When it comes to running your small business marketing – how do you make your marketing work for you? There’s lots to keep track of – you need to keep your product or service top of mind and connect with your tribe. Here are the critical 3 things you should be doing regularly to empower your business:
1. Review & Assess – Marketing Needs Your Supervision. When you are busy running the day-to-day operations of a business, it can seem like a blessing to put your marketing on auto-pilot but this can be dangerous. In today’s highly connected world, things change. Even the recent tweaks to the Google ranking system had dramatic impacts across the board for websites that had historically ranked at the top. Keeping up on what’s happening with your marketing should become as regular a habit as reviewing the books. Consider checking in weekly to see how things are going. That can include the convenience of reviewing analytic reports for your online media, but don’t forget to check on things like customer service and client satisfaction. Also, print ads or radio spots often seem out of your control but you can check for quality of print and placement or the day and time your spot ran. Just like a member of your staff – you expect your marketing to work for you but you still need to provide supervision.
2. Keep It Fresh – Find New Ways to Have A Conversation. We’ve all heard that content is king. When it comes to keeping your website or social media viable, it must contain recent and relevant information. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. There are always your musings which can be part of a regular blog – but don’t forget to utilize all the other associations out there in cyberspace which can benefit your industry. Articles and news stories can provide links to current updates, videos and photos give you new ways to share information. Beyond that – try the unexpected. Have you used humor or something edgy to capture attention? Sure, these tactics can sometimes cause a stir when humor falls flat – but then again, when managed correctly, it can give you another opportunity to have a deeper discussion with your tribe and increase engagement by showing you care enough to respond. What about sharing important dates, sharing company history, staff bios or new product enhancements. When it feels like there’s nothing new to report – take a look around and share the ordinary.
3. Even if You’ve Said It 100 Times – Say It Again. It’s a funny thing about all the information out there, we’ve got so much of it that we end up forgetting the vast majority of it. Just because you’ve promoted your business in the past or your business has been around forever, doesn’t mean that everyone knows about you or remembers you. You really can’t say it enough – although, granted, that is the reason you need to make it interesting (see #2). Don’t be afraid to keep putting your message out there and don’t be afraid to try it in new and unexpected ways. Sponsorships give you a chance to use your branded message at an event, online ads are another way to promote your business, interviews and guest blog posts all provide new ways to keep adding your message to the information super-highway.
Remember, as in all things, its best to strike a balance with your marketing. Keep it fresh, simple and consistent and you’ll start to see results.
Leah Goold-Haws is the Creative Director/Marketing Strategist for LGH Marketing/Strategy. Leah’s experience has included campaign development and strategy implementation for multi-agency collaboratives, corporations and non-profits as well as entrepreneurs and small business clients. You can now meet with Leah at the Small Business Development Center. The SBDC provides low or no cost business assistance. Schedule an appointment today by calling 242-7630.
