Online Marketing Strategy Every Small Business

Marketing takes time, money, and lots of preparation. One of the best ways to prepare yourself is to develop a solid marketing plan. A strong marketing plan will ensure you’re not only sticking to your schedule, but that you’re marketing social media spending your marketing funds wisely and appropriately. What can a Marketing Plan do for Your Small Business? A marketing plan includes everything from understanding your target market and your competitive position in that market, to how you intend to reach that market (your tactics) and differentiate yourself from your competition in order to make a sale. Your small business marketing budget should be a component of your marketing plan. Essentially, it will outline the costs of how you are going to achieve your marketing goals within a certain timeframe. If you don't have the funds to hire a marketing firm or even staff a position in-house, there are resources available to guide you through the process of writing a marketing plan and developing a benefits of social media marketing market budget. Bend Your Budget When Necessary and Keep an Eye on ROI Once you have developed your marketing budget, it doesn’t mean that it’s set in stone. There may be times when you need to throw in another unplanned marketing tactic -- such as hosting an event or creating a newspaper ad -- to help you reach your market more effectively. Ultimately, it’s more important to determine whether sticking to your budget is helping you achieve your marketing goals and bringing you a return on investment (ROI) than to adhere to a rigid and fixed budget. That's why it's important to include a plan for measuring your spend. Consider what impact certain marketing activities have had on your revenues during a fixed period, such as a business quarter, compared to another time period when you focused your efforts on other tactics. Consider the tactics that worked as well as those that didn’t work. You don't have to cut the tactics that didn't work, but you should assess whether you need to give them more time to work or whether the funds are best redirected elsewhere. Granted, some tactics are hard to measure -- using social media for marketing such as the efficacy of print collateral (brochures, sales sheets, etc.), but you need to consider the impact of not having these branding staples in your market tool kit before you reign in your graphic design and print funds. Marketing plans should be maintained on an annual basis, at a minimum.
But if you launch a new product or service, take time to revisit your original plan or develop a separate campaign plan that you can add to your main plan as an addendum. At the end of the day, the time spent developing social media marketing strategies your marketing plan, is time well spent because it defines how you connect with your customers. And that's an investment worth making.Print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. People read postcards when the message is brief. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your web site and generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost. No single marketing effort works all the time for every business, so rotate several marketing tactics and vary your approach. Use buddy marketing to promote your business. For example, if you send out brochures, you could include a leaflet and/or business card of another business, which had agreed to do the same for you. This gives you the chance to social media marketing manager reach a whole new pool of potential customers.Your customers tune out after awhile if you toot only one note. Not only that, YOU get bored. Marketing can be fun, so take advantage of the thousands of opportunities available for communicating your value to customers. But don't be arbitrary about your selection of a variety of marketing ploys. Plan carefully. Get feedback from customers and adapt your efforts accordingly. Try announcing a special offer when you answer the phone. For example you could say, "Good morning, this is Ann Marie with Check It Out; ask me about my special marketing offer." The caller is compelled to ask about the offer. Sure, many companies have recorded messages that play when you're tied up in a queue, but who do you know that has a live message? I certainly haven't heard of anyone. Make sure your offer is aggressive and increase your caller's urgency by including a not-so-distant expiration date. marketing with social media Use stickers, stamps and handwritten notes on all of your direct mail efforts and day-to-day business mail. Remember, when you put a sticker or handwritten message on the outside of an envelope, it has the impact of a miniature billboard. People read it first; however, the message should be short and concise so it can be read in less than 10 seconds.

Use buddy marketing to promote your business

Your customer just purchased a sweater from your clothing shop. Send a handwritten note to your customer thanking them for their business and informing them that upon their return with "this note" they may take advantage of a private offer, social media marketing software such as 20% off their next purchase. To create urgency, remember to include an expiration date. Did you know it costs six times more to make a sale to a new customer than to an existing one? You can use newsletters to focus your marketing on past customers. Keep costs down by sacrificing frequency and high production values. If printed newsletters are too expensive, consider an e-mail newsletter sent to people who subscribe at your Web site. Hosting an event is a great way to gain face time with key customers and prospects as well as get your company name circulating. With the right how to use social media for marketing programming, you'll be rewarded with a nice turnout and media coverage. If it's a seminar, limit the attendance and charge a fee. A fee gives the impression of value. Free often connotes, whether intended or not, that attendees will have to endure a sales pitch. This is an excellent tool to promote your business and get others to use your product and services. You can trade your product for advertising space or for another company's product or service. This is especially helpful when two companies on limited budgets can exchange their services. Even today, not everyone owns or uses a computer. Direct mail marketing campaigns can reach populations who are less likely to use the Internet to find a business. And remember, just because you have a website still does not mean people will find your business. Direct mail will end up being delivered to the people you chose by using carefully constructed direct mailing lists. According social media marketing courses to the United States Postal Service the majority of consumers in general like to get mail at home: “Many people look forward to receiving their daily mail. In fact, 98 percent of consumers bring in their mail the day it’s delivered, and 77 percent sort through it immediately. People are more likely to visit a local business if they have a coupon in hand. Be sure to time some of your coupons with holidays and major events when people are more likely to shop for luxury items and services.
Start with a vision that describes what you want your business to be. The vision should inspire, energize, motivate and stimulate your creativity. Define goals you would like to accomplish in a 12 month period. Your goals set the direction social media marketing b2b you want to take with your marketing activities. Do you want to create visibility for your company? Are you trying to generate demand for your services? Do you want to establish yourself as the expert in your field? Your goals need to be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based. Your core message is a short description of your business that enables prospective buyers to know who you work with and what value you bring to the relationship. It conveys this message in a manner that literally attracts the right customers to you. A good core message projects what social media marketing for small business makes you unique and a benefit to your ideal client. You may need to define your personal brand and your corporate brand depending on your business. In either case, your brand should fit your personality and help get you noticed. Identify the strategies you will use to achieve your goals. First you need to determine what media channels you will use – traditional or new media. Then you select which strategies you will choose: advertising, direct marketing, public relations, events, word of mouth, and strategic alliances. The types of marketing you choose within your strategy will depend on your unique requirements. Your budget will help you determine your cash flow by mapping the budget needed for your sales tools and each marketing strategy you decide to use. Your activities should be selected so they accomplish your goals, reach your ideal client, make sense for your business, can be executed regularly and effectively, social media marketing job description and are affordable. These tools can include business cards, brochures, a web site or blog, white papers, testimonials, or promotional items.Internet marketing is a vital part of today’s marketing strategies, but it’s not the only part. Offline marketing tactics can be extremely effective in attracting new customers and raising awareness of your brand. The trick is employing several tried-and-true methods, while always staying open to creative new approaches to marketing your business.

Understand your ideal client and competition

Determine what motivates your ideal client, what causes them pain, and why they would be interested in buying from you. Then determine how you are different from your competition and how you want to be viewed by your target. marketing and social media Highlight why you are different and what value you offer to your clients. This approach requires a little out-of-the-box thinking and its emphasis on unconventional techniques may not appeal to every small-business owner. On the other hand, “unconventional” often translates into “unforgettable” — and in terms of making an impression on customers, it’s sometimes the best approach. Event sponsorship represents another opportunity-rich guerrilla marketing technique. Come up with a theme that’s likely to appeal to prospective customers, rent a public space and then get creative social media marketing salary in promoting the event and deciding what branded gifts you can hand out at the event itself. “What better way to get people’s attention than to throw a party in the name of your business?” asks designer and developer Andy Leverenz. “If people have fun and they relate it to your business, they will like your business. One way to raise your brand’s profile is by donating your products or services to a good cause. When you partner with a marketing-savvy nonprofit organization, they’ll reward your generosity by publicly thanking you in front of their donors and promoting your business in their newsletter and on their social media platforms. Another giveaway strategy: Include small branded items with each customer order. As Mark Krenn, founder of Coastal Creative Reprographics, notes, “Offering free shipping or a free product when customers place an order over a certain amount [gives] them an incentive to continue shopping with you.” If your business has a bricks-and-mortar location, it should certainly include bright, eye-catching signs and banners. Also think about other places where you can social media marketing statistics display customized banners — from local community events to flea markets, sponsored Little League games and other high-traffic areas. Be sure these signs and banners all have the same messaging and logo. Don’t confuse would-be customers with an array of taglines and designs. The goal is to make a consistent, long-lasting impression.
Not everyone is cut out to speak in public, but for a small-business owner trying to spread the word, it’s often a very useful activity. You’re undoubtedly an expert in your area of business, so why not seek opportunities to share your top social media marketing companies knowledge and experience with others? Remember, speaking before an audience is less about trying to make an individual sale and more about establishing your credibility, willingness to offer valuable information and boosting brand awareness. “Find a local event related to your industry, come up with an educational topic you can speak on, and volunteer,” advises Jayson DeMers, founder and CEO of AudienceBloom, a social media agency. “If you don’t yet have the level of clout required to speak at an event, attending events can be just as helpful.” Speaking of events, social media marketing training how often do you attend conferences and trade-shows related to your business? Simply attending as a participant is a great way to connect with people and spread the word about your business.You might also consider setting up a booth at a well-attended trade-show, where you can hand out branded materials (brochures, flyers), along with a limited amount of free products or services. The more memorable your booth (and what you have to say to visitors), the greater impression you’ll make on prospective customers. When you think creatively about offline marketing opportunities, social media marketing classes they start appearing all over the place. With so much emphasis placed on social media and Internet marketing, there are plenty of ways to reach your target audience that other businesses never even consider. That may be just the competitive advantage you’re looking for. One of the trickiest parts of business today is figuring out your marketing strategy. A great way to set your company apart from competitors in the field is by being able to quickly adapt and capitalize on trends occurring throughout the year. The more you can show you are connected and plugged into what social media marketing news is going on in both social and pop culture, the better. So how do you accomplish this without getting lost in the shuffle of everything trending in the world? Here are a few helpful strategies to be aware of and follow.

TIPS ON HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT

So you have your social media accounts set up and are updating on a regular basis but why are your accounts not receiving any likes or followers? We have already written a Blog about what you could do to improve engagement on Twitter marketing by social media but this post aims to give you a few ideas on what you could do across all of your Social Media profiles. You might have thousands, perhaps millions of fan following on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media channels. That’s great. But are your fans engaging with your brand the way you wanted it to be? Are they actively following your posts, sharing their experiences or feedback, and further sharing your posts with their friends? If not, what is it that you are doing wrong? One way to increase the social media engagement is to study brands who are doing it right. One good case social media marketing in study is the global coffee company Starbucks. True to their product, they ensure their content is as freshly brewed as their coffee. What’s impressive is not just the staggering number of 37 million likes and 6 million Twitter followers but the way they engage with their customers through dynamic content such as videos on coffee making, contests, recipes, interesting facts about coffee, etc. By tailoring their content to interests of customers, their updates never appear ‘salesy’ or promotional. It’s not just big brands who are doing social media right. Small companies like Dollar Shave Club became overnight famous with their YouTube video that went viral (15 million views and counting), crashing the company’s server in the first hour. social media marketing strategy The company also engages its customers (mostly men but also their wives or girlfriends) with tips on shaving, funny short videos, and replying promptly to customer queries on their Facebook and Twitter channels. Images, Images, and Images- According to March 2014 research by Socialbakers.com published on eMarketer, photos were the most common content posted by Facebook pages, accounting for 75% of posts worldwide.
Don’t remain just a logo. Do humanize your brand but also carve out a niche personality based on the attributes of your brand. If your customer posts something great about you, make sure you return the favor by sharing his social media marketing plan work with your network. It’s a great way to turn engaged customers into brand evangelists who will go out of the way to spread the word about your brand and actively share your posts with their friends. Do you know any other great suggestion that can help small as well as large businesses to actively engage with their customers on social media? Please share with us in the comments below. The Guardian has this morning published a new set of social media guidelines for its journalists, while in the US the Washington Post has instructed its staff to avoid replying to critics social media marketing companies on Twitter - two papers two responses. We all know by now that social media are meant to be, well, social. It’s not enough to post links on Twitter and Facebook to something you’ve written and consider the job done. What you really want is for people to retweet, like and comment on your posts, to take advantage of the multiplier effect of social media. So how do you get your “fans” and followers to engage with you? The most obvious answer from Kimberly Wilson of Social News Desk and Josh Rickel of Mass Relevance is to engage with them. Ask questions, put up polls, join in the conversation by replying to comments–all good ideas they shared at the recent Excellence in Journalism conference in New Orleans. One cautionary note, however. Be sure you know why you’re asking a question and let your viewers in on the reason. But what if your social media posts generate little to no response? It’s frustrating, I know. social media marketing services Take a look at NewsLab on Facebook and you won’t see a whole lot of activity, despite my best efforts. Research from Facebook offers a few suggestions. I rarely post on weekends but I should–especially on Saturday, when posts get 20% more likes and comments. The message for newsrooms is that your social strategy can’t be a Monday-Friday project.

Complete your Social Media profiles

It might seem quite obvious but this is an easy thing to overlook. Ensure all the relevant information is filled out such as your name, where you are and website links as well as uploading a suitable profile picture and cover photo. social media marketing university Thinking about the more common social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ you may need to add additional information such as interests, a short bio and more importantly, you might need to ensure your website is verified (specifically on your Google+ profile). Do you know who your competitors are? Make a list on Twitter and add their profiles to that list – remember you don’t have to ‘follow’ your competitors in order to add them to this list. Bookmark the main social media pages for your competition in your web browser so you can pop in whenever you have what is social media marketing the time and see how they engage with their audiences. What sort of content are they posting? How regularly are they engaging with their fans/followers? What is it they are doing differently? Is there anything you could learn here? You want to make your social networks really work as a network. So look at how you can be connecting with relevant audiences via social channels too. You may already have quite a lot of information about your customers via your database – so if you have their email addresses, you can search for them on Twitter and other social networks that way too. Also, if you know who your key influencers are from other marketing means such as website registrations and email subscriptions – you can also go find them on social media channels too. Search for industry blogs and look at the main authors and contributors and add them to your social media profiles too. Take some time to do your research, seeing who follows who social media marketing jobs and topics being discussed. On Twitter, I rarely ask for retweets, finding it somewhat annoying when others do. But Wilson and Rickel say you should. If you add “Please retweet” 51% of followers will do it. “Please RT” gets 39% to act. And people retweet more in the afternoon than in the morning.
Photos attracted the maximum engagement with a whopping 87% of total interactions while no other content type claimed more than 4% of the interaction rate.Make sure the weekend team is on board and active too. The same goes for nightside. social media and marketing I tend to post early in the morning, when traffic spikes, but I rarely post at night, missing users who check in after dinner. And my posts tend to be brief, which is not a good thing on Facebook. A post of five lines or more can draw 60% more comments and likes. Improving your social media engagement is the key to earning more fans and followers, but what many forget is that social engagement is also an excellent way to earn feedback. The more you can connect with your audience and earn visibility for your brand, the better content you can produce in all aspects of your business. Social channels social media marketing agency offer yet another place for you to show off your expertise and establish credibility, so you want to make sure you're creating a place where people want to engage. Unfortunately, it isn't always easy to raise this engagement. It takes a lot of work and creativity (and oftentimes different strategies for different platforms), but there are things you can do to help give your social platforms the boost they need for those extra fans and that valuable feedback. Social media will reward you for helping others. If you are able to offer assistance with any of your current or potential followers, oftentimes that favor is returned. If you notice something on your feed that users might find useful or helpful, share that information with them as it will only strengthen your social media marketing company relationship with them. Social media is all about social connections, and others will feel more inclined to share your information if they know you will reciprocate. This is particularly useful for Twitter and Facebook, but even platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are starting to take notice. Use hashtags to start a trend and help gain more brand visibility.

Interact and appreciate your audience

Everyone likes a compliment every now and then so as well as posting on a regular basis remember to ‘Like’ and ‘RT’ or ‘Favourite’ others’ updates. And if people engage with your updates, take the time to send them a message or tweet social media marketing plan template them back to say thank you. Also – you could take a look at their profile and find out what their interests are so that when you respond you can ask them something or say something relevant on a more personal level. There are many groups and communities on Facebook and LinkedIn and a lot of them are easy to find via the search function. Type in industry relevant keywords and see what comes up, but don’t just join any old community, have a good look through to find out more about the community or group and how many contributors there are, in order to find out how active and up to date it is. Do note that some communities and groups are ‘closed’ – which means you may not be added to the group immediately as the group moderator will have to accept your request to join. You’ll be alerted once you’re accepted – so keep a watch out for those. Look at your Facebook Insights, what times are your posts more popular? Post at those times for a week and see if that helps engagement, if not, tweak it. Review what type of posts are more popular than others? It might be that a random post about FAQ’s social media marketing world proved more popular than one you posted about a cute looking cat (or vice versa) so use this knowledge to your advantage and give the audience what they want! Hopefully, these tips have given you some ideas in terms of generating more engagement on Twitter. Let us know how you get on in the comments below and do share your tips for improving engagement too. They give you a good place to send new customers who want to read some of your social posts on a particular topic. If you faithfully use the same hashtag for a given subject, users can search that hashtag to get a list of your posts on that topic all in one place. You can ask others to use the hashtag when posting related content to get people involved, and then advertise that hashtag for those searching for more information on that topic.
They work great for contests. Hosting a contest is a great way to get social connections and get your community involved. Have participants upload a video, piece of content, or even answer a question all using the same hashtag. This will social media marketing tips encourage people to spread the word about your company and help you create more connections and get people engaging with your account. Brands such as Charmin, DiGiorno Pizza, and the Make a Wish Foundation have used hashtags very successfully as a way to get their community involved. Check out this article for some examples that worked, those that did not, and what should have been done differently. This not only means using more stock images but also uploading videos and posting photos of your team. If a team member did something interesting, post that on your social channels with an image or video. People respond well to real-world events, so this is a good way to get there. Getting your team involved can help spark conversation. People like to hear from other people, not just brands, and images are a good way to grab their attention. Behind-the-scenes images also work great for engagement and fostering comments, and asking users to send in photos is a great way to get the community involved and help your page seem more appealing and personalized to new visitors. It is important to have a presence and personality so your followers know there is a real person behind your logo. Social media is about creating real relationships socially and the best way to be able to achieve social media marketing tools success is to have that personal touch. Share information about yourself or your business that shows your character. It's also a good idea to simply ask questions. This is a great way to get people to start participating because you're essentially telling them exactly what to do. Remember when someone does answer, that answer will oftentimes go onto the person's homepage feed, getting your brand out there even more to all of his or her friends and followers. Extra Reminder: Always respond to questions to create a dialogue.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MISTAKES BUSINESSES

All too often, businesses approach social media marketing with this workflow: 1. Tweet, 2. Profit. But there’s a critical first step that goes before the tweet, and skipping this step not only hurts profit potential, but can also damage a business’s brand, too. With virtually every business on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook these days, it’s easy to be a marketer and think, “How hard can social media marketing actually be?” First, the bad news: businesses that rush into social media marketing without developing smart, robust strategies are setting themselves up for failure. Here’s the good news: how get more instagram followers with a smart, thoughtful and proactive strategy, many of the most common social media marketing mistakes can be avoided. Let’s return to the previous example from earlier in this article: you own a small contracting business. When you’re sharing tips on social media for DIY home projects, for example, you don’t want every tip to then link back to your service page or be pushing your business. Today’s savvy consumers appreciate genuinely valuable, quality content; they don’t appreciate content that’s a thinly disguised sales pitch for a specific product or service. That’s a sure-fire way to damage your brand’s reputation and hurt trust. When you’re first getting started with social media marketing, be careful not to stretch your social media presence too thin. Start with one or two networks where the majority of your core users are already located and build from there. Remember, consistency counts. Posting once every few weeks will never build a consistent following or boost engagement and brand awareness. Aim to post 2-3 times per week and share meaningful content with each post. Want to advertise an upcoming sale or product launch? That’s okay too, but mix in self-promotion with content that’s genuinely valuable to your audience. Stuck for content? Ask yourself these questions: (1) what challenges are my customers currently facing? (2) Is there a seasonally appropriate post that would bring value to my clients or customers? And (3) Is there an industry report or news that I can comment on and add value to?

UNDERESTIMATING THE WORK INVOLVED

Great social media takes a lot of work. After all, there’s a reason why marketing agencies offer social media marketing services, right? A tweet might be just 140 characters long, but each and every one of those characters need to count and work together how do you get more followers on instagram fast to create a coherent message. And if you’re doing social media right for your business, you’ll start to get a lot of tweets back in response to your messages. Responding to all those tweets (both the good and the negative) is time-consuming to say the very least. And managing social media is not a 9-5 kind of job: you need to be on your game 24/7. But if you don’t have a dedicated social media manager, this means someone else at your business will need to be busy with content creation and monitoring your social media feeds, which means other, valuable work is being de-prioritized. Long gone are the days when you could rely on an intern to manage your business’s social media accounts. Either hire an in-house expert, or outsource to a social media management firm. How will you know if you accomplish your social media plan’s goals? If you answer “hitting 1,000 followers in a month”, that’s a good start. Developing meaningful benchmarks and goal-driven social media metrics is important. But how do you know if adding those followers is actually a big accomplishment? If you’re starting with just 100 followers and you add 1,000 in a month, that’s pretty great. But if you already have 15,000 and add 1,000, that’s less impressive. The same goes for measuring site traffic, page views, re-tweets, and other common analytics. If you don’t understand your baseline numbers, you won’t have any clear basis for assessing your social marketing campaign’s success or failure. Yes, the whole point of social how to get 100 instagram followers media marketing is for businesses to build their brand. Sure, you’re probably not tweeting messages about how great your business is every day, but you still need to be careful that you’re not letting your affinity for your brand influence your content quality and value. As a digital marketing consultant, this is one of the top problems I encounter with the brands I advise.

FAILING TO KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Making assumptions about what your target audience needs is one of the most common social media marketing mistakes. Millennials, for example, know that experiences are worth paying for – whether that’s the backpacking trip of a lifetime or a cool in-game purchase. how do you get 1000 followers on instagram When it comes to selling your brand to Millennials, the experience that Millennials have with your brand is just as important as the brand itself. For example, there’s a special affinity between today’s social media culture and nostalgic or vintage experiences where uncool hobbies are now cool. And while a remix of the Oregon Trail may seem like a loyalty-winning move, remember that Millennials are a fickle crowd with many disparate preferences and behaviors. Take the time to fully research your target audience and understand their unique needs before investing significant money in your media plan. Social media is a major game changer that’s flattening the marketing world in favor of small businesses. Just about any brand can gain traction with a cleverly executed viral marketing campaign. To make things even more complicated, the world of social media marketing is crowded with many different players all competing for the same attention. For example, let’s say you run a small contracting business. You want to start publishing content on social media to get more attention for your business locally. Sharing a “home repair tip of the day” or spotlighting a local renovation project is great; just keep in mind, however, that when it comes to social media marketing, you’re not just competing with other local contractors. You’ll also be fast free instagram followers competing against major brands like Lowes and Home Depot, in addition to popular design magazines and brands – like Dwell or Architectural Digest – that already have a well-established social media presence. From a service stand-point, your business may not be in direct competition with these brands. However, you’ll still be competing against these players when it comes to social media bandwidth.