Marketing Tips to Jump Start Your Small Business

When you have a new business, it’s imperative that it gets off to a strong start. Otherwise, it could be mired in financial challenges that could be difficult, if not impossible to recover from.
If you’re just starting out and you need some fresh ideas for jump-starting your business, take a look at these three ideas. These techniques are inexpensive and simple and yet get amazing results.

1. SEO and Freebies

If you’re going to have any kind of blog at all, you want to get very comfortable with SEO (search engine optimization) as a marketing tool. Fortunately, there are some simple ways to incorporate SEO into your content marketing plans.

Using Visual Content for Your Small Business Marketing

When tackling a content marketing campaign, you need to know what will rouse online growth and engagement for your small business. Text-based content will always be important, but in this digital era, visual content is integral to the success of content marketing.

Websites that are mobile-optimised should focus on visual content as the internet has made attention spans shorter than ever. The popularity of content presented in big blocks of text is long gone.

It makes sense to use visual content when over 50 percent of people are visual learners. Content that resonates psychologically is said to be at least 43 percent more persuasive. To reach your audience on a deeper level, here are 3 types of visual content to incorporate in your next campaign:

Compelling Images

Images are the first thing people think of when it comes to visual content. Knowing to add images to your content marketing campaign isn’t the hard part, it’s choosing the right type of images to get your point across.

Just like relevant keywords are important in text-based content, high quality and relevant images are vital to visual marketing. When deciding on how to choose images for your campaign follow these tips:

• Aim for original images over stock photos
• Candid photos over posed
• Capture a feeling

Top Tips for Small Business Content Marketing

You probably read a great deal about how important the right content is for your small business in addition to continually striving to create the perfect content for your business every time. The fact is that your content marketing materials are so much more than merely top-quality, compelling, educational content. They need to earn you a good living.

Getting your marketing materials to produce the right results

If your marketing materials don't produce the type (and level) of results that you need them to produce, the chances are really great that you will not continue to use those content materials. Of course, the concept is extremely simple; however, achieving the goals that you have set up to achieve are not necessarily as easily obtainable.

No cost online marketing training here

A content marketing approach that works

Managing Your Small Business Marketing Funnel

With the over whelming success of the Digital Marketing Age, you may think that the concept of a marketing funnel is now defunct. And, yes, what used to be a fairly direct route from drawing in leads to converting them into clients has now exploded into a multitude of micro processes.

However, the concept of a Marketing Funnel is still a good way to create a marketing plan that needs multiple levels of engagement to convert leads into clients. Today, in this era of social media and smart phones, we are definitely in a (sometimes) brave new world of marketing plans.  Even when we’re ready to run screaming from our computers after trying to make sense of all the rapid changes that have evolved.

If you use a marketing funnel plan for your small business, there are probably some adjustments that could be made to your process that will help you see even better results in lead generation and subsequently converting those leads into paying customers. Here are a few procedures to improve your marketing funnel and provide even more successful results quickly.

Carefully Research and Develop the Stages of Your Buying Process

Top Tips For Your Small Business Sales Promotion

What is a Sales Promotion?

When done correctly, sales promotions can transform a small business.    Most of us these days know sales promotions are usually designed to increase sales or, encourage the use of a service. They are also often one type of marketing strategy confused with general advertising.  In fact, the two are different.  Because, each entices a different part of the buyer’s nature.

Grab our free Social Media checklist and free training here

Advertising is emotional in nature.  It induces consumers to purchase products or services through images, sounds, and experiences. Sales promotions draw on a customer’s logic.

To get the most out of the efforts you put into creating a promotion, it’s important for you to promote your sales promotion. I know, that’s a lot of use of the base word promote, it’s confusing, but accurate.

Promoting Your Promotion

What Is People-Based Marketing?

Marketing is all about reaching people and all marketers want to find out how to reach the greatest amount of people with the smallest amount of effort. This often means sending the same generic message to hundreds, if not thousands, or people. However, everyone is unique and therefore has unique needs. What is relevant to one person might not be relevant to the next. It’s hard to be that brand that appeals to everyone since each person is so different. This is where people-based marketing comes in.

If you’d like more access to invaluable marketing strategies, check out this done-for-you-system.

What It Is

People-based marketing represents the original promise of digital and internet marketing; it allows you to replace your broadcast with personalized messages and experiences that the consumer wants to see.

Combining Small Business Offline Marketing With Your Online Marketing

Because so many people make use of the internet for basically anything you can think of, the offline side of marketing efforts is often overlooked. While the use of the internet for putting your business out there guarantees global reach, and visibility, there are many other tactics you may want to try that can give you an added push and of course, be profitable. Making physical connections with people is a vital part of the business building process, and should not be side-stepped when trying to grow your business.In fact, combining offline and online strategies, produces the perfect marriage of forces to drive your business forward.

Make Use of Trade Shows and Expos
You can actually search online to see which trade shows related to your field of business you could take part in. You could split the cost of a display space with another business to minimize your costs.

Even if you decide not to exhibit via a booth or table display, you need to be prepared so that you can garner leads through this medium. Making use of print media through flyers and business cards which you can personally hand to patrons, is a great step toward building your network.

Click here to find out how to build an online business (without having to build it yourself!)

Volunteer for Local Projects or Causes

5 Key Components to an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

There’s more to your content marketing strategy than your content. You can create as much content as you want. But, it won’t get you anywhere without brand visibility, repeat traffic, social media marketing, and other factors.

The following 5 key components will help ensure that you put your content to good use. When you spend time or money generating content, you don’t want it to be wasted. Pay attention to these 5 components:

• Brand visibility
• Website traffic
• Calls to action
• Multiple channels
• Quality content

Brand Visibility

The first component is brand visibility. This includes awareness and familiarity. When customers see your content, they should be able to immediately recognise it as coming from your website. The easiest way to achieve this is with branding.

Your content should include your branding. This means adding your logo, using the same colour scheme that you use on your website, and making sure that your brand name is prominently displayed.

Website Traffic

You need traffic. Otherwise, how’s anyone going to find your content? So, the next key component of any content marketing strategy is website traffic. This includes referral traffic and repeat traffic.

Referral traffic lets you know that people are linking to your content or talking about it on social media. If you’re not getting any referral traffic, you need to incorporate social media marketing.

Share links to your content on social media. This should help get the ball rolling. 

Calls to Action

Every piece of content that you create needs a call to action. It doesn’t matter if this call to action directs the visitor to a product page or to a lead magnet. The goal is to get them to move onto the next step.

 Click here to learn about my done-for-you system.

How to Market Your Service Based Business

What is a Sales Promotion?

When selling a product, marketing usually comes fairly easy. Your marketing campaign revolves around the product for sale and how it can be used.

When you own a service-based business, the marketing may require a different approach. Instead of marketing product features, you have to market yourself and your team.  The good news is, people are always looking for reliable services, no matter the type.  You just need to make sure they find you and not your competitors.   Here are some techniques that will help you accomplish this.

Grab our free Social Media checklist and free marketing training here 

Connect with Your Own Community

Established local businesses have their own clientele.  And, they may only be able to handle a certain number of clients.  So, if you treat these businesses respectfully, they may refer clients to you when they are at their capacity.  A good way to connect with your community is to be involved with the local Rotary Club or Chamber of Commerce. These associations will connect you with other businesses that welcome assistance from a peer.

Use Social Media and Networking

Market Your Small Business With An Instagram Photo Contest

An Instagram photo contest is a great way to promote your small business while having some fun. A photo contest can lead to new followers while your company is giving back to the Instagram community.

But running an Instagram photo contest isn’t always easy, and can be a bit confusing. Here is a short guide on getting the most out of a photo contest, should you choose to do so.

Grab our free Social Media checklist and free social media marketing training here

Target Your Market

Define your target market before kicking off your photo contest. A contest for families who enjoy camping is going to look a lot different than couples who look for new and exciting places to visit in the city. Determine who you intend to engage with, and gear your contest toward them.

Team Up

Finding a partner for your Instagram photo contest can be a benefit for both businesses. Not only can you gain more followers through this method, but you’ll also receive additional exposure. Most of these types of partnerships require participants to be followers of both accounts before they can enter. Keep things simple though. There’s no need to team up with more than one business per contest.

Avoid Confusion

Writing Web Content Your Prospects Will Read

Creating web content is hard sometimes. Creating web content for your small business that people will actually read is even harder. When it comes to writing for the web, you have to create content carefully and intentionally. People on the internet have short attention spans and with all of the content out there, you are competing for every second of their attention.

Grab our free Social Media checklist and content marketing training here

Many web content creators don’t really understand the people who read content online. This is the major problem that causes web content to go unread. People don’t read content on the web, they scan. They want to pull out the important things from the articles without spending a lot of time on it.

Thankfully, there are some things you can do to make your content more attractive to those people that scan. Here’s a quick guide to creating web content people will read.

Not every word will be read

Building Small Business Credibility by Combining Online and Offline Marketing

How to earn new clients for your small business with these brand-boosting suggestions

New clients are essential to the success of any business so make sure you keep up consistent efforts to draw in new leads you can then turn into paying clients. 

Proper planning

Have you taken the steps to define your ideal client yet? It's important to have a plan before setting off on a journey.

Ideal clients are just that: ideal. The more of them you have, the less stress you have in keeping any toxic clients who may be more trouble than they're worth.

Grab our free Social Media checklist and free training here great for all Small Business Owners

Make your presence known

Content marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing all work together when planned properly. Before you start any guess work at how to go about marketing your business online remember our tips on the value of planning it all out right and hiring a professional to get it done properly.

This article talked about the value of organic and paid marketing to drive website traffic in droves and the cost of messy DIY attempts at online marketing.

The importance of referrals

Why Email Marketing is good for Small Businesses

Email happens to be among the most effective ways of marketing which in the end bring outstanding results. 

The best thing about email is that apart from being effective, it does not cost much therefore suiting even small businesses. It is actually the most used methods of marketing among small business owners. 

The main advantages it has for small businesses include the following:

It is affordable

Email marketing is cost effective and enables you to reach a wide number of potential customers at once. It does not require any postage expenses or materials to make it happen and you can easily do it and within a very short time. For instance, after creating a precise but attractive message, you can then send it to all the targeted people at once.

It is effective

Email marketing is effective in the manner that you are able to make proactive communication to existing customers as well as potential ones without having to passively wait for their response at the storefront. Email also allows you to target the right interests, lists and sources to make sure you achieve your full potential.

Grab our free Social Media checklist and free email marketing training here

It is easy

Grab these three FREE Ebooks to Kick Start your Business Success

For all small business owners, sales are the key factor to your growth and success. If you are not achieving the sales you want, then you are at risk of losing your business.

Here are three Ebooks that focus on getting the sales success that you need. They are ready for you to download, just CLICK HERE to access then right away and kick start your sales success.

5 Steps to Get to Know Your Target Market

There is a big chance that the target market you are looking for is similar to yourself. After all, you are probably into a subject that really rings your bell and that's why you want to spread the word. Like us; we are learning about online marketing and defining our target market so that what we write, actually reaches the people who might find it useful. It really all comes down to these 5 steps to get to know your target market.

1. Who are they?

Since people are all over the place with their interests, and in the online world the common demographics are not that useful anymore, we must think differently. Bring your audience to life in your imagination. A good way to get a first feel for things is to think of their personality traits. For instance, you can use the DISC method to assess yourself and think about what pushes your buttons. Then compare this to who it is you think that will be your audience. See where you are at by finding a free online DISC test.

Keep asking questions. Are they young or old? What is it that makes your heart beat faster? Do they consider wealth and freedom the highest good? Are they more into health or sustainability? Would they have a specific skill set like computer programming, maths, painting, or singing?

Do you want access to some of the best targeting out there? Book a place on an Internet Marketing Workshop near you – click here for details

2. What do they do?

Business Planning - Do You Make These 5 Marketing Mistakes?

What is the one thing every business wants more of? Money! Are you struggling with how to take your business to the next level? Do you feel like you're stuck in a stagnant place and are unsure of what actions to take to grow? You are not alone! As a business owner, you are busy constantly. There is not enough time in the day for everything. Making mistakes with your marketing efforts can only magnify some of your struggles. Read this to figure out if you are you making these 5 costly marketing mistakes.

Mistake #1: Winging it

Ever hear the expression: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance? This ties right into your marketing strategy. If you want results, you have to put in the proper planning and formulate a strategy, then execute accordingly. This is why it is called a marketing strategy. It takes time, effort, and research to develop the necessary marketing plan. This is crucial to the success of your marketing efforts. Too many businesses "wing it" whether it be for lack of knowing how else to attack it or pure laziness. You worked too hard to get your business up and running. Put some effort and time into developing a formalised Marketing Plan. Figure out who your target customer is and the best way to market directly to that target audience. You may already be wasting effort and money on marketing to the wrong audience! Do your homework. We promise... you will save time AND headaches in the long run.

Have you built a sales funnel for your business? Free 14 Day trial here

Mistake #2: Giving Up Too Easily

7 Things Successful Small Business Owners Do

If you're stuck wondering how to be a successful small business owner, know this: running a small business often simply means making good use of successful small business ideas. Successful small business owners face many ups and downs throughout their work. They know that small business ideas cannot turn out successful unless they use the proper approach and strategies.

If you want to be one of the few successful small business owners, remember that having a good strategy is crucial. Without the right strategy and a proper approach, you are not likely to achieve your goal.

Some small business owners manage to overcome their everyday challenges, while others seem to give up after a while. So, let's find out what successful small business owners do differently from the unsuccessful ones. Let's turn their experience into your success through your small business ideas.

5 #Marketing Tips That Will Help Every Small Business - grab your free report here ow.ly/aUvG30bklGj

1. MAKE ANNUAL REVISIONS OF YOUR BUSINESS PLAN AND BUDGET

Get Your Local Business Found Online With SoLoMo

I always enjoy the looks that I receive from clients when I mention "SoLoMo". I can only imagine what they are thinking ("has he finally lost his mind?" Comes to mind a lot). In fact, I've memorised the explanation and have learned to quickly throw it out as soon as I bring it up. Still, SoLoMo is my favorite marketing method for local businesses, mainly because of the success that it has brought our clients, so it's a conversation that must be had with each and every local business owner that comes through our doors.

So, what the heck is SoLoMo?

SoLoMo is an acronym that stands for Social, Local, Mobile, and it taps into the buying patterns of more that 80% of consumers in today's connected world. Here's how it works:

Social

How many times have you scrolled your Facebook or Twitter feed and saw one of your contacts (or maybe you've even done it as well?) asking others about the best "insert cuisine here" restaurants in the area? Or how many times have you checked online reviews on Facebook, Google, Yelp etc. before going to a local business? I'll bet you're just as guilty as the other 62% of all online shoppers who do the exact same thing. And of that 62%, 75% of them end up clicking through to the business's website in the process.

Having a social presence online is no longer a choice for local businesses. Nearly EVERYONE has a smartphone these days and has near-instant access to information on any business in their local area. If your business isn't in that mix, you're going to lose customers to the ones that are... lots of customers.

Local

Do you really know what makes your small business the most money?

Do you really know what you sell and what makes you the most money?

Business Marketing Mastery has the sole aim of helping small business owners generate greater sales through better marketing:

I’ve met with hundreds of small business owners over the last 15 years or so and many have become clients of mine and I have helped them in a number of ways from simple advertising to re-branding.

One of the first questions I ask them no matter what their business or niche is 

‘What makes you the most money’? 

The Best Marketing Advice for Small Business Owners

Last month, I had the pleasure of participating in a Marketing Panel for NAWBO (the National Association of Women Business Owners). It was great to connect with so many business owners who are working hard to propel their brand to success, now and well into the future. However, marketing a small business on a limited budget can be a challenging task. It is time you stop making excuses and get the word out about your business. If you're a small business owner looking for marketing advice, you have come to the right place. Here's what you need to know.

Define Your Purpose

If you want to achieve marketing goals, you will need to define your purpose. Dedicate time and effort to meaningful tasks that will get results and create awareness about your brand. When you know what direction to steer your company in, marketing it in an effective manner will never be daunting again. For example, if your company offers technology services, clearly determine its purpose as solving a particular problem for a specified audience.

Define and Qualify Your Target with Narrow Terms