Let’s face it. As a small business, you do not have the time or capital that large companies can invest in marketing, so you must make sure what you are doing is right. But without the ability to hire a huge team to strategize, execute, measure and adjust your marketing how do you know if what you are doing is going to help your business grow.
Marketing is a challenge to the small business owner, who is often tasked with being a jack of all trades. Knowing that in today’s world a capable marketing strategy is very important to stick out of the crowd.
1. Not Understanding their target market
This is probably one of the biggest issues I have seen with small businesses. Failure to understand your target market can be detrimental to your business. It is important to know the demographics of your audience and the psychographics, so you know how to properly build your marketing strategy to reach them.
The best way to fix this is to get out in the community and meet people. Talk to those who come into your store, contact you for services, eat at your restaurant and more.
Surveys are one of the most effective ways to gather information on your audience. The art of the survey is one that is tough to master and one that not many marketers use to their advantage to build their plans for existing businesses. This information gathering is important as it tells you not only where you need to focus your message but also how to focus that message.
2. Not properly investing in Social Media
It is 2019 and you cannot talk about marketing without talking about one of the most important, if not the most important, channel to promote your business. That is social media. With that said there are still companies that don’t properly invest in a strategy for social media.
Many people still view social media as a one-hour to two-hour a week job where you just come up with some quick content. Take some photos with your phone and post. Most do not take the time to properly strategize their editorial calendar or utilize the data available to tell you what content is working and when to post content.
Not to mention, there are many that still view social media as a free platform and do not invest in social media advertising. Let’s face it, in today’s world, social media is a Pay to Play platform if you really want to reach your followers. Those that do use ads tend to load it up with text in the caption or on the images that drastically lowers your reach and drives up the cost of their campaign.
A truly effective social media strategy means you must know how to invest in making the most out of your organic posts and building an advertising strategy that delivers the most bang for your buck.
3. Not knowing what competitors are doing
Not knowing your market is bad. But not knowing what your competitors are doing could be just as bad. The point of marketing Is to make your product or business stick out from the crowd. It is important to know what the crowd is doing to reach the audience.
Knowing your competitors will help you figure out how is the best way to stick out. You have to give your customers a reason to pick you over them.
4. Not measuring progress or adjusting campaigns
After you know who your audience is and figure out what your competitors are doing, and you put together a compelling social media plan you have to measure if your efforts are working. That means looking beyond vanity metrics like likes, retweets, and follows.
Knowing what the key performance indicators for your marketing is one of the most important aspects of marketing. With that, you cannot measure your efforts. It is important to have that conversation early and talk to your consultant about what you need to look for and staying on top of those metrics.
Once you get those metrics it is important to be able to adjust quickly. While you don’t want to make changes on too small of a sample size you also don’t want to wait a year to adjust your strategy if it isn’t working.
If you are struggling with getting a handle on these four things for your business send me a message and I can help. I am a 10-year marketing professional that has won almost 50 awards, most working on shoe-string budgets and maximizing the value from every dollar. My prices are reasonable, and each package is specifically tailored to your business needs. I know there is no one-size fit all solution.
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