As a small business owner, your mind is often in ten (or ten-thousand) places at once. This means that even things you might already know are important to your marketing can get reprioritized, unprioritized, or just plain forgotten. But proper marketing isn’t just one more thing to keep track of—it can grow your business exponentially. That’s why you should make sure these 5 important marketing strategies don’t get lost in the shuffle:
1. Discover Your Audience
Conduct market research with help from some free online tools to assess your individual marketing needs and avoid wasting time on strategies that aren’t working.
2. Size Up the Competition
A Competitor Audit can help you find out what the other guys are doing right, what they’re doing wrong, and what you can do to stand out in the marketplace.
3. Size Yourself Up
Now that you know what they’re doing, figure out what you’re doing. A MarCom audit is like a report card for your brand. Start by analyzing every aspect of your marketing, from web presence to what types of photos you’re using, and figure out what’s working, and what’s not. You can conduct a MarCom audit yourself (this free eBook offers a detailed explanation of how), or you can save the time and hire a marketing professional to do one for you.
4. Say What You Mean
Create your Positioning Statement. Different from a Mission Statement, which establishes your company’s purpose and ethos, a Positioning Statement clearly defines how your customers should perceive you. This will guide all future decisions about copy, design and imagery, and will result in developing your brand’s key messages.
5. Get Everyone on the Same Page
Make a one to two page Brand Strategy document collecting the brand attributes, words, and images that embody your organization, and share it with your colleagues.
Marketing is an invaluable component of every business, small or large. Take the time to implement these marketing practices, and you’ll be glad you did. Or, if you don’t have the time to spare, you might want to consider hiring a marketing agency to do it for you. Either way, it will be worth the investment.
