Small Business Marketing: Getting Back to Basics

This time of year lends itself to self-examination and evaluation. How has your small business marketing been going? Have you achieved the goals you set for yourself last year? How can you make sure your email marketing, blogging, social media management and media outreach is as strong as it can be? Although developing a marketing plan is an important step, sometimes you need to go back to the basics.

Small Business Marketing 101

Here are a few small business marketing basics to keep front-of-mind as we enter 2014:

1. Keep It Simple, Silly (KISS). As you brainstorm new ideas, remember to keep it simple. If you make your email marketing or social media management activities too complex, chances are you’ll end up getting overwhelmed, drag your feet and not focus on them at all. A couple of ways to keep it simple:
   • Remember that less is more. Each newsletter in your email marketing campaign should be fairly short and link to longer articles. The same applies in social media management; the shorter the Facebook updates the better.
   • Repurpose your content. There’s no reason you can’t use your blog post in your e-newsletter and your Facebook page. In addition to saving you time and energy, cross-promoting your content will increase how many people see it.
2. Think About Your Target Audience. Who are you trying to reach? Make sure everything you do to market your business will appeal to them. For example, if you’re trying to reach busy moms, think about ways you can make their life easier and tailor your email marketing, blogging and social media management efforts to that demographic.
3. Plan, Then Do. We’ve discussed how vital a marketing plan is to your success before. But once you create your strategy, follow it. The time you invested in creating it will go to waste if you don’t put it into action and find out what works well for your business.
4. Listen. No matter how much experience you have, there’s always room to learn and improve. Ask your customers for feedback and listen to their advice and criticism so you can learn from it. Monitor your Facebook page and really think about the negatives in addition to the positives. Read helpful articles and books and pull out lessons to learn from them. Of course you’ll never be able to make everyone happy, but taking time to listen to your customers and keep improving your business will serve you well in the long run.

What small business marketing basics have you come across while running your company? Have you successfully applied any of them to your email marketing, blogging, social media management or media outreach efforts? Share your advice in the comments below!

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