Businesses Need Marketing
If you want customers or clients, you need to find effective and meaningful ways to reach them. If you’re not experienced in marketing, or if you don’t have a lot of time, there’s sometimes a tendency to just try stuff out, see what sticks, and try to stay consistent with what works.
Or, you do what a lot of other new businesses owners do–you try to do it all, and then it all falls apart.
There’s a Better Way
Marketing is more than just posting stuff here or there on social media, and hoping something resonates, but if you’re running your business AND your marketing campaigns, sometimes that’s what you end up doing. If that’s where you’re at right now, that’s okay! You’re not alone.
But, marketing is an investment: of time, money, or both. You have to put something in to get something out, and you need to be strategic about it. If you’re struggling to get your marketing up to where you need it to be, or if it feels like you’re just aimlessly spinning your wheels, keep reading. This post is for you.
There are five things small business owners need to realize about marketing:
1. You Need to Have Goals
Why do you need marketing? Hint: the answer isn’t because everyone says you need it (even if they’re right). Before you begin, you need to know what you want to accomplish. Is it:
If you don’t know what you want to accomplish, it’s hard to get the results you’re looking for. And if you do have a goal, is it a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goal? You want a goal that is realistic, that has defined parameters, and that is measurable.
2. You Need to Know Your Audience
Are you selling to soccer moms or CEOs? Small tech start-ups, or Fortune 500 companies? You need to know who your audience is, what their needs and pain points are, and how you can best solve their problem.
3. You Need a Strategy
How are you going to meet your goals? How are you going to reach your audience? What’s your plan? It doesn’t have to be a dozen pages of details, but you should have a roadmap that leads you through the steps you want to take.
4. You Don’t Need to Do It All At Once
Once you have a strategy, break it down into the things you need to do right away for results, and the things that can be spread out over the next several months. Get one tactic going really well before you add in another. It’s not a sprint; it’s okay if the most you can handle is a weekly social media post and a twice-monthly blog post or newsletter when you’re just starting.
5. It’s Okay to Ask for Help
You owe it to yourself, and your business, to know when you can handle your marketing alone, and when you need to step back and let someone else take the reins. Hire someone who can help you build a strategy, help with the marketing tasks you’re juggling, or just lend a hand when you need a little extra support.