Detailed marketing plans are fantastic – only if you have the patience and knowledge to implement them.
But let’s face it. Most of us don’t have the patience, time or expertise to implement a complicated plan ourselves. Nor do most businesses have the budget – especially these days – to hire a agency to deliver much more than a basic report full of “to-dos” that we know in our hearts will never become “to-dones.”
So what is a small business owner to do? Well you can ignore your marketing and hope. That certainly is a strategy. But it’s not really a good one.
Another road involves taking small steps that will move you incrementally towards more profitability. In other words “things you can do yourself.”
Whether you do it yourself or hire someone else to do it for you, here are eight to-dos you can check off your list that will help you meet your marketing goals – even during a pandemic.
- Take a look at your site from the viewpoint of your ideal clients. What is it you’re offering them? What problem do they have that you solve? That’s the reason they are on your site in the first place and that’s the only reason they will ever hire you.
- Check your website analytics. If you have a website, you probably have Google Analytics installed. If you don’t, do it now. But even if you do have Google Analytics installed – when was the last time you actually looked at them? Knowing how many people come to your site on a daily basis and where they are coming from is important. More important is knowing what content your visitors are looking at. So make it your goal to check your analytics at least once a week and start creating more of the type of content your visitors are actually interested in.
- Add your phone number and email to your website. Too many businesses make it difficult for potential clients to do business with them. Your goal is to make your visitor experience as easy as possible. Are you more afraid of spam and sales calls than client calls? You shouldn’t be. And while you’re at it check the copyright on the site and make sure that it is up to date.
- Review your LinkedIn profile. This is a simple one. LinkedIn is simple to set up. So most of us do it and then never look at it again. Review your LinkedIn profile and make sure that it reflects the services and experiences you bring to the table today and not the ones that you put in back in 2013.
- Set up a Facebook Business page. This one is another no-brainer. I have a personal Facebook page that is for my actual friends and family. I don’t pollute it with anything about my business – other than if I write a book and want to brag. I have a business page for that. And if you don’t then you should.
- Create a Google Business page. Local search is super important for every business. Google gives us all so much for free. And if you don’t take advantage of it, then you are making a huge mistake. Google My Business is a great way to optimise how your business appears on the world’s largest search engine.
- If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth exponentially more. Even if you are not a video editor you can create amazing shareable videos based on your content for EVERY social media platform. Just sign up for a free Lumen5.com account and create videos using artificial intelligence and your very own blog posts based on the article you wrote.
- Record a short video for LinkedIn and tag connections. Even if you don’t have a blog post to turn into a video, I bet you have a thought or two about how you can help your clients. So flip your phone around and take a quick video that talks about a common problem your ideal clients might have and give three ways they can quickly take care of it. Then post that video file directly to your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook Business page. Remember, we’re all busy. So don’t make it longer than 3 minutes.
What do you think? Are these 8 reasonable action steps you can take? Of course they are.
