel when done correctly.
Should I focus on one marketing channel or multiple?
Master one channel first. Once you have a predictable system for generating leads and sales from that one channel, you can diversify by adding a second complementary channel. Don't try to be everywhere at once.
What is a go-to-market strategy?
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a comprehensive action plan that details how a company will launch a new product or enter a new market. It includes details on pricing, sales, distribution, and, of course, the marketing strategies used.
The best strategy is the one you can execute consistently. If you've got the execution part down but feel your brand isn't punching its weight, that's a different problem—and it's one we're pretty good at solving.
Look at our digital marketing services or request a quote if you're ready for a no-nonsense conversation about building a brand that wins.
