Small Business Marketing Steps
This time of year we find many of our clients are floundering to get their initial marketing on target. Unfortunately, marketing can be tough for small businesses. So in order to develop a more consistent effective marketing, we suggest five simple steps.
Know your Audience – this is a little tricky for small businesses. But what you sell is actually second to what the sale does for your client. What benefit does it provide? You probably already know this but it is important to scratch out a list. This list will help you develop marketing ideas.
Grow Your Data – this can apply on so many different levels. But first and foremost it is about collecting contact info for clients, prospects, and suspects. You should always keep this info top of mind. Grow it, groom it, and use it.
Write/Ideas – Content creation is more important than ever. This part stumps a lot of people. Take 10-20 minutes to open up a word doc and write your thoughts on new product, recent project, a client, etc. You'll find ideas can be easy. These ideas are just some of the seeds for further content development. Many people get stuck thinking they need a completed article or marketing piece. Don't start their. Start with a 100-200 word description - bullet points, outline, etc.
Develop and Diversify – once you have a few ideas written down, you can develop marketing pieces. This can be an article, infographic, white paper, or success story. You can turn it into a post for social media, a case study for your website, a newsletter article, etc. One of our first marketing efforts we used was emails. We sent out emails about successful websites. There was a small description with an image of the website. That was it. And at the end of the year we listed all our new clients to thank them. Don't over think it at first. The more ideas you develop the easier it gets to branch out.
Schedule – the last part of the process is to develop a calendar. Set up the calendar for all the parts. Not just the public launch but all the steps prior to. For example 1st Friday – 2-3 article ideas. 2nd Friday – write one article. 3rd Friday – Create newsletter article with images. 4th Friday update newsletter email list and send newsletter.
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