5 ways to avoid marketing madness

Here we are, a month into the year and what’s happening in your marketing department?

OK, if you’re a small business, that might not be a department, it may just be you, but having a clear marketing plan is important.

Marketing covers pretty much everything from customer demographics through research and development, advertising, promotion, sales all the way to customer service.  It’s a big area to cover, but having at least a skeleton plan is important, even for the smallest business.

Here’s our 5 tips to put your marketing on track

1: Understand your target client well

This means knowing what their problems are and how you can solve them, so that all your efforts are accurately targeted.

2: Know where your business comes from

This will be tougher if you’re a new business and that means you need to make a habit of asking every new customer how they found you.  If an enquirer says ‘online’ ask if they did a search or found you via social media or somewhere else.

If most of your existing clients have come from referrals, how did the referrers know about you? 

This will help to ensure that your focus is on the right activities.

3: Have an online strategy

This is not just about social media.  Your website needs to present you well and be focused on what your customers get, rather than what you do.  Does your site look up-to-date and present information in the way that potential clients want to get it? 

Yes, social media is important, but don’t just spray comments out and never get personal on your business accounts. 

• Aim to share your expertise and offer tips and advice to engage your audience.
• Blogs are a great way of establishing your credibility as an expert and can be linked to via posts on various social media platforms.
• Do you have a list that you have permission to market to?  Could you build one with the right lead magnet?
• Would a regular newsletter or email campaign help to create engagement?

A content plan will make creating your regular posts and messages much easier.

4: Before you buy print advertising, understand the actual costs

If you decide to put an advert into a specific publication, remember that the cost of the ad may only be the tip of the iceberg. 

If the ad is successful will you have to deal with increased phone or email traffic?  Will you need a lead magnet as a target to get interested people on your mailing list (creating this, including the artwork, creating and installing a form on your website all cost money)? 

The best special offer on an ad is only worth it if the publication is read by a large proportion of your target audience.

5: Improve your network

Whether you network locally or online or both, educating your network about what you have to offer can often be the best way to generate a stream of business referrals. 

Actively aim to network with the people who fit your ideal client profile, but don’t dismiss connections because they’re not potential clients, they could know people who fit your perfect client profile perfectly and be enthusiastic advocates for you.

Finally, think ahead, create a strategy, put a plan in place and then follow it and don’t be diverted by ‘offers too good to refuse’ if they don’t fit into it!

Make the headlines

If you want to get your business in the news, the first thing to do is to work out which publications you want to target.

Of course, making the headlines in the national dailies would be amazing, but, to be realistic, you have to have something big time to make it past the editor’s red pen.  A brand new invention, results that nobody else has been able to achieve or something very controversial would be needed just to get their interest, let alone actually make it into print.

However, that doesn’t mean you have to throw in the towel and give up writing press releases.  Instead you need to get smart!

Step One: find out what your ideal client reads

This will require you to do two exercises – firstly, create a detailed profile of your perfect client.  It sounds easy, but it’s harder than most people think.  Don’t be tempted to generalise – and don’t be diverted by all the people you COULD help.  What you’re aiming for here is the client who loves what you do for them and that is a joy to work for.

The second step is to do your research into what kind of business reading your target audience do.  Is it local business publications, industry journals, professional publications from an industry body?  Do they read hard copy or online?  What kind of articles attract their attention?

Step two: build a press list

The results from step one will take you halfway to creating a press list.  However, the names of the publications are not enough.  Go online and search for:

• Each publication’s website
• The name of the editor (for big publication that might be a specific editor – e.g. the business editor)
• An email address
• The phone number 
• What you can find out about their reader demographics
• Frequency of publication and deadline for the next publication

Read at least one, ideally two, issues of each publication to get an idea of the type of articles they publish and the tone and style of that publication.

Step three: create 2-3 potential article outlines

This would be a headline and a brief (2-3 line) overview of what the article will cover.  You’ll need to be clear about why the publication’s readers will be interested/get value/benefit from the article.

You’ll need these before you move on to step 4.

Step four: pick up the phone

Set aside some time to call each publication.  Rather than try to contact a dozen publications, maybe target three at a time.

Your aim is to talk to the editor or section editor and find out:

• Do they take unsolicited or uncommissioned articles?
• Would they be interested in occasional articles around the subjects your outlines cover?
• What is the best way for you to submit potential material?

If you can’t get hold of the right person, talking to their assistant could be helpful.

If you have found out when their publication deadline is, don’t call in the days leading up to that – their focus will not be on what you’re saying and you’re more likely to get a ‘no’ as it’s the quickest way of getting you out of their hair.

When you find publications who are interested, follow their instructions and don’t bombard them with material.  Check your submissions carefully for spelling, grammar and punctuation before sending it – they do have editors, but the less they need to do the better and it’s your reputation on the line.

Then, as they say, ‘rinse and repeat’!

How hard is your marketing content working?

The most frequent complaint I hear is ‘I don’t have time’, when it comes to marketing.  Because I write stuff and know a bit about social media, business owners think I spend all day on LinkedIn and Facebook and writing new web content for my website.

I do spend all day writing – but for my clients blogs, newsletters, email campaigns and websites.  That means that my own material often takes a back seat.  I’m just the same as you – I don’t have lots of spare hours to indulge in marketing – but I know it needs to be done so I have some systems that make life easier.

I call this my Marketing Machine.

There’s a saying ‘ask a lazy person how to do something and they’ll find the most efficient way of getting it done’.  When I realised that I needed blogs, social media posts, newsletters and email campaigns to help market my business I knew I wasn’t going to have time to write that amount of content.  So I cheat!!

I write one article of 300 words and then leverage it.

• It goes on my blog.
• It goes on my LinkedIn profile as an article.
• Sometimes it forms the basis for an article for a publication my target clients read.
• I take quotes out to create social media posts – all linked back to the blog – and use Hootsuite to schedule these to post on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
• I use the blog as the lead item in my newsletter with a second promotional item for something I offer as a service.
• I have broken the blog down into three segments and used them as an email campaign.
• I’ve even put three or four blogs together (with a bit of editing) to create a knowledge-sharing free download to help build my list.

Some of these I do with every blog, some more occasionally.

To make the article writing easier I always have a list of a dozen or so subject areas to write about – all the things I offer as services to my clients.

So stop worrying about how much content you need – and not doing anything.  Set aside an hour and write 300 words, the rest is easy!

If you want the Marketing Machine graphic it’s a free download out of the Inside News Treasure Chest.

What’s on your horizon?

If you’re like most business owners, the beginning of a calendar year is often a good point to review, revise and revamp. 

As the saying goes ‘if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there,’ but it’s always a challenge to really nail down what you want your business to achieve – a year is a long time and things you don’t know about yet will change your plan.  But no plan at all is a recipe for spending time and resources fire-fighting in the future.

These are my tips for getting focused

1: Work out what you want your turnover and profit to be monthly

Do you need to increase your prices?  Do you need more customers?  Do you need to educate existing customers about services or products they don’t know you offer (or have forgotten about)?  What is your cost per sale (really, no guesstimates)?

2: Know who you want to serve

Not anybody you could help, but those people you would love to work with and who will really appreciate what you offer.  Get into the detail and you’ll find it much easier to find people/organisations that fit the bill.

3: Get your message on target

Remember it needs to be about what they get, not what you do.  Is this message consistent on your website, your marketing materials, your networking pitch, your brochures?  Is the language ‘we’ or ‘you’? (It should be the latter).

4: Keep existing customers happy

A phone call ‘for no reason’ is a good way to keep communication open and make your customers feel valued.  Ask them how business is going, have a chat – and always ask if it’s a convenient time to talk first.  Do you give them special offers or early access to new things?

5: Develop new customers

What does your sales funnel look like?  What is the free/low cost offer to get people to identify themselves as interested in what you offer?  How do you move people from free to low cost to customer to premium client?

6: Get your marketing organised

If you think that this is the year you’re going to get your social media organised or start blogging regularly or send out a monthly newsletter – have a plan.  It’s no good saying you’re going to do and then facing a blank piece of paper or screen and hoping for inspiration to strike.  Put some of your key subjects on a calendar and put stuff together in batches – it will make life much easier.

7: Delegate, outsource, get expert help

Don’t try to do everything yourself.  Do the things that you are good at, that your clients appreciate and that make a difference to your business.  Delegate or outsource the things that you don’t have to do.  Note that this doesn’t mean abdicate responsibility – keep track and ensure those who are doing the accounts, admin, marketing, social media, website, IT, etc know what outcomes are expected and are accountable.

Finally, enjoy the ride!