Is marketing something you hate doing?
You’re not alone.
Most small business owners who are not copywriters or marketing professionals often put the task of marketing on the back burner.
And to be honest, I can see why.
Most business owners have lots of other things to do to keep their businesses running. Marketing is not always on their list of things to do.
Of course, marketing is extremely important. Without it, you are unable to create brand loyalty among your current customers, get new ones and increase sales.
Below are 5 tips to help get your marketing efforts on a roll this year.
Create an Email Newsletter
In a world where social media gets most of the attention, the importance of email is often diminished as a result. Of all the marketing strategies you can implement, building an email list is perhaps one of the most important ways you can capture an audience since you are in control of the communication.
There are many email providers to choose from. If you’re on a budget, MailChimp is a good one to start with. The service is free to businesses with less than 2,000 subscribers. Plan on sending something to your email list at least once a week. If you don’t have a substantial list, not to worry. You can start with your current customers (ask their permission first) and later, you can use a variety of strategies to draw in new ones. More on that in a future blog post.
The idea is to create content of value for your email list, something that will keep them coming back week after week.
If you already have a blog, you could use that as the content for your newsletter via RSS feed. You can set that up automatically within MailChimp, which means that every time you publish a new blog post, that automatically becomes part of your online newsletter.
As long as you publish new blog content on a frequent basis, you will be guaranteed fresh content for your list to see.
MailChimp, like other email service providers, offers a variety of templates for its customers to create beautiful looking newsletters. Don’t be afraid to be creative.
The Importance of Blogging
Blogging is much more than creating an online journal, which is what it started out as in the early ‘90s. According to Statista, an online statistics, market research and business intelligence portal, there are over 30 million active bloggers posting to the Internet each month. Worldwide, over 2 billion blog posts are being published each year.
Whether you join those bloggers is completely up to you but know that blogging consistently will pay off in the end as long as you create content of value. In addition, Google loves blogs that are updated frequently and ultimately pushes that content to the top of its search engine rankings.
It takes some time to get there, however. According to this post from marketing guru Neil Patel, blogging is one of the top lead-generation tactics a business can engage in.
Take a look at this video, also from Patel, on the 5 ways to make money from blogging.
P.R. Opportunities
Every business wants to be featured on the local news channel and in newspapers but not all make it there.
While a lot depends on the kind of business you have and what may or may not be newsworthy about what you do, there are some things that you can do to generate potential publicity.
Help a Reporter, also known as the Cision/HARO platform, is a great resource for businesses if you monitor the listings it puts out on a daily basis.
HARO connects journalists and bloggers with valuable expert resources no matter what kind of story they are writing. The service distributes more than 50,000 journalist queries from top media sites each year.
Your business might just be the source as a reporter or blogger is looking for, so be sure to sign up.
Other things you can do is keep an eye on breaking news stories in both the national and local press. If your business can piggyback off a breaking story and provide itself as an expert source, then you’ve just showcased your brand in front of thousands.
Contributing to your local newspaper as an expert in your industry is also a good way to get your name out there. Call the editor and ask if he or she is looking for experts to write a weekly or monthly column.
Video Marketing
I realize that many small businesses don’t want to get involved in video marketing for fear of doing it wrong, but too many people are watching video these days to let this marketing opportunity slip away.
According to a 2018 HubSpot Digital Consumer Trends Report, Facebook is quickly catching up to YouTube as a video platform. Sixty-one percent of those surveyed said they wanted to learn something from the videos they watched.
Don’t worry about the need to create professionally-looking videos. In fact, the rawer they are, the more authentic your content will appear. No need to buy expensive video equipment, either. You can shoot pretty high-quality videos with your iPhone or Android device. Take a look at this short video from HubSpot to learn the basics of filming with your iPhone.
And some tips for all of you Android users:
To get the most benefit out of video marketing, you might want to look into creating an explainer video, a tool that visually explains what you do, along with a quick synopsis of the products and/or services you offer.
You could create one yourself using a tool like Moovly or you could hire an expert on Fivrr or other freelance services website to do it for you. Freelancers on Fivvr charge $5 and up per project, so this is definitely a cost-effective to get your explainer video made.
Google My Business Page
This is a great free tool that all businesses should be aware of, especially since 60 percent of prospective customers use their mobile devices to look for local services. Over 80 percent of searches worldwide are conducted on Google, as shown in this graphic below.
Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Search Engine Market Share
Google My Business offers lots of benefits to the local business, including the ability to create free ads, to post important updates about your business, to share photos related to your business and so much more.
You can also optimize your page so it is included in Google’s “Local 3-Pack,” which basically means that if you optimize the page properly, your business can be one of three featured at the top of a search result display.
The results, will, however, depend on your physical location. Be sure to fully complete the page and include the appropriate keywords that you think a potential customer would put into the Google search bar.
Have you implemented any of these tips in your own business? Let me know.