Small business owners have an uneasy relationship with marketing. According to a recent study by only 37.4 percent of small business owners rate spending time on marketing as “very” or “fairly” important. On the other hand, big businesses invest big money in their marketing efforts—with big results that help them dominate many sectors of our economy. Your small business can’t, obviously, match the marketing spend of a Proctor & Gamble or Amazon, but you can match their smarts by focusing on these aspects of a marketing plan in 2017. WABW Media Group can develop a successful marketing plan for your business.
Online presence: The internet has been a great leveler of businesses. Before it came along, small businesses often struggled to sell in the next town over, let alone the next state. Now, having a website can help you sell well beyond your local market, but too many small businesses lack websites, especially websites that work well on smartphones. That can mean you are missing out on local sales too
Web Design: The first step is to have a well thought out and responsive website. Your site must be easy to navigate and easy to read on any size device. Many customers view web pages on their mobile devices these days, so you want to make sure when you get traffic to your site its usable. People click off of an website that is not user friendly in a matter of seconds. Dont spend so much marketing your business only to have your website send them running.
Email campaigns: Yes, email still has big potential for small businesses. Step one on using email effectively is to get the email address of everyone who now does business with you. If you have a new point-of-sale (POS) terminal, you should have the capability of emailing customers their receipts instead of printing them—and collecting their addresses. Online order systems collect emails as part of the delivery verification). Once you have the email addresses in hand, send out a weekly or monthly newsletter on deals, new products and the like. Email tools that have been designed for small businesses ae priced right for small business. Contact WABW Media Group for information and pricing.
Local advertising: There should be a place for advertising in every small business’ marketing budget. Focus on where your customers are: Younger consumers will likely best be reached by online ads or social media ads, while older consumers may still be most responsive to print advertising. If you’re targeting parents of school-age children, take a look at the programs for cultural and sports events at schools. While buying a whole billboard may be beyond your budget, many markets now have digital billboards that let you buy a share of the display space. Know your demographic and audience and if you are unsure, we can help. Contact us.
Track your progress: Whatever local advertising method you choose, have a clear idea of how you will measure and track success. If you mail out a coupon and no one redeems it, don’t use that approach again. There are ways to track other marketing programs too. Whenever you have a new customer in person, ask them how they heard about you. It might just lead you to your next great marketing idea. WABW Media Group can help you with an overall plan for success.
Information in this article from Business 2 Business Community.
