If you run marketing for a small business, you should be doing some, if not all of these things…
Every day I see it… a small business struggling.
The biggest problem these days… Marketing…
It’s the number one question business owners ask… How to market your business?
There are a million different ways to market your business… and there’s one secret I want to share with you on how to make your marketing really really work…
But first, let’s look at a few of these different ways to market.
Very quickly, I can think of a hundred ways to market… consider these:
- Direct mail
- Email marketing
- Text Message marketing
- In App marketing
- Banner Ads
- Text Ads
- Dedicated Emails
- Sponsorships
- Newsletter marketing
- Phone marketing
- Facebook marketing
- Twitter marketing
- Instagram marketing
- Social Media marketing
- Radio marketing
- TV marketing
- Billboard marketing
There are thousands more ways to market your business… but let me share with you a little secret… if you don’t focus on one and get good at it… all your other marketing will be a waste!
That’s right, pick one marketing platform, and figure it out. Really get good at using it.
That way you’ll have a metric to determine what is working and what isn’t. You’ll know your cost to acquire a new customer and know your cost to identify a prospect… and from there, you’ll have something to measure all future advertising by!
Ok, enough of that, what are the different marketing platforms you might test?
I told you that I’d give you 7 easy ways to market your business…
So here we go… 4 to find new prospects… and 3 to turn them into paying customers
- Facebook Advertising… I don’t care who you are, your customers are on Facebook. As a matter of fact, almost everyone is on Facebook! So, if you’re looking for new customers… this is where you should start!
- Social Media Marketing… Yea, I know Facebook is technically social media, but really, it’s a brand of its own. For the others, with smaller groups, you’ll want to focus on Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and whatever other “social media” platform comes round the bend.
- LinkedIn Marketing… Crazy right? LinkedIn is powerful for identifying people in the business world… if you’re running a pizza shop, this won’t be as useful. But, if you’re selling Business to Business… LinkedIn is a goldmine.
- SEO… I know, Search Engine Optimization is a pain in the backside… and I’m not 100% sure it really works… but you’re going to be producing content for your marketing anyway, you might as well toss it up on your site… and give it an extra 10 minutes of SEO love to get some traffic!
These four methods are about finding new customers… After you’ve identified them and captured their contact information, what comes next is turning them into buying customers.
- Direct mail marketing. This can be as simple as a local coupon pack mailing to customers in your area… or targeted letters, seeking people’s business. Yes, good old fashioned letters and envelopes can bring in real business… if you do it the right way!
- That leads us to email marketing… if you grab someone’s email address, you should market to them. You’ll find email marketing isn’t as successful as it once was… but it still works… so do it!
- Text Message Marketing… In my opinion, this is the holy grail of marketing. response rates are through the roof… and if you get your marketing right, this can move the needle on your business profits!
So, let’s put this all together.
Start with one platform. If it’s me, I’d start with running some Facebook ads. Get the ads up, offer your prospects something interesting, then ask them for their contact information.
If you get their name email address and phone number you’ll be golden.
With their email and phone number you can start emailing them information and texting them offers.
Don’t overwhelm them with information or messages. Be strategic. Think sniper shots, not shotgun blasts.
Finally, remember you are there to serve your customer… so do what you can to make the experience great!