Bread and butter…That is what marketing is to your business. Now, before you say anything, just think about how much marketing has already helped your business and given you awareness in otherwise closed places.
It might be bold, but hey, we’re those kind of people, so we’ll just come out and say it. Your business is only as good as its marketing strategy.
It can be hard to determine what the best fit is for your budget and your needs. In fact, it is part of the entrepreneurial challenge to figure out how to spend limited funds.
Where do you start, and how can you get the most out of your marketing while still adhering to a budget?
A good place to start is by thinking about your customers, audience, and potential audience. How do you want to reach them? What would be the best way to reach them? What medium would they respond to most?
This will help you navigate the allocation process and aim for profitable avenues of marketing. While the U.S. Small Business Administration recommends spending about 7 to 8 percent of your gross revenue, it won’t do you any good without knowledge on where to spend it.
Our advice is to try and narrow down things that you might want your marketing to include first before spending anything.
Look at the competition and do your research on marketing tools that have a proven rate of success.
Common marketing methods like:
Blogs: One of the best ways to improve drive traffic and boost your SEO ranking, blogs can also serve as an information warehouse, where readers can see that you really do have a great wealth of knowledge to share. If you had to choose a strong marketing tool for your business, blogging should be the first place you start.
Email Marketing: Emails are not going anywhere anytime soon. With a proven track record of being solid forms of marketing that yield real growth, email is one of (if not the most) the highest drivers of ROI in marketing today. (Read more about that here: https://www.thefoundgen.com/is-email-marketing-really-as-good-as-we-keep-preaching/ )
Social Media: What can we say? Social media is – all around us (please read this in Hugh Grant voiceover tone). You can reach people you never thought possible just by being active, consistent, and engaging. Remember those three, because that is the key to social media working for you.
Videos: Video is an another way to engage your clients and potential clients. Some people won’t want to read a blog (we don’t trust those people), but will respond better to video. It can be a strong marketing tool across platforms and an easy way to step up your content and reach those who prefer a few seconds of live action before they swipe to some cats doing some cat thing.
All of these can serve the purpose of marketing your business and reaching your target audience – where they are.
However, now you have to decide which ones to put your money toward. That is where the second piece of the puzzle comes in: determining what the right fit is for you.
This can quickly turn into a trial-and-error situation without the help of seasoned marketing professionals. You know your business (probably backward and forwards). Marketing firms know how to help bring the best out of your business and increase revenue at the same time.
It would be a shame to spend money and not see any returns. Wouldn’t it? Let’s chat about what tools your business would most benefit from and how you can see real growth.