When starting your small business, it can be tempting to try everything at once. But when it comes to marketing your business, doing too many things at once is a waste of time and resources. The key is finding out which marketing strategies work best for you and then focusing your efforts on those channels. In this article, we’ll walk through determining which marketing strategies are most valuable to your small business based on what works best for your company’s goals, mission, and objectives.
Make a list of everything you do in your business to attract customers.
Make a list of everything you do in your business to attract customers. Take note of all the ways you promote your business, interact with customers, track your success, and measure results.
This will help you identify where your marketing strategies efforts are the most effective and which efforts need more work. For example, if you’re using social media but don’t know how well it’s working for you (or if it’s not), that would be worth investigating as an area where more attention is needed.
Look for patterns and gaps in your marketing efforts.
When looking at your business as a whole, you should also look at the big picture of your marketing strategies efforts. Look for patterns and gaps in your marketing strategies efforts. Do you find that customers are only responding to one type of communication? Is there a period during which they’re more likely to respond? Are there specific events or seasons that seem to trigger a boost in results? Use these insights when determining how best to continue reaching out to customers in the future.
Look for resources that will help you measure your marketing strategies channels.
To determine which marketing strategies channels are working for you, it’s essential to know what is and isn’t working. When you’re first getting started, set up tools that can help you measure your marketing channels to see how effective they are. Here are some options:
Google Analytics
HubSpot
SurveyMonkey
Qualaroo
Google AdWords (for pay-per-click campaigns)
Facebook Ads Manager
Assign dollar amounts to each channel based on the results of your research.
To fully understand your marketing strategies ROI, you will also have to assign dollar amounts to each channel based on the results of your research. This will help you determine how much money a particular channel is worth and whether it should be used in the future.
When analyzing each channel’s effectiveness, determine the cost per lead or sale (CPLS). Then, add up all of the costs associated with that particular strategy under one category called “Total Cost.” Finally, divide Total Cost by CPLS to find out what percentage of every dollar spent on that marketing strategy was profitable for your business. If a tactic doesn’t yield positive results within six months or less, stop using it!
Don’t forget to look at customer retention, upsells, and cross-sells.
The first thing you should do is analyze the lifetime value of your customers. This will help you determine whether or not a marketing strategy is worth implementing. The lifetime value of a customer (LTV) refers to the total profit generated from one customer over their life with your business. To calculate this, subtract all costs associated with acquiring that customer from their lifetime revenue streams (for example, if you spent $1 on advertising and they spent $3 in product purchases, then their LTV would be $2).
Another way to measure success is by looking at how much it costs to acquire a customer and how much they spend over time. For example: if it costs $4500 per year for each new client but they generate an average income of $5000 per year after purchasing products/services from your company three times in that same year, then it’s probably worth keeping them around!
Summarize your findings with an action plan.
Once you’ve finished your research and analysis, it’s time to make sense of what you found. To begin the process, create an action plan template with the following components:
- Objectives: A short description of your goals. What do you want to achieve and why?
- Strategy: Why did you choose this strategy? How will it work toward achieving your objectives?
- Tactics: What specific steps are included in this strategy? How will they be executed, monitored, and measured (if at all)? Which metrics are important to track during implementation — engagement, conversion rate, or other metrics?
- Tasks: The who/what/where/when of each task involved in making this plan happen (e.g., who will be responsible for creating social media posts).
There are many effective marketing strategies and channels you can use to promote your small business, but it’s important to know which ones work best for you.
The most effective marketing strategies are the ones that align with your business goals, budget, and time constraints. Social media might be a better option if you want to get more customers through paid advertising but don’t have the funds available. Similarly, if you already have a website that generates steady traffic but wants new ways of reaching customers who aren’t finding their way there yet (or haven’t found it yet), then an email newsletter could be just what the doctor ordered!
There are also other factors worth considering before choosing between one channel over another: what kind of customer base do I want? Is my target audience online or offline? How much time do I have available each week/month? These questions should influence which channels or combination of channels make sense for me as well as where else I can spend my precious resources outside of paid advertising opportunities such as Google AdWords or Facebook Ads.
If you’re a small business owner, marketing strategies can be a daunting task. You might think there’s not enough money or time to do it all, but don’t worry! The key is to start with some research about what’s working for other companies like yours and where your audience lives online. Once you know that information, it’s time to put together a plan with goals and milestones so you can measure progress along the way.
Keetria is an entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and brand strategy coach for creatives & entrepreneurs with 16 years of public relations expertise working with some of the world’s leading brands, startups, media personalities, and entertainers. If you want to work together, don’t hesitate to reach out!
