What are the best ways to market your small business?

The short answer is that the best way to market your business is to have a diversified marketing plan.

There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing and advertising because there are a plethora of factors that can skew the results of a marketing plan that looks good on paper.

5 Marketing Tips for Limited Budgets

There are two obstacles that arise with marketing: limited funding and determining the right avenues to pursue. 

There are a few cost-effective marketing tactics that are easy to begin and have a low risk for their initial investment.

1. Social Media 

2. Email 

3. Media 

4. Business Cards

5. Start a Customer Referral Program
   

In the video below I dive deeper into these activities to explain how to best leverage them to see a return on investment.

These are all activities that we utilize in our business and have seen significant success with. For example,  we send regular emails to our audience through our ActionTIP emails which provide up-to-date business tips and notify them of upcoming events. 

How Much Marketing Should Businesses Do?

Hundreds of marketing strategies exist and many more continue to arise and you may be tempted to try them all - and you should! 

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However, I recommend that you implement a 10 x 10 marketing strategy philosophy.  Look to develop 10 different marketing strategies that each only makeup 10% of your leads in a given month.  That way, if one doesn't work you are not left with zero leads.

When I first introduce this idea to folks, I hear a couple of concerns:

First: I can't afford 10 marketing programs:  I'd challenge you that you can't really afford not to have a robust marketing program if you want to grow your business.  With that said, not all marketing programs have to cost a lot of money.  Here are some cost-effective ideas to consider: Join a chamber and attend networking events, join a networking group and build relationships with referral partners, post on social media, request coffee meetings with folks in your social network, call prospects, etc.  

Second: I don't have time to execute 10 marketing programs:  Again, I'd challenge you that you can't really afford not to market your business.  At a very simplified level, a business has 2 jobs: 1st is to get customers/clients and the 2nd is to service the customers/clients.  Roughly 50% of the company’s time should be spent in each area.  If you are just starting out, 100% of your time should be spent in #1.  So, start small at first, implement 2-3 at first and as you feel more comfortable with those, continue to expand until you have 10 in place.

The key to this 10 x 10 approach working is that you also have a testing and measuring process in place.  

You need to ensure that you have a way to measure your marketing to know if it is working or not and to determine if you’re losing money.  Read our article discussing how businesses can drain their financials without testing and measuring.

Work with your marketing team to evaluate current efforts and determine if you need to stop activities or create a more robust 10x10 strategy.

If you want marketing to be easy, less stressful, and an investment, talk to one of our coaches to discuss tactics that are working for our clients and competitors in your industry. Schedule your 30-minute call today!

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