Kalin Kassabov is the Founder and CEO of ProTexting.com, a fast-growing enterprise-level text message suite of services.
Small businesses in 2025 face a dynamic marketing landscape that presents some real challenges. As someone whose clients include a variety of businesses -small, mid-size, and large- in many sectors, I notice that some small business owners feel that it’s hard for them to compete with bigger, better-funded competitors. However, with the right mindset and strategies, there are ways to overcome the challenges and make the most of the resources that are available to you.
Challenge 1: Getting a Good ROI For Your Marketing
Marketing can be expensive, and small businesses often have limited resources. Traditional offline strategies such as TV ads and display advertising in print media may be out of reach. Digital advertising such as Google and Facebook can also quickly drain your budget.
Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of marketing activities is crucial but more complicated than it may first seem. For example, some marketing is good for building brand awareness even if it doesn’t produce instant sales. That’s why you need to set specific goals for every campaign.
One low-cost strategy that works especially well is to focus on getting more referrals and recommendations. You can get more reviews and testimonials simply by asking for them, such as on your website or by putting up signs in your brick-and-mortar business. A referral program that provides incentives in exchange for referrals can also help.
Additionally, focus on in-house content marketing such as social media, blogging, and videos. Sharing authentically and providing useful information is more important than perfection or impressive production values.
Challenge 2: Reaching the Right Audience
For smaller businesses, it’s not so much a question of reaching a large enough audience as the right audience. Traditionally, marketing has been divided into two main categories, outbound and inbound. Outbound covers traditional approaches such as TV and display ads, which are aimed at a large, very general audience. Inbound uses content to target a specific audience, which is usually more feasible for small businesses. Market research is crucial to reach a targeted audience. This doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.
- Conduct polls and surveys. You can do this via email, on your blog, social media sites, or through other platforms such as SMS (text message) marketing.
- Watch your competition. Study their websites, social media pages, videos, and other channels. See what they are doing to keep up with the latest trends and what kind of audience they’re targeting.
- Encourage and listen to customer feedback.
Challenge 3: Creating a Unique Brand
Every business, no matter what it sells, needs to develop a distinct brand. People often associate branding with logos or catchy phrases. However, for most businesses, the key to effective branding is telling an authentic story. Talk about what motivates you, how you started, or what makes your product or service different. Smaller businesses actually have an advantage here as they can emphasize their uniqueness, roots in the community, and dedication to personal service.
Challenge 4: Creating Engaging Content
The need to generate content remains a reality no matter how much the content marketing landscape changes. Small businesses have limited time to create social media posts, videos, articles, or other content. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.
Focus on one social media platform that’s a good match for your brand and post consistently. Once you get into the habit, it doesn’t take that long to create at least a few good posts weekly. Make good use of visual content, whether your own photos, memes, or short videos. You can use AI tools such as ChatGPT to create certain items, but be careful about relying too much on such automated tools.
Remember that you want to build a unique brand, so you don’t want to churn out content that’s too generic. Encourage your customers and followers to engage and contribute their own content. Hold contests for videos that showcase your product or business. Ask open-ended questions in blog posts and on social media. Put up polls and surveys.
Challenge 5: Keeping Up With Technology and Industry Trends
Small businesses don’t have the luxury of hiring specialists who can handle every different area such as SEO, video marketing, pay-per-click ads, and market research. In a time when marketing and technology are evolving fast, this can make it hard to keep up.
You need to be selective in the information you consume. Find a few trusted sources who can keep you updated, whether through newsletters, podcasts, webinars, or videos. You can’t read, watch, and listen to everything. But you also don’t want to be the last one to hear about groundbreaking technology or trends that have a huge impact on your business.
Focus on Your Strengths
As you look for ways to meet and overcome these small business challenges, it’s important to realize that there are some inherent advantages to being smaller and more agile. You can often develop more authentic relationships with customers. Smaller businesses are often more flexible and creative in their approach, allowing them to build communities and attract loyal customers.