Just because you don't have the same resources, it doesn’t mean your small business can't learn from the big players and apply their tactics in your marketing. Business giants are usually on the leading edge of their industries and the first ones to try out new marketing approaches. Learn from their mistakes and keep a close eye on their successes – here are 8 best marketing strategies your small business can adopt today.

1. Cross-sell your products or services

This smart technique is used by giants like Amazon to capitalize online sales. Every time you check out a product, you're greeted by a widget showing other products people bought together with the one you're looking at.

Build a system that will pull related products or services to your product pages. Make sure that they're really similar and the association makes sense – only then will you improve the customer’s experience on your website. Making an extra sale doesn’t hurt either.

2. Capitalize on holidays and major events

Take cue from Coca-Cola which created fun Olympics inspired games during the Sochi Winter Olympics. The brand asked their followers to upload short videos of themselves playing these games for a $100 gift card.

You can adopt this idea by using major events and important holidays to your favor. Lots of events take place during the summer, so orient a part of your marketing effort around them and you're bound to encourage engagement with your brand.

3. Create messaging that evokes emotion

Take a look at any major ecommerce platform. What instantly pops out is simple, emotion-evoking messaging that is perfectly integrated with their products or services. Instead of relying on stock photos and dry messages, invest in quality imagery and copywriting to stand out and truly connect with your customers.

Don't bombard visitors with information – offer a simple message and a selection of captivating images to draw people in and maintain their interest in your offer.

4. Get new ideas through crowdsourcing

Big brands often invite people to share their ideas about new features or products. Skype uses Facebook to crowdsource ideas from users and then communicates whether user suggestions are under consideration on their community page.

Use Facebook or other social networks as your focus groups to learn what customers want and what's missing from their experience with your brand. Showing that you care about their opinion, you'll also improve your brand image and drive customer loyalty.

5. Follow the unbeatable 70/20/10 rule

Many large brands follow this rule, and so should you. The 70/20/10 rule works like this: the majority of your content (70%) should be all about information valuable to your followers, helping you to situate your brand in your niche. But you should also share content created by others – this should make up for 20%. Use the remaining 10% of content share for guiltless self-promotion.

6. Invest in remarketing

Take a look at Amazon again. While much of their marketing messaging is subtle, their remarketing strategy is pretty much down to the point. And it works! Remarketing is a powerful strategy brands use to target and engage people who already visited their websites.

Follow their example and re-engage these groups of customers to encourage them to complete their purchase. Remarket your content in smart and well-targeted ads – that's how you'll transform bounced visitors into leads, increasing repeat visitor rates and brand recall.

7. Get more reviews

Big brands put in a lot of effort to encourage customers to leave reviews and rate their products or services. According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over other forms of advertising.

Showcase real customer reviews on your website and your product will instantly look much more reliable, boosting your sales and brand image. You can use systems like Boast or Rating Widget to easily do the job for you.

8. Offer amazing customer service

If you take a closer look at the biggest beauty brands, you'll notice that customers are inspired to express their love for their products on social media channels. Dove is an excellent example – they offer great customer service to their Facebook fans and never leave comments unanswered.

Bring your customer service to your most prominent social media channels. When followers ask you a question, be there to instantly respond and direct them to the right resource. You'll boost the online engagement with your products and show the human face behind your brand.

Conclusion

Just because you don't operate on a multi-million marketing budget doesn't mean that you can't make the most out of strategies used by the big players for your small business. Adopt these 8 marketing tactics to build a strong online following, boost the status of your brand, generate more leads and convert them into loyal customers.

Author Bio: Emily Burgess is an avid blogger working at Course Guru – Australia's education experts. She is interested in new ways technology might be used to promote businesses and generate leads. When not in the office, she enjoys learning foreign languages.