3 Tip on How to Market Your Business When You are Busy

As a business owner, you are a very busy person. You have to meet clients, create and present proposals, network to find new clients, do your bookkeeping and write your blog. How can you keep marketing your business when you’re so busy running your business?

Here are a few tips you can use to get more marketing done in less time. You’ll also improve your marketing outreach and lead generation efforts too.

Schedule time to write your blog

Blogging for your business will set you apart as an expert in your industry so posting on a regular basis is a great idea. To write one blog a week you should schedule time on your calendar to write, edit and post your blog. Setting aside a half an hour to an hour a couple days a week will get you a great blog you’ll be proud to post.

Day 1: Write a working blog title and an outline of your blog.

Day 2: Start writing. Take your outline and fill in the blanks. Once you’re done with your blog, change your working title to a catchy title that will make people want to read your blog.

Day 3: Post your blog and promote it on social media.

Day 4: Start working on ideas for your next blog.

Use your blog posts everywhere

Having your blog on your website it a must. Visitors to your site will be able to read your posts and better understand what you do and how you can help them. Your blog on your website will also raise your website in searches because you’re adding new content to your site.

But don’t limit your blog to your website. Share it on LinkedIn and Facebook. This will allow you to attract prospective clients to your business on different channels.

Use your email signature to market your business

Email signatures are often an underutilized marketing tool. Create an email signature that includes links to your website, your social media profiles and your latest blog post.

3 Marketing Tips to Grow Your Small Business

As a small business owner, you wear many hats. You’re not only the owner, but you have to handle all the marketing and are the lead (or only!) sales person. If your budget does not allow for the hiring of a dedicated marketing person, you could be missing out on some great opportunities to promote your business.

Luckily there are some strategies we can share that can help you that don’t need a large marketing budget and a great deal of time to allow you to reach the highest number of appropriate buyers.

To start with, a small business owner’s time is best spent executing targeted marketing campaigns. You need to reach the right customers at the right time.

You can develop a targeted, cost-effective marketing strategy by building a strategic plan using these three steps.

Know your audience

The better you know your audience, the better you will be able to market to them. Is age, income, sex or location a characteristic that is important to you? What do your current customers look like? This is quite likely what your future customers will look like too.

Once you’ve developed a profile for your ideal customer, you can target your marketing to customers that match that profile.

Personalize content

No two customers respond to your marketing content the same way. Depending where they are in the sales cycle, each customer needs to be targeted differently. A new customer will respond differently to a certain email subject line differently than a repeat or loyal customer.

It’s important for you to have different content for each stage of the sales funnel so your customers will respond the way you want them to. The Call-to-Action for each stage tells your customers what they need to do next and it should be different for new and repeat customers.

Use multiple channels

Don’t just find one way of marketing to customers and only use that. A good marketing campaign will implement several different channels to reach your customers in different ways. Use a combination of social media, email marketing, direct mail and display advertising to reach your customers. Based on your ideal customer profile, you will be able to determine which channels work best for your target audience.

Your customers need several touches from you before they will be ready to make a purchase.

The key is to identify your potential customers and choose the right content and channels through which to reach them to have a successful marketing campaign. With these pieces in place, an effective marketing strategy is possible.

Are you consistent in your marketing?

Getting into a rhythm to boost your sales sounds like a great idea, right? After all, what small business doesn’t want to increase their sales?

But it’s so easy to forget to post a blog or write that newsletter.

What can you do to put a plan in place to be consistent in your marketing? Here are some ideas to help you become a consistent marketer.

Schedule time

On your calendar, schedule time to work on your marketing each week. Book this appointment with yourself and keep it! The time you set aside is time you can use to write your blogs, post to social media and write your newsletter.

Start an idea folder

Whenever you come across a great article, email or inspirational quote, you should save it to a folder. Use the items from your idea folder as inspiration for your next blog post or newsletter article.

Develop an editorial calendar

An editorial calendar is a roadmap to keep you on track with topics and promotions. Creating an editorial calendar is easy. Start with your full year in overview, thinking about when you’d like to hold certain sales or promotions. Drill down to the details in on the monthly calendars.

Get help

Sometimes you’re so busy running your business and working on client projects that you don’t have time to write and handle all the marketing for your business. That’s when you call in a marketing firm, such as Blue Dog Marketing, to help you. A good marketing company can free up time for you to spend on profit-generating activities.

How do you stay consistent with your small business marketing?

Start Your New Year with Marketing Tips That Will Revive Your Small Business

Do you want to start the New Year out by trying some new marketing ideas? If you’ve found yourself in a business dry spell, we have some marketing tips and ideas that can take you from stuck to productive in no time.

Remember the 80/20 Rule

80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. What are you doing to remarket to your current and past customers? Add them to your newsletter list or just send out an email blast offering a discount on a specific product or service. By touching your current and past customers in this way you can stay top of mind with them.

Ask for Referrals

Referrals can help your business grow. People are more likely to trust a friend or business associate over an advertisement. Ask your family, friends and customers for referrals…don’t be shy about it either!

Use Social Media

Social media is free to use, the only cost is your time, so use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter on a regular basis. If your business has products that can be photographed, take good quality pictures and post them on Pinterest and Instagram.

Ask for Testimonials

Testimonials are a great way to influence potential customers to use your services or buy your products. Ask your current and past customers for testimonials. Not all testimonials have to be written. You can create a video of a client testimonial for use on your website and social media sites. Videos are also a great way for your customers to demonstrate how easily your product works.

You are the Expert

Position yourself and your business as the expert in your industry. Look for opportunities to speak to area Chambers or other business groups. Write articles for your local newspaper and don’t forget to blog. If you get your name out there, people will remember you when they need your products or services.

Give one or all of these ideas a try. Make 2016 your best year ever!

3 Smart Ways to Market Your Small Business

As a small business owner, you know that you need to market your business effectively in order to stay in business. You need to attract new customers and retain current customers to continue a healthy level of business growth.

There are many ways to market your business but it is important to focus on the marketing pieces that will bring you the most revenue and best results.

Know Where Your Target Market Is

You need to know who your target market is so you can craft the proper message. You also need to know where to reach your target audience. For example, if you are a personal fitness trainer, you would advertise at a gym or a store that sells exercise equipment, not at a bakery or book store. Focus on where you can reach the largest number of your target audience as possible.

Delegate Responsibilities

If you have a team, learn how to delegate some business responsibilities to them so you can free up your time to focus on the most important business matters. As the face of your company, you should be out networking and building strong relationships with potential customers and vendors. Generating leads is a vital part of running a business so let the less important tasks fall to other team members.

Hand Over Marketing Undertakings

If you are busy running your business, perhaps marketing is not your strong point. Concentrate on what you do best, running your business, and hire a marketing firm to assist you with some of your marketing tasks. This way you will have the benefit of experts, doing what they do best, helping you grow your small business.

By effectively marketing your small business, you will ensure that it survives and grows.

3 Marketing Mistakes Consultants Make

Blue Dog Marketing often has consultants as clients. Some are just starting out and

others have been in business for many years. We have found a few similarities amongst them and even other small business owners….they often make the same marketing mistakes.

Mistake #1 – Lack of an Organized Message

Most consultants are extremely talented people. They bring many skills to their consultancies but they often lack focus about their expertise and niche. They don’t have a way to clearly communicate who they are, what they do and how they can help a prospective client.

What is the fix for this mistake? Tie all your talents, passions, experience and skills into ONE cohesive message that is unique to you. This will make you stand out from your competition.

Mistake #2 – Failure to Connect

Many consultants are great connectors when talking to prospects in person. However, their written marketing materials don’t connect with their target audience. They use buzzwords and jargon that makes them sound too generic. They stifle their own voice by trying to sound ‘right.’

How can you fix this marketing problem? Find the words that best describe you and your offerings. Learn the pain points of your target audience and address them clearly by getting personal and being yourself when writing your message.

Mistake #3 – No Real Marketing Plan

Many consultants, and small business owners, either don’t have a marketing plan or don’t stick to it. They spend their time chasing the latest shiny marketing object without learning if it is the correct marketing endeavor for them. They waste energy, time and money.

The fix for this mistake is preparing a good marketing plan and sticking with it. Work hard on your marketing plan, do your research and execute it according to the plan and you will see that you look more attractive to clients and your message is clear and consistent.