Developing a marketing strategy for small businesses: a practical guide

Specifics of marketing for small businesses in Ukraine

Before discussing tools and budgets, it is worth defining a basic concept. Who do we actually refer to as “small businesses”? 

In public discussions, this term often refers to any company that has not yet become a corporation. But for marketing, it is not impressions that are important, but clear boundaries. After all, the marketing strategy for a coffee shop with a team of 10 people and a manufacturing company with 40 employees and millions of dollars in turnover will look completely different. So let’s get the numbers and facts straight right away so that we can speak the same language going forward.

In Ukraine, small businesses are defined as companies with up to 50 employees and an annual turnover of up to €10 million. In terms of percentage of the economy, this segment accounts for over 90% of all enterprises in the country and provides about half of all jobs.

For comparison: in the US, the “small business” category includes companies with up to 500 employees, but the main difference is not in the scale of the market, but in the resources that the company can invest. That is why, when we talk about “small business” in the context of marketing, we mean organizations where every hryvnia of the budget counts, and the lack of consistency in promotion immediately affects the results.

Small and medium-sized businesses in Ukraine operate in conditions of constant turbulence: limited resources, an unstable market, and aggressive competition. Unlike large corporations, which have the time and budget to experiment, here every hryvnia must quickly bring a return. Marketing for startups faces similar challenges: limited resources, the need to quickly test hypotheses, and find the most effective promotion channels.

How marketing for SMEs differs from corporate marketing

For small and medium-sized businesses:

• Smaller budgets — while spending $1,000 on a test advertising campaign is a trifle for a corporation, for small and medium-sized businesses it can be half of their entire monthly marketing budget. Therefore, every hryvnia must be used effectively, and decisions must be made with maximum consideration for return on investment.
• Greater flexibility — small businesses can quickly change tactics without bureaucracy. If advertising on Facebook has not yielded results, you can test Google Ads or local ads tomorrow. In corporations, such a decision requires several levels of approval and weeks of waiting.
• Locality also plays an important role in B2B. Examples: CRM system “with integration in 5 days,” logistics “for e-commerce with day-to-day delivery,” B2B SaaS “with transparent pricing,” but strategically focused on the national level and even international markets. For CRM solutions or manufacturing companies such as B-Sign, the key is not just to cover the “area,” but to choose the right target segments and business centers where potential customers are concentrated.

This creates both challenges and advantages. Small and medium-sized businesses in the service and technology sectors can quickly test hypotheses, promptly reallocate budgets, and adapt to changes in demand. Where corporations launch campaigns that last for months, a CRM or logistics service provider can test a new idea tomorrow. Speed and flexibility become a competitive advantage in the battle for customers.

Preparatory stage: audit of resources and capabilities

Before developing a marketing strategy, a business must clearly understand its starting position. Auditing resources and capabilities is the starting point, without which any further steps risk being detached from reality.

• Finances. It is essential to honestly assess how much the company can invest in marketing now and in the coming months. For small and medium-sized businesses, the optimal marketing budget starts at $3–5 thousand per month, which allows you to launch systematic digital campaigns, content marketing, and analytics.
  
• Team and responsible parties. Who is actually responsible for marketing: the business owner, a versatile employee, or an external contractor? The speed of decision-making and the quality of their implementation depend on this.
  
• Assets and infrastructure. A website, social media, customer base, and CRM system all determine the starting points for promotion. If the website is outdated, it should be updated (website development), and if there is no customer base, start building it today.

Such an audit is a kind of moment of honesty with oneself. This audit is the basis for the further development of the company’s marketing strategy, which takes into account real resources and opportunities. It helps to avoid inflated expectations and creates the basis for a strategy that takes into account the real resources of the business, rather than an imaginary “ideal” scenario.

Step 1. Quick market analysis using budget methods

To avoid acting blindly, there are simple and free tools that will help you gather your first insights:

1. Google Trends

Google Trends helps track search query dynamics and determine which areas or products are in highest demand during a given period. This is especially useful for analyzing seasonality, identifying trends, and predicting changes in consumer behavior. During your research, it is worth analyzing key queries from your niche, comparing their popularity with each other, and assessing regional differences. Such analysis allows you to make an informed choice about which services or products to focus on in your marketing strategy.

2. Google Forms or other online questionnaires

A quick way to gather feedback from potential customers. You can ask:

• How often do they use the product/service?
• What should you pay attention to when choosing?
• How much are you willing to pay?

Even 30–50 responses give an initial idea of the audience’s expectations.

3. Competitor reviews

Social networks, Google Maps, Rozetka, Prom.ua, and other marketplaces are sources of real pain points and expectations for customers.

• If people complain about slow service from your competitor, this is your opportunity to do it faster.
• If people praise it for being a convenient app, then that’s an important factor in choosing it.

Limitations of these methods

Despite their accessibility, all these tools provide only specific information. They show general trends and signals, but do not allow you to build a complete picture of the market.

• Google Trends only shows search trends, but does not provide insight into customer behavior.
  
• Surveys are often subjective and depend on the quality of the questions asked.
  
• Reviews reflect only the emotions of specific customers, not the whole picture.

Therefore, the main risk of independent analysis is tailoring data to one’s own expectations and drawing false conclusions. In this case, the strategy is based not on objective facts, but on assumptions, which creates an illusion of control. The result is obvious: the business invests time and money in areas that have no potential, while real opportunities are overlooked.

Step 2. Defining the target audience through Customer Development

Understanding your target audience is the foundation of any marketing strategy. One of the most effective methods is Customer Development (CustDev), or in-depth interviews with customers. These are not formal questionnaires, but conversations that reveal real motives and barriers to choice.

It is sufficient to speak with 10–15 individuals to gain insights:

• why they chose your product or your competitors’;
• what problems they are trying to solve;
• which is a critical factor in their choice;
• what price level they consider fair.

This method allows you to build a realistic portrait of the customer with specific pain points, expectations, and behavior patterns. Unlike online surveys, live conversations reveal deeper emotions and motivations that are not always obvious on the surface.

At the same time, it is important to understand that CustDev is not just about “asking a few questions.” Without experience, it is easy to collect superficial or distorted answers and draw the wrong conclusions. That is why companies often hire marketers or analysts who know how to structure interviews and interpret results correctly. This is not mandatory, but it allows you to turn conversations with customers into a real source of strategic decisions.

Step 3. Analyze competitors using free tools

To understand the market and competitors’ actions at a superficial level, a few free or conditionally free services are sufficient:

• SimilarWeb shows the main sources of traffic for competitors’ websites and helps you understand where they attract their audience from.
  
• Serpstat in free mode allows you to perform several queries for keyword analysis and see which queries other companies are promoting.
  
• Facebook Ad Library provides access to competitors’ advertising creatives that they are currently running.

Such tools provide data to form a general picture of the competitive environment.

At the same time, it is important to remember that without experience, this data can easily be interpreted too superficially. Basic analysis will tell you “what is happening,” but to answer the questions “why does this work” and “how can you use this in your strategy,” you need an expert opinion.

Step 4. Develop simple but effective positioning

Positioning is the ability of a business to clearly and unambiguously answer the question: 

“Why should a customer choose us?” 

But this is not just a catchy phrase. It is the result of analytics and clear data processing. To create positioning that will actually work, a business goes through several stages:

• Project audit: strengths and weaknesses, unique features of the product or service.
  
• Competitor analysis: what values they convey, what messages are already “taken” in the market.
  
• Selecting key values: what is most important to your audience (speed, price, quality, service, emotional experience).

Only then can you formulate a simple but accurate phrase that reflects your values and will form the basis of your communication.

Therefore, it is impossible to choose high-quality positioning without experience, but for example, superficial positioning may look like this:

• “Accounting where reports are always submitted on time — without penalties or unnecessary stress” — value: peace of mind and control.
  
• “CRM that helps you sell 30% more without increasing staff” — value: efficiency.
  
• “24/7 IT support for small businesses — from Wi-Fi to cyber security” — value: reliability.

👉 Simplicity of wording is the final step, not the starting point. Only then does positioning become not just an “advertising gimmick,” but a true reflection of what sets your business apart and what your customers value.

Step 5. Setting realistic goals

Setting goals correctly determines whether a strategy will become a manageable process or remain a set of chaotic actions. When working with small businesses, it is convenient to use the SMART approach — it allows you to formulate tasks so that they are clear and measurable.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Recommendations for setting SMART goals

Direction	Recommended SMART goal
Social networks	Get 200 new Facebook followers within 3 months.
Sales	Attract 50 new customers through advertising within 6 months.
Lead generation	Reduce the cost of a lead to 150 UAH and receive 100 applications in 2 months.
Brand	Increase the number of brand queries on Google by 20% in six months.
Website	Increase website conversion from 1% to 2% over the next 4 months.

💡 Important note: SMART goals help to discipline the process, but they do not always show how exactly to achieve the result. Without experience or expert guidance, businesses often only see the “tip of the iceberg,” while the real drivers of growth remain overlooked. Therefore, SMART should be used as a foundation, but not as the only planning tool.

Step 6. Selecting effective channels with a limited budget

For small and medium-sized businesses, it is critically important to choose communication channels that provide maximum return on investment. At this stage, it is not about the number of channels, but about quality — a limited budget does not allow you to “spread yourself thin” across everything at once. This is how a marketing strategy with a minimal budget is formed.

Social networks (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) remain a basic tool due to their low entry threshold and the possibility of accurate geo- and demo-targeting. For local businesses, this is the most efficient way to reach their audience.

Content marketing (blogs, expert publications, articles) ensures long-term brand trust. It is less effective in the short term, but it lays the foundation for brand recognition and SEO promotion.

Local advertising channels (Google Maps, OLX, Prom.ua, local directories) are highly effective for businesses with a geographical focus. They provide direct access to customers when they need it.

Email marketing is the most cost-effective channel for customer retention. Segmented mailings allow you to work with your existing database and maintain loyalty at minimal cost.

👉 The key task for small businesses at this stage is to focus on the 2–3 channels that deliver the best results and scale them up. The rest should be tested selectively, in the form of hypotheses.

Step 7. Planning your marketing budget

Small businesses are typically defined as companies with fewer than 50 employees and annual revenues of less than $10 million. For such companies, effective marketing requires a systematic approach and a clearly defined budget.

Optimal level of investment

On average, small business marketing accounts for 7–12% of revenue. 

Overall, this means that small businesses should spend between $7,000 and $15,000 per month on marketing. In most cases, the appropriate range of marketing expenses for small businesses is between $7,000 and $15,000 per month.

Recommendation: Regardless of your budget, it is advisable to adhere to the distribution model:

• 60% — tools that have proven their effectiveness;
• 20% — testing new channels;
• 20% — reserve fund for unforeseen expenses.

This approach allows for a balance between stability and innovation, which is particularly important for businesses in a dynamic environment.

Examples of budget structure

$7,000/month:

• Stable channels — $4,200
• New channels — $1,400
• Reserve — $1,400

$15,000/month:

• Stable channels — $9,000
• New channels — $3,000
• Reserve — $3,000

Step 8. Create an operational plan for 3–6 months

In marketing, it is important to distinguish between two levels of planning: strategic and operational.

A strategic plan sets the long-term direction—it defines the company’s goals, key markets, positioning, tools, and budget. Without a strategy, business operates chaotically, and marketing becomes a set of unsystematic activities.

However, the strategy itself does not work if it is not backed up by an operational plan. This is a detailed roadmap for the next 3–6 months, which breaks down global goals into specific actions: what is done each week, who is responsible for it, what resources are involved, and what metrics are used to measure success.

The operational plan allows you to:

• avoid duplication of tasks and chaos;
• see the big picture without getting bogged down in minor details;quickly track whether the strategy is delivering the expected results;
• identify problems in a timely manner and adjust tactics.

Thus, the strategic plan answers the question “Where are we going?” and the operational plan answers “How exactly are we going to get there?”. Only together do they form a system that allows marketing to deliver predictable results.

Free and cheap tools

Modern marketing does not always require million-dollar budgets and complex platforms. More and more often, it is flexible companies that win thanks to their ability to effectively use simple but powerful tools. A properly selected set of services allows you to launch systematic marketing today, without unnecessary costs and complex implementations. Using these tools, even small businesses can effectively implement their marketing strategy.

Content and design

Let’s start with the visual part. Canva is one of the most convenient tools for small businesses: it allows you to quickly create posts for social networks, banners, and even presentations. If you need to collaborate with a designer or create more complex layouts, it is worth connecting Figma (the free plan is also very functional).

Task management

To avoid chaos in your work, it is worth integrating task managers. ClickUp, Trello, or Asana allow you to structure tasks, see deadlines, and assign responsibilities. Notion is well suited for storing knowledge bases and briefs.

Analytics and research

Without data, there is no marketing. Even on a minimal budget, you can use Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager to track traffic and conversions. For basic competitor analysis, Serpstat (free queries) and Facebook Ad Library are suitable.

Local marketing and communication

If your business operates locally, a must-have tool is Google Business Profile (map, reviews, photos, promotions). It’s free, but it has a huge impact on attracting customers.

🔑 Conclusion: It’s not just about savings, but about efficiency and speed of launch. Using a set of basic tools, the business immediately works systematically: it sees results, manages processes, and forms the foundation for scaling.

Process automation to save time

The era of artificial intelligence has radically changed the rules of the game in marketing. Whereas high-quality content used to be a competitive advantage, today it has become a basic necessity. Thanks to tools such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Sora, creating texts, visuals, and even videos has become accessible to many businesses.  

Now the focus is shifting to something else — systematicity and process automation. It is important not only to create content, but also to deliver it to the right channels on time, scale communications, and manage sales funnels without unnecessary manual actions. Automation allows you to transform marketing from a set of creative ideas into a predictable system that consistently generates results.

CRM systems with auto funnels (e.g., HubSpot, KeyCRM, Salesforce) automatically guide the customer from initial contact to purchase: they remind you about calls, send letters, and record interaction history. The business gets a clear picture of the funnel and can scale sales without losing control.

Chatbots in Messenger or Telegram are a 24/7 communication channel. They answer common questions, collect contacts, segment customers, and even close simple orders. This is especially valuable for small businesses, where every missed request equals a lost customer.

Content planners let you create content plans weeks in advance, set up automatic posts, and analyze effectiveness. This means the team spends time on strategy rather than manual posts every day.

📌 The main value of automation is not only time savings, but also stability. Systems do not forget, are not late, and do not “burn out.” And the business gets a predictable process that can be scaled without a proportional increase in costs.

Company case studies: from idea to result

Dynasty Stomatology approached Solve Marketing with a task — to develop a marketing strategy for entering the competitive Czech market. We conducted comprehensive research: we studied the behavior of the target audience, competitors, patient selection factors, and developed the clinic’s positioning. Key findings: in Prague, more than 65% of customers are willing to pay more than their insurance coverage, and 20% of Czechs do not have a public dentist at all and are forced to turn to the private sector.

The result was a marketing strategy with clear messages for five audience segments (wealthy Czechs, expats, diasporas, families, and medical tourists), a plan to launch lead generation through Google Ads and Meta, and a framework with 100+ patient selection factors. This enabled the clinic to quickly adapt to the new market and gain a competitive advantage — a waiting time of 1–2 days versus 6 months for competitors.

Step-by-step scaling of the strategy

The scale of a marketing strategy always depends on the company’s goals, its resources, and its stage of development. There is no single recipe: for some businesses, the priority will be to enter new channels, while for others, it will be to deepen their work with already proven ones.

In practice, the process looks like gradual expansion. First, simple and accessible tools are tested—social networks, email newsletters, content marketing. After collecting the initial data, decisions are made based on effectiveness: what to scale up, what to invest in, and what to weed out.

It is important to understand that scaling a strategy on your own is often difficult. There is a risk of spending your budget on channels that will not bring results. That is why working with specialists helps you avoid typical mistakes and turn scaling into systematic development rather than an experiment.

📌 But even without external assistance, the main principle remains the same: do not expect quick results and move step by step, making decisions based on data rather than intuition.

Conclusion

A marketing strategy for small and medium-sized businesses is about systematicity, consistency, and the ability to work with data. Even with limited resources, you can build an effective system that attracts new customers and ensures stable growth. The key is to correctly identify priorities, choose channels that really work, and constantly monitor results.

In today’s environment, businesses that think strategically rather than acting chaotically will prevail. If you want a strategy tailored to your market, a clear action plan, and support at every stage, the Solve Marketing team will help you avoid unnecessary expenses and focus on steps that deliver results.