| Ever wonder if your marketing efforts are as effective as they could and should be? Here’s our take on the most effective means of generating new customers. |
| Email Marketing Despite all the action on social media (we’ll get to that shortly), email is still a solid and reliable tool for reaching existing and new customers. Everybody has at least one email account, and checks it at least a few times per week. This is your opportunity to spark a discussion, and email service providers such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact or Vertical Response enable you to get very specific in your targeting. Don’t have an email list? Start building one today. SEO: Search Engine Optimization  Does your website have all of the elements in place to make it a top hit when a potential customer does an online search? Are there updates at least once every couple of months? This is an ongoing tactic that is critical to your organic reach, so be sure you’ve got an expert in charge. Social Media Marketing Obviously, right? With all of the platforms out there and all of the ways to target an audience – from very general to very niche – social media simply cannot be ignored. The good news is that it’s not necessary to have a presence on every single platform. You can leverage your story and expertise by carefully considering which 2-4 platforms are being used by your customers. This offers a great opportunity to connect human-to-human, which is what social media was born to do. You should be posting about twice per week per platform, and tweak from there. Videos garner the most engagement. Look into planning, content and scheduling tools like Hootsuite. Blogging Blogging remains another very effective means of connecting with your target audience. Not only does it contribute to your SEO (see above), it also can establish your company as the expert in your field. And be sure to think beyond your own blog – who do you know whose business complements yours? Find other experts in similar but non-competitive fields with whom you can share expertise. Guest blogging can expand your reach exponentially; and be sure to share your blog or vlog (video blog) on social media for even more reach. Google AdWords  This is the only recommendation on this list that requires you to spend more than time – it requires a budget. Fortunately, a lot can be done with Google AdWords on a limited budget, so don’t let it scare you off. In fact, we highly recommend this tactic for the great ROI (return on investment) that it offers at even a shoestring level. Google’s ad platform is very target-able, and the data returns are a deep dive into not just your potential customers and their lives, but your competitors as well. Final note These recommendations are just the beginning of all of the marketing, advertising, promotion and PR that we recommend for your overall marketing strategy. We know that the most effective marketing for small and mid-sized businesses requires multiple methods that work in tandem, with frequent updates, analyses and staying abreast of best practices. That said, all of the above are manageable for business owners who are able to put forth the effort. |
