Every time you publish content, you establish yourself as being knowledgeable in what you do. However, your marketing strategy must really make sense otherwise you will just render all your efforts meaningless.

Getting to know content marketing

Content marketing is an opportunity to make a living by giving out relevant content to the subscribers with an ultimate intent of truly helping them with their endeavours. This might require factual creativity on your part but its sum result is gratifying in a general sense. You might confuse content marketing with advertisement; they are totally two different things. An ad entices the readers to positively react and act on their impulses at an instant, while content marketing works differently. Content marketing is generally more subtle that an ad, but it gains the trust of the readers.

Getting to know content

When you craft and post blogs, those things is content. When you tweet or make a comment, it is another form of content. Every time you publish anything, you are publishing content, no matter the context.

Getting to know the end goals of your marketing strategy

You may take things gradually; your goals may not be necessarily be flamboyant all of a sudden. You can always start small then build from it until it grows stronger and bigger.

If for example your goal is that by the end of the fiscal year, you already would have made profitable earnings from your DIY web design e-book.  With enough information about the complexity of the product, you may already start by June. By being specific as to your timeframe, it could give you a better perspective as to how you will effectively play your strategy. In the first two weeks, you might spend the time creating blog reviews on the best DIY web design tools or perform any other things that greatly utilize the marketing power of the web. The next two weeks could be spent on crafting methodologies that is a follow up of what you did in the first week. Then on your own, you may add a few more things depending on the need and style. Whatever you do, publish only a good half of the information. Keep the other half for the benefit of selling.

Making sure your strategy is working on the given time frame

If you wish to track the performance of your strategy and whether it is keeping up with the schedule, secure for yourself a content marketing calendar. It helps you put things in order and will guide you the things you need to prioritize at any given moment. If you practice tracking your strategy, it keeps you from deviating from your end goals.

Getting to know the final part of the strategy

The above mentioned strategies are just a prelude of the achievement of your strategy. This means that to complete your process of strategizing, you still need regular yet very good sales pages. If you only know how to take advantage of fully using your content, you will realize your goals in no time.

Simple things more often than not are a lot more effective than anything else. In running your small business, you may simplify your marketing strategies as well.

A marketing strategy could bring your business to new heights; phases of growth that would never have been possible without any marketing strategy in place. Marketing strategies do not need to be complex for it to work, below are the simplest marketing strategies for your fledgling business:

1. Familiarize your clients’ profile

You must understand your target audience. You should be able to tell their tendencies and propensities in order for you to know their underlying reasons on their buying trends. When you do this, you could very well directly communicate with them. You could readily offer them the possible options for their needs and dilemmas. As a business owner, it really helps a lot to know what motivates your target audience to buy what they buy.

2. Be uniquely the best

You have to remember that you are not the only business owner who offers a certain service or product. Even with small businesses, competition abounds. There is a great possibility that what you are offering is just one of the many, and might not get the attention of buyers. Therefore, you have to innovate and think out of the box, you have to come up with an idea that really gets the attention of your prospects. Make your products or services inherently unique among the rest, and make it noteworthy. If all the others a selling basically the same things, then tweak it a bit and offer something uniquely beautiful yet answers the same need. When you do this, you become the only choice out there, your competitors will have to stand back and watch you soar in your industry.

3. Have a plan

Make plans, do your preparations ahead. Have a concrete time frame for which your goals will to materialize. Ideally, make an annual plan, a year-long well developed plan towards growth. You need to lay down all the needed activities for everything else to work. Include in your plan a system for which you could be able to gauge your progress.

4. Itemize your plan and evaluate it regularly

You should be able to itemize your plan, break it down into smaller pieces so you could make it a lot more manageable. This way, it is easier for you to track your progress and the efficacy of your strategy. Take some time to perform objective evaluation of you itemized progress, evaluate your performance, evaluate your next steps, and evaluate the overall behaviour of your activities. This strategy helps your business become well versed to adapt to new environment. Changes, even the unexpected ones, become a lot easier to navigate if you have made the mentioned preparations. It also allows you make spontaneous decisions if it is called for at short notice.

If you have your own small business marketing strategy, please let us hear how you got about it.

I happened to bump into a former colleague at a recent convention. This former co-worker of mine told me that he learned a lot of best practices in one of my talks. He also mentioned that a very particular idea stuck with him; and from that moment on, he decided to include it in his own business’ manifesto. I tried to recall what it was, and that’s when I remembered that it was during one sales conference a few years back.

During that particular forum, I remembered that I was discussing our company’s unique selling propositions. I was telling all the attendees the factors that separated us from the rest of our competitors. During this time, I didn’t give out any of the competition’s names, but I used the term “the neighbors” when I referred to the competitors, as a whole. This has always been my style in any speaking engagement. I do it to sound more professional by avoiding dropping any names, or mentioning any competitor in particular.

Another reason why I do this is that this is my strategy to kill ‘the neighbors’ brand name. I will never mention any brand name, except ours, during any conference. This is to remove any hype from the competitors’ brand. Naming your opponents in any speaking engagement will just give them free marketing hype.

When asked about who my competitors are, I always point to the fact that ‘The Neighbors’ might be bigger companies, but they don’t necessarily have a mentionable strategic foothold in certain markets as most people believe. Usually, people assume that the bigger brand names always have their presence felt and known, in whatever market they’re in. This is not always the case for ‘the neighbors.’ Also, one of the last things I want to do is to draw any attention to them while promoting my own business.

That former colleague I bumped into, unfortunately misinterpreted this strategy of mine as indifference. He instead construed my non-mention of specific neighbor’s names as nonchalance to competitor activities.  His understanding was to exhaust all resources to get to know your business; and only your business. This was the particular idea that stuck with him and he puts it into the heart and soul of his business. During all those years of operations, never once did he pay attention to what ‘the neighbors’ were doing, and focused entirely on his own business.

This wasn’t what I was pointing out; and to clear matters up, you should always know what your ‘neighbors’ are up to. Exhaust all energy and resources on your business, but also be mindful of what your competitors are doing.  Not only does this makes you adapt and adjust to whatever the neighbors are doing, you can get best practices from it as well.

In peeking over the neighbor’s fence every now and then, you get to learn their strategies along the way, especially if these are marketing initiatives that allow them to rake in more business. Always remember that there are no limits. Copyright and trademark laws only hinder you from using the ‘neighbors’ brand and intellectual property. These laws don’t really stop you from getting the best practices and customizing certain processes to your own organization. Who knows? You can probably implement their processes better than they do.

Here are some essential questions to ask when you’re setting business goals and when you’re measuring  the effectiveness of your marketing strategies.

What do I want to do and achieve with this business?

This is where your mission and vision statements come in. These statements, though they look very theoretical or hypothetical, are the heart and soul of your business. Your mission and vision will always have motivating power for you; especially when the chips are down. These help you refocus on your goals as a business.

Having clear reasons for engaging in your business will push you to achieve, not only your goals, but also that targeted expansion that you’ve always wanted. You might always want to have these reminders visible. Doing so will make sure that this drive will never get out of your sight and mind. Some examples are keeping customer testimonials, commendations, and kudos. Another idea is to write down your visions and goals – even a vacation or that car you always wanted, where you can always see them. Make sure you post this board in a place where you can’t avoid to see it.

What is all of this for?

Did you get involved in your business because you intended to or did you engage in it by accident?

Engaging in business intentionally merits you justifying your actions, playing the different outcomes of your action over and over in your mind, and imagining the expected outcomes. This question also poses quite a challenge to us as it makes us face the truth, no matter how ugly it is. Facing the ugly truth, most of the time, triggers our defense mechanisms.

Though challenging as it may seem, getting comfortable asking and answering this question will make sure that everyone on the team is in-sync because each individual is working for a same, greater, cause.

What works? What doesn’t? Why?

It is always important to evaluate if your marketing initiatives are meeting their goals or not. In doing so, make sure that there is no blame or shame on anyone else. Moreover, most people are also quick to see the million reasons why things fail and troubleshoot the situation. You would need to get used to this diagnostic-reactive mindset, but at the same time, also adapt a positive strategic approach by finding out what worked and capitalizing on these.

It’s also easier to track the results of a marketing initiative if you track them per milestone. Don’t launch multiple initiatives at once if you want to really crack down on the root causes for failure or success.

What’s in it for your customers?

There’s always a reason why customers need to buy a product. Customers also need reasons as to why they need to buy now and more reasons why they need to buy from you. Ponder on these reasons and include them explicitly in all of your marketing materials. Nothing beats knowing the ins-and-outs of your target market; and putting yourself in your customers’ shoes when coming up with marketing strategies will definitely pay off.

What makes me different?

Business owners always get tangled up in coming up with a branding process that will separate them from the rest. One realization though is that you don’t have to be the only organization doing what you do or even be the best in the field. You just  have to be the provider of choice for your target niche.

Business burnout typically starts when you try to do too much. You force yourself to drudge on just to make sure that you get to meet those targets and deadlines. Work then gets repetitive, monotonous, and lethargic to you. If you have any of those symptoms, then it’s a definite sign that you’re on the verge of a burnout.

It will come to all of us, eventually; but before it does, let’s make sure that we already know how to counter it. Let me share some tips on how to keep you motivated when you’re about to face this dreaded thing called the ‘business burnout.’

Set Bite-Sized Goals

A well-crafted marketing plan ensures that you don’t take everything in, all at once. If you remember, doing everything all at once will most likely invite business burnout to your doorstep; but a good marketing plan avoids this. Having a well-designed plan with set goals per phase will make sure that your marketing activities progress one-step-at-a-time.

Do Regular Heat Checks

Whenever you launch a marketing initiative, always make sure to evaluate its effectiveness. Usually, due to you doing all things at once, there wouldn’t be enough time or energy left to evaluate the results of a marketing program. Take time to do a heat check for these types of initiatives. If it works, then great; but if it doesn’t, then it’s time to go back to the old drawing board. There’s no use wasting time and effort in something that isn’t generating expected outcomes. Re-strategizing will also give you new puzzles to solve

Plan Your Activities Ahead

Effective planning saves you a lot of time and money. Also make sure that you allocate time not only for your marketing activities, but for other essentials, like client work, as well. Another effective way for staying on track is to have daily/weekly/monthly task lists. These will contain all the activities  you have planned and how much time is allotted to each. For best results, make sure that your planned activities are further broken down into manageable tasks.

Don’t Do Everything Yourself

Try to get help from reputable marketing professionals. These consultants can bring fresh insights as to the design and implementation of your marketing strategies. This doesn’t only free up your time to focus on other elements of your business, but it also helps you avoid falling into adapting a “hit and miss” strategy. These people are professionals; and they know what they’re doing. You might be putting a little bit of investment on them now, but once solutions have been provided for your business, you can then reap the benefits in the long run.

 Business Success is not achieved Overnight

Businesses fail and succeed; but you will find out that the most successful ones have usually been in the market for quite a while.  It takes time and a lot of hard work to grow your business to succeed; and in doing so, you need a well-crafted plan and a strong dedication to your goals. Even the greatest have failed, quite a lot of times, but it is through their sheer determination and achievement of realistic goals that have defined their success.

You’ll be surprised that these tips, though very common-sense as they seem, aren’t really followed by many business owners. Since they’ve already been shared to you, I suggest that you go out and start changing the ways you do business so that you can beat the dreaded ‘business burnout.’

Most business owners only make time for marketing when getting leads are slowing down. It would be more effective is business marketing is a main stay on our regular business processes. Business marketing shouldn’t also be that difficult or daunting.

The Key to Success is Consistency

Most of the time, we get too busy making our businesses into the entities we always want it to be that we lose focus in marketing it.

One example that I can share is that I recently encountered a peer who reported a huge amount of sales after getting some technical issue about the service resolved. She has had this technical issue for quite some time, that it took almost fifty percent of her time just to get it done. Moreover, she was also invited by a client to an event last month. She got a lot of business from the attendees of that conference.

I was just wondering what might’ve happened if she consistently marketed her business. She could’ve had a steady flow of clients rather than the hit-and-miss approach that she took on. Maybe instead of getting a ton of sales in one go, she could’ve gotten a steady stream of customers, if she had marketed her business consistently. If you, as a business owner,  have been guilty of paying too little attention to your marketing initiatives, think again.

Effective Marketing is all about clarity, visibility, intention, and routine

In order for a business marketing initiative to be effective, four factors should always be taken into consideration. The first factor is that you should always have a crystal clear message for your potential clients. Always remember the “What’s in it for me” question of our customers. Make sure that your marketing initiative always answers this questions.

Second consideration is visibility. Always be out and be seen. Establish a strategic  foothold in your niche by always being present in conferences, and activities. Do this so  that everyone knows who you are and what you do.

Another consideration is setting defined goals and objectives. Always have your mission-vision-values integrated into your own marketing initiatives. This only not lets your potential customers what you’re planning to do, but it also reminds you of what your business is for. The last element is regularity. Potential customers always need to see and be exposed multiple times to any marketing activity before actually buying. With this in mind, always make sure that marketing is programmed to your daily business process .

 Find out what’s working and what’s not

One important element of marketing is evaluating your return of investment. If a marketing ploy doesn’t work, then don’t waste time on it. Learn from it and start another marketing activity. If a marketing strategy does work, find out how it exactly gets those customers, get the best practices in the process, and refine it.

One example is if you’re blogging only twice a month, you might want to increase your blogging activities weekly and check the difference. If there are no differences, then try another approach like offering freebies to people who sign up on your website. Then, evaluate again. Find out which ones of these initiatives work, then capitalize on it.

With all of these tips in mind, what’s important to us is that we start doing something. It can be a very small change like sending an email to a previous customer, giving after-sales calls, or just writing a blog post. It doesn’t really matter what you plan to do as long as it entices you to consistently market your business.

These days, promoting your business has become already become a necessity. Word-of-mouth referrals have become quite limited; and you would need to reach out to more potential customers. It’s time to be creative and take on new marketing strategies. The challenge is, as a small business owner, resources are scarce. Funds might be low; or even non-existent. You may not have the financial backing that the bigger institutions have, but here are some low-cost marketing ideas that can make a big difference on how you can rake in more customers.

Engage in Social Media Marketing

Technology nowadays makes keeping in touch with your current and potential client base easier. We now have email, social networking sites, blogs, forums, Twitter, and Facebook, just to name a few.  Email, Twitter, and Facebook are the best, and easiest, ways to get in touch with your current and potential clientele, real-time. These types of social media allow you to quickly inform everyone about your new products, new promotions, or updates on your business with no cost and very minimal effort. You can also come up with fun refer-a-friend programs to encourage your customers to ‘re-post’ or ‘re-tweet’ the updates to their friends. Now, that’s word-of-mouth marketing on a virtual level!

Treat your Website as your Resume

Having a website for your business is your resume to potential customers. It should contain a summary of what you are as a business. Moreover, like a resume, it acts as a subliminal sign that says “Buy Me” or “Hire Me.” Always remember that for most potential customers, your website is their first contact with you and your business. With this in mind, make sure that you get great first impressions. Everyone knows how first impressions make a big  difference when it comes to handling potential business deals.

One way on how to keep your website in tip-top shape is to always keep your information and content updated regularly. No website updates equate to a dead business; and a very effective way of updating your website is to include targeted content. You might also want to consult online marketing professionals to fully maximize your website content and traffic.

Know where most of your Sales come From

Every new business lead should be surveyed as to how they were able to find out about your business. You can now then evaluate which marketing activities are bringing in the potential customers. Always remember to analyze your data and find out which of the strategies have the leads converted into actual sales. Once you’ve determined this, get ready to allocate more resources to that activity.

Connect with Industry Experts

Selling great products or services have no point if no one has any idea that they exist. You can use public relations channels to get your message across to peers and experts in your industry. Credibility-wise, having a third party, most especially an expert in the field, endorse your product or service is way better than cheesy advertising. In order to do this, you can put together some email contacts of your industry experts and get to know some contacts on where these leaders publish their work. When you have significant, newsworthy updates regarding your business or products, they are the people you want to reach out to.

Be the Expert

Create more credibility for yourself and your business by offering to speak at conventions, seminars,  conferences, and trade shows. Once your name is out there, peers and customers will always be asking for your take on certain issues.

I received an email from a client asking for some advice on how she can close a potential deal. I know she had done things like this quite successfully in the past; but this time she was in a bit of hesitation.

Here’s the situation. There were rumors going around that a previous contact was coming up with a big venture. She found out about some of the plan’s details; and she absolutely knows that she can contribute a lot to its development. Moreover, she wants the upcoming project badly so that she can include it as a crowning milestone on her professional portfolio. The only thing stopping her was that she hasn’t had any contact with this acquaintance for quite some time; and she was very reluctant to do so now. She was in a bit of a fuss; based on how I read her email. Sensing her hesitation, I got in touch with her through the phone;  and pleasantries aside, asked her to reminisce about the days of teenage courtship.

I asked her the question of what if she had an admirer who wanted to ask her out, but was just too shy to make a move. What would she want him do? She quickly replied, “Of course, have him call me!” To which I replied, “There you go. that’s your answer!”

Being pursued in courtship is indeed very flattering. In fact, it’s nice to know that there are people who are interested in getting to know you a little better; and there’s always that possibility of establishing a much closer relationship with an admirer. More importantly, it doesn’t really matter what you think of these admirers. Even if you’re not a bit interested, just the mere fact of them mustering enough courage to tell you that they want to ask you out deserves much respect.

The same goes for getting potential clients. If you see a venture that you want, or you know that you can contribute greatly to, don’t let the opportunity slip away. This applies, especially more, if you have a direct line of communication with the decision-maker.  Don’t hesitate to send out those letters, shoot those emails, pick-up the phone, or set-up an appointment. Who knows? You might just be the best person that he or she needs to get the job done.

So this was exactly what my client did. She picked up the phone and called up her previous business acquaintance; and went straight to the point. It was no surprise that it looks like she’s going to get the project.  She was, after all, the most qualified person to take on the job. But more importantly, it was her go-getter attitude that probably swung the odds to her favor. Her potential client was most probably impressed by the way she just called up and presented that she was interested in taking on the project. After all, wouldn’t it be nice to award a project to someone who’s not afraid to step out of his or her comfort zone to get things done?

As a business owner, you have the responsibility of always knowing who your customers are. Without this basic knowledge, you might as well be groping in the dark finding out what your customers are looking for and if you can truly provide what they need.

Never Guesstimate!

Having identified your target market , you need to research the characteristics of this particular buyer group. Guessing the mix of your customer base is not good enough. This will mess your data up, and of course, wrong data would always equate to wrong interventions or planning. Guesstimating is the last thing that we want to do when profiling customers.

You can do basic research such as surveys and questionnaires. These data gathering methods serve their purpose well for obtaining data from customers. Conducting research can be expensive though, but it’s not impossible to have one conducted with very minimal budget. You can treat customer feedback as your number one source of data.

Another source of data is done through research. Data is usually gathered from reliable and available sources like trade magazines, the local statistics office, Google, and libraries. You can use this secondary data to cross-validate your findings with the results of the initial data gathering.

Another key in going about your market profiling is determined by the customers of your business.  Are you a business-to-consumer type, or a business-to-business type of organization? Knowing the difference produces more accurate data and research approaches clearer.

Profiling Consumers

If you’re a business-to-consumer organization conducting  customer research, ideally, you would need to gather the following data from all customers. The first type of data that you need are the demographics. Demographics concern customers’ ages, income ranges, gender, education, occupations, and religions. This pretty much will give you a snapshot from what group (social, cultural, religious) most of your customers come from.

Another data that’s need in doing research is getting geographic details from customers like the their specific location. You can also get geographic details like city size and climactic conditions from other sources like your local library.

One more type of data needed are the psycographic characteristics of your customers. These involve getting data on your customers’ personality types. You would like to know what personality types buy most of your products.

Another type of data that’s needed are your customers’ behavior patterns. It would be great if you can find out on what occasions, conditions, and when customers buy your products.  Having customers answer why they choose to get your product on certain occasions and conditions will give you a preview of when you can expect customers and sales to pour in.

One of the most important data that you need in your research are the customers’ expected benefits of your product. You need to find out what factors affect customers’ decision to purchase. Are customers buying because of safety? Are they purchasing your products or similar products because of cost-effectiveness?

Profiling Businesses

If you’re a business-to-business provider, most of the types of data mentioned above still apply. In conducting business profiling research though, you would need to consider two additional things. What are the customer types of your targeted business? Are their customers small business owners? Are they franchises or national chains?

Another important type of data that needs to be gathered from businesses are their industry types. Are the businesses you’re targeting retailers or wholesalers? What industry sectors are the businesses from?

What to do with your Findings

Once you have this data, there are different ways on how you can use these to enhance your products, decide on the prices of your goods, come up with promotions, and adapt distribution strategies.

An example is that you can use your benefits data to target your specific audience when it comes to marketing strategies. You can include the benefits that the majority of your customers mentioned in a certain marketing campaign.

Attracting new clients almost always means employing different marketing strategies. Do you happen to know which ones are the most effective for your business? Have you ever heard of the term ‘Inbound Marketing? ‘

In a recent survey done by a website for entrepreneurs, it reveals that almost half of their members find that getting new customers is their business’ biggest obstacle. In order to address that challenge, most businesses turn to more traditional marketing strategies like print ads, telemarketing, mail, and even advertising on air. As a customer I’m sure these practices would remind you of the countless times you’ve thrown print ads straight to the bin,  hung up on a telemarketer, or got impatient at commercials because they interrupt your favorite shows.

As a business, do you have back-up plans on what to replace these tactics with? It seems like that most customers are already sick and tired of the traditional marketing approaches that we’ve been implementing for the past decades. Without any marketing, I’m sure that you will feel that you have no legs to stand on, and of course will cause your business suffer. I’d like to suggest that maybe you can move on from these old-school marketing activities and adapt a much more effective process called ‘inbound marketing.’

What is Inbound Marketing?

Compared to the traditional marketing ploys that we just discussed, ‘inbound marketing’ pulls your targeted customers toward you. As compared to the traditional methods where we ‘push’ our products and services to potential customers, ‘inbound marketing’ finds ways on how to attract your target niche. This means that instead of you exerting all the effort, you just need to lay something out there and your customers will come.

Inbound marketing is predominantly uses the Internet in sending out messages through the use of blogs, RSS feeds, and e-books. Moreover, search engine optimization, Youtube videos, and social networking portals like Facebook and Twitter are also used for inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing activities provide a ‘softer sell’ for your products or services. It allows your customers to connect and get in touch with your business first even before they’re offered anything. The result is that your business will be viewed with better integrity and reputation for less cost but more leads.

The Elements of Inbound Marketing

In adapting an inbound marketing technique, you would need to consider three factors. These are content, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media. Content pretty much refers to the advice that you give people whenever they need it. Most people kind of view them as virtual printed advertisements. These can be in the form of a website, a blog, e-books, forums, or email.

SEO is all about ranking your website on the most popular search engines like Google. It is built on the concept that you get more website traffic if your blog or site appears on the first search page when any  search is done by your targeted audience. The goal of SEO is to dominate your niche by utilizing keywords and providing relevant content to improve search engine rankings. Once optimization is achieved,  you can expect to get more traffic, not only locally, but globally.

The last element of Inbound marketing is the usage of Social Media. Facebook, Twitter, and other networking portals gives you the opportunity to connect with potential and current customers. These are like extensions of your website with pages containing company, product, and contact information.