Any business owner or manager can give you an endless list of tasks they have to tackle every day (sometimes every hour). Marketing the business is just another to-do item on the list, often getting pushed to the bottom of the list. That’s why we’ve compiled a list perfect for you, the business owner who needs effective marketing tools but has a million things to do (and little time).
Marketing that works (with little time)
Website SEO
Optimizing a website may not be the most glamorous marketing task; you won’t see your website on a billboard or the news. However, the results and return-on-investment can be just as effective—and with very little effort.
Optimization is the process of crafting an ideal website for search engines, which gets your website to the top of the search engine listings. If you’re a brick and mortar business, search engine optimization technology can be used to increase your website’s local reach. Put simply, local optimization puts your website in listings of users within 10, 20, and 50 miles of your location.
Optimization takes very little effort on your part. Business owners and managers only need to provide information on their services and products and what sets their business apart. A quality optimization firm can do the rest (and be wary if they don’t ask for information specific to your business), and show you proof of their results.
Social Media
Social media may be free to sign up and post, but standing out from the crowd—and getting results—takes time and effort. If you want to drive sales, you need to put time in selecting the right social media sites, taking and selecting images (social media posts are far more effective with images), posting on a regular basis, scheduling for the future, and crafting a plan for the future.
If you don’t have time to take on an effective social media campaign for your business, contact a marketing firm about an affordable social media marketing plan. To make the plan effective, put aside a small amount of time to send testimonials and images to the marketing firm that give your followers a unique insight into your business, services, and products.
Email Marketing
There are several different reports on the effectiveness of email marketing, with some putting them as high as 400%. Email marketing is the process of building an email list (with the consent of your customers, here’s good ways to build an email list) and sending emails on a consistent basis with news and sales offers.
Email marketing can be as time-consuming as you choose. Option one is to create your own emails with relevant content and calls-to-action (make sure you send them from a dedicated server so you’re not blacklisted-more info on setting up quality email marketing here). The second option is to contact a marketing firm that can create and send out quality emails on a regular basis—emails your customers want to receive and keep them coming back.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of those “why would I need that?” marketing tools, but content marketing can be an effective way (both return-on-investment and time-wise) to increase the reach of your website and as a foundation for a social media and email marketing campaign. Relevant content posted on a regular basis is a sound part of a website optimization campaign to get your website at the top of local search results (along with local SEO). Quality content can also be used in e-mails and on social media to drive traffic back to your quality website (with these must haves of a valuable website).
Like other marketing tools, quality content marketing pieces can be produced by a marketing firm (tips on how to choose the right content marketing firm here). Be wary of content marketing firms that write one-size-fits-all pieces that are not specific to your business. Instead, choose a marketing firm that answers questions provided by your customers.
What you need to contribute
No matter what marketing tool you choose, or what combination of tools, you, or one of your staff members, need to contribute to make marketing efforts successful. You need to provide information specific to your business that your marketing firm that they can use to market your business (i.e. sales, testimonials, questions from customers).
Images are another valuable part of marketing. Pictures of your staff (with their consent), images of products or services delivered, or “insider” glimpses that intrigue and make your customers want to stay in touch with your business.
You can back up their loyalty by providing prompt and excellent customer service (details for stellar online customer service here). Once a message comes in, follow up with the customer and provide the customer service that your marketing firm has been highlighting online.