In this age of the internet, we can reach anyone sitting in the comfort of our homes. It also includes reaching small businesses. Maybe you are an owner of a small business and you want to reach similar businesses. Or you can be a customer reaching a small business for your needs. The purpose can be anything. In this article, I will tell you how to reach small businesses in 2024. I would aim to provide you with a few simple (yet effective) ways to reach small businesses.
Why You Would Want To Reach Small Businesses
Before understanding how to reach small businesses, one question arises. Why you would want to reach small businesses. Here are two situations in which you would want to reach and connect with small businesses.
- Business Partnerships
Let’s say you are a business owner. You are running a particular business in a particular domain. You may want to reach other small businesses that can allow a business partnership with your business. This is the prime example of when business owners reach other businesses. Many small businesses work on products and services that are useful for other businesses. This can help a possible business collaboration.
- Job Opportunities
If you are an individual looking for a job, reaching out to small businesses or startups can help you find a job. Many people reach out to business owners of small businesses for job opportunities. You can say there are many platforms and job portals for the same. However, there are other methods too wherein you can directly reach small business owners. This is what you will see later in the article.
- Customer Interaction And Feedback
Small businesses value feedback the most. This is what can help them upscale their business and improve their services. Many businesses even have dedicated teams to cater to feedback and customer interactions. As a customer, you may want to reach a small business and initiate a conversation.
How To Reach Small Businesses
There are many ways that can help you reach small businesses. Most of these ways are useful and would bring positive results. However, as per your experience, you may prefer one method over the other. Let me tell you these methods and you may experiment with what works for you!
Using Google Maps
Whenever you run any business, it is a high chance that you register it on Google maps. This helps people find your business and your official website. As a business owner, it is a normal practice to register your details on Google maps. You can use this to your advantage. Let’s say you want to search for printing shop businesses. You can directly go to Google maps and search “printing shops near me”. Google will present the location and details of many printing shops near you. It will provide you the emails, contacts, and even directly calling numbers. You can use this data to reach such businesses.
This method works if you looking to reach small local businesses. However, this method may not work as many printing shops you aim for do not come under your vicinity. In such cases, you can look at the other methods mentioned in the article.
Using SimilarWeb And LinkedIn
Let us stick to the example of the printing shop business. SimilarWeb is a tool that helps you find websites similar in content and niche. You can go to their website and enter any business website you relate to. So, if you already have a printing shop business website, you can use SimilarWeb’s free tool to find more similar business websites. Once you have the list, you can visit the websites and contact the relevant person.
Or you can find the same business on LinkedIn. LinkedIn can help you find the correct person that would help you with your purpose. Once you have the profile of the person, you can send a connection request and message them your purpose of reaching out.
You can also find the email address of a particular person from LinkedIn.
You can read our in-depth article on that here
Using Social Media Platforms
On different social media platforms, you can join groups and official pages of small businesses. These official groups would include many small businesses interacting with each other wherein you can find your place as well. Facebook has tons of groups where you can find small business owners. You can reach out to them there or engage with your own business.
Instagram is one platform that has provided a great digital space for many small businesses. You can use hashtags to find small businesses on Instagram. You can easily find hashtags related to a particular business. Using hashtags, you will find tons of business profiles. Once you get to their profile, do not hesitate to leave a DM or maybe use the contact information provided there.
Twitter is also a great place to use hashtags and communities for small businesses. Almost every small business would try to engage and create its Twitter space. This is where you can use tweets and replies to reach out to small business owners.
Quora and Reddit are two major forum platforms. You can find tons of communities related to your business. You can interact with the community members who are people working in the same domain as yours. You can find relevant business partnership opportunities along with job opportunities. These communities are filled with people below your profile along with entrepreneurs. Along with these communities, you can engage with small business owners in answering or replying to their questions. This also helps keep a healthy conversation between the two businesses.
Using Cold Emailing
Cold emailing is one great strategy to reach out to small businesses. You can find emails of a particular person in a company. Using their email address, you can send them an email explaining your purpose for reaching out. As discussed, the purpose can be anything. You may reach out to them for a business proposal or maybe you are looking for a job in their business.
Cold emailing requires two things. The first one is finding the email and the second is validating the email to ensure it does not bounce. To find emails, LinkedIn and some freemium tools are your best resort. As I have already linked our in-depth article in the above part of the article, you can refer to it there.
Once you find the email of any business owner or an employee, you would want the email to be a valid email. You do not want to face an error and see that your email has bounced. There are various ways to validate an email address. To learn how to check email address validity, check our article here!
Offline Networking Events
Apart from all the methods mentioned above, this method can be a great choice. You can look online for offline networking events related to your business niche. You can visit these events where you will find many similar businesses and people of the same domain. You can interact with them, exchange contacts, and discuss possible business partnerships.
This method still holds importance in the age of the internet. Meeting someone in person and discussing business opportunities are always a great way. Reaching someone online is handy. But meeting people in person gives a more personal as well as a professional touch to your purpose.
Things To Keep In Mind While Reaching Small Businesses
Do Not Spam Them
Many people have this assumption that multiple messages or reach outs would ensure a reply. Well, this is not true. Despite being a small business, if you spam them with multiple messages, it can lead to a negative impact. Anyone can take time to reply and spamming in any situation is not healthy. So, do not spam, and be patient.
Do Not Expect Quick Replies
Do not assume or expect quick replies. Small businesses do have a lot of work at hand. In fact, they are the ones trying to make it big. They run on a hectic schedule along with multiple tasks every single day. Even if you get a reply, the next reply may take a little time. This is where you need to think as a business owner. Even you running your business cannot respond every single day. The same goes for other businesses as well.
Use One Method At A Time
When reaching out to small businesses, it is important to use one platform or method at a time. Imagine you get the same message on Instagram, Twitter, email inbox, Quora, and even on your official website. This is pure spam and won’t attract replies. Instead, use one platform at a time and try to wait for a few days. If a particular method is not working, you can try other platforms. This should be your approach when reaching out to small businesses.
Be Accurate And Add Value
When reaching out to small businesses, be accurate and direct in your approach. In a professional conversation, you can directly state your purpose for reaching out. Moreover, try to directly explain what value you can add. It can be a business proposition or maybe they can look up to you as their next employee with certain skills. Explaining and coming to the point directly helps people analyze your purpose. This would help you attract more replies and get in touch quickly.