For small businesses, the right marketing can make or break the company. It’s so important and worth it to invest the time into learning how to be a great small business marketer.
With so many social media platforms and new tools popping up every year, it can be hard to keep up, but the quality and consistency of marketing for any business are very important. Now more than ever small business marketing managers need to stay on top of the latest trends, identify threats in the market, and understand how to speak directly to their target market.
Luckily, we’re here to help you out! In this blog post, we’ll help you with some tips on how to be a great small business marketing manager and the skills it takes to succeed in 2021.
RESEARCH
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Analyze competitors to see what they are doing well and how you can improve on that strategy.
It’s critical to analyze your competitors and see where room for improvement exists. Develop a clear understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in your industry and use this information to improve your own business practices and/or offerings.
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Be a good listener and get to know your customers and understand what your customers want.
Today, customer service is an incredibly important part of running a successful business. Make sure to be on top of your customers’ needs and understand their wants and preferences.
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Stay up-to-date with current trends, news, and happenings in your industry to stay competitive.
Find out what the latest trends are in your industry and how you can stay ahead of them. Nothing remains the same – businesses that survive are businesses that evolve. Whether that is seasonally or yearly – make sure to have the latest of what your customers want.
BE VISIBLE & VOCAL
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Create a strong social media presence for your business
If you’re a small business owner looking to grow your online presence, social media is an excellent channel. Create a strong presence by posting regular updates, answering questions, and engaging with others via networking sites like Twitter or LinkedIn.With the right strategy, it’s easy to get people talking about what you have to offer!
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Make sure you have a blog on your website
Having a blog on your website is the best way to get local traffic. It’s great for SEO. And acts as a hub for you to distribute your information. Make sure to write clean, small paragraphs, skimmable content as 73% of readers only skim content for important sections they are interested in and don’t fully read the blogs.
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Create an email newsletter that includes the latest news, deals, and events
An email newsletter is a great way to get the word out about your organization. You can include the latest news, deals, and events.
BE CLEAR
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Define your marketing goals
If you don’t have clearly defined goals all of your marketing efforts will seem futile. To really make a difference – be specific as possible:
- Do you want to increase sales on Wednesday from 4:00 PM to Close?
- Do you want to increase quarterly revenue by 10%?
Without having a specifically defined goal you are throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks and most of the time when you have unfocused goals – nothing actually sticks. Break down your goals, then break down the goals into micro goals. Repeat this process another two or three times and you’ll have a clear breakdown of how to achieve your small business marketing goals and the technology with which to accomplish them.
BENCHMARK
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Keep track of all relevant data – including website traffic, conversion rates, return visitors, etc.
Data is one of the best ways to build a successful business. It’s Key. By benchmarking and analyzing performance, you’ll know what your website traffic and conversion rates are like so that you can improve them, and extrapolate them for performance goals. Having a spreadsheet where you can tweak data to project outcomes is an awesome tool to visualize your growth.
HAVE FUN
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Build relationships with other businesses in your area and offer them customer referrals.
If you’re a local business owner I recommend signing up to the Chamber of Commerce. That way, you’ll be able to connect with other businesses in your area and build strong relationships that could lead to referrals and new customers.
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Get creative with marketing tools like social media posts, infographics, videos, and more.
The more creative with your assets the more shares you will get on social media. Are you a meme-genius? Then Meme away! The more you share the more eyes get on your business if you go VIRAL you will see a huge increase in traffic whether that’s online or in person.
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Offer free samples of products or services so people can try them before they buy.
While some people are hesitant to try new things, free samples are a great way to get them started and build a relationship with the community. Get out there and interact with your customers and have fun!
Every day small business owners are faced with the challenge of marketing themselves and their products. This blog post was written by someone who has been there before. We know what challenges come with running a small business and we love sharing our knowledge on how to be a great small business marketer.
Being a small business marketing manager is not an easy job. It takes a lot of time and energy to be successful, but the effort pays off! By following the simple suggestions above you are on your way to record-breaking revenue.
