Let’s face it , marketing is a big job. Moving parts, platform changes, privacy updates, oh my!
Social Media can especially be intimidating. Knowing what to post, when to post it, or where to post it can be extremely overwhelming!
"Do I use Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? Pinterest? Should I consider TikTok? Like that's not enough, maybe you're asking yourself how do I engage in groups and talk to my audience?"
Does all this sound familiar? The problem with marketing for small businesses online comes from the vast amount of marketing channels that are available to businesses. In the last decade, the amount of ways that a company can market itself has tripled and studies have shown that online marketing is consuming most of a small business owner’s time.
"A study done by Constant Contact showed that small business owners devote 20 hours a week to their marketing.
The good news is that a large majority of those business owners who are devoting so much time to marketing across multiple platforms are reaping benefits. Those benefits include new customers (57 percent), more Web traffic (54 percent), and increased revenues (40 percent).
Those who aren’t getting benefits point to the drawbacks of using multiple platforms:
Unfamiliar with using the various tools.
Time-consuming.
Not sure customers are using all the platforms the business uses.
Not knowing how to measure success.
So how do you achieve success? 🤔
Creating a Marketing Plan
First off, you have to have a marketing plan in place. To do so you need to know the following:
Who is your ideal client?
What are your competitors doing?
What's going on in your industry?
Then determine:
What goals do you want to achieve with your marketing?
What platforms will you use?
What's your budget?
The answers to all of these questions are different for every business. Your goal in marketing doesn't always have to be "just" a sale. Goals can also be things like brand awareness, brand engagement, and community involvement.
Just make sure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely). Using the SMART goal framework will help keep you focused, effective, and efficient. More importantly, it will allow for imperative conversations to happen throughout the process.
Keep in mind that goal setting is a dynamic process. You’ll always refine your goals and work toward new challenges.
Happy Marketing!
If you need help navigating or executing your marketing goals, 5 West Media Group is here for you.
