Marketing a business requires some careful consideration and lots of research, and it’s often a big job that necessitates a dedicated service. However, small business owners typically don’t have the budget for those types of services, and when you’re building a company from the ground up, it’s common to feel the need to take on all the most important tasks yourself anyway.
It is possible to become your own marketing department, but you’ll need to figure out the basics first and make sure you understand the language so you can find the right resources. Whether you need to plan out a marketing strategy for a new business or are looking to refresh your methods, there are resources available online that can help with an array of social media services and website development. Here are some tips and resources from WiseClicker to get you started.
Define Your Needs
Your marketing needs will be determined by your target customer and where/how they shop for your product or service. Once you’ve done some research to find out all you can about your audience and competition, you can set some goals and come up with a strategy.
How will you make sure your business stands out from the crowd? What are your customers looking for? By overhauling your website to make it accessible for all abilities, adding original content, and focusing on digital marketing, you can ensure that your customers will be able to easily find you and interact with your business. Read up on all the various options business owners have for advertising these days and utilize as many of them as possible.
Put Your Strategy into Action
Marketing channels are the paths and tools through which a product or service is delivered to the customer, and there are several you can choose from. Consider how you’ll sell your product—in a store, online, or both, for instance—and how you can utilize different advertising methods for different results. You can include some of the more old-fashioned methods, such as putting up flyers and billboards and networking at business events, to bring in local customers for specific items or in-store sales. Targeted social media ads are perfect for a wider reach, and you can spotlight items that you have a larger amount of in-stock this way.
You can also invest in invoicing software for your SMB that includes your logo and brand messaging. Simply choose from an assortment of pre-made templates and customize your invoice by adding your name, logo, brand colors, and any other pertinent information.
Make Sure Your Message Speaks Volumes
When thinking about your advertising strategy, it’s crucial to make sure your business has an up-front message. This includes not only the actual words you use to get a customer’s interest but the story behind them. Why are you selling these products or services? How do you source materials? What are your goals as a business owner? Creating a vision for your business not only helps customers relate to you, but it also allows them to make a more informed decision about what they’re buying, which builds loyalty. Think of ways you can evoke emotion with your advertising methods and how that will draw in your target customer.
Follow Up
After you’ve put your marketing strategy into action, it’s essential to follow up and find out whether it worked. There are a few tools you can use to do this, including analytics resources and customer surveys, but typically the best way to learn about the success of your marketing methods is to look at your direct revenue. Keeping up with your business’s stats can be challenging, but there are lots of resources online that will help you measure data and analyze it.
Becoming your own marketing department requires a clear plan and quite a bit of organization, so give yourself plenty of time to work out a strategy and implement it. Utilize all the free and low-cost tools at your disposal so the process goes as smoothly as possible.
WiseClicker is a unique resource for small businesses looking for information that will help them improve the profitability of their web presence. If you have any questions, please let us know!
