MARKETING, WHERE DO I START?

If you’re like most business owners, marketing can be quite overwhelming because there’s so much to wrap your head around and keep up with. And then when you throw in the fact that you have HR, accounting and a variety of other daily duties to take care of, marketing can easily be placed on the back burner. We’re here to lay out the essentials so from this point on, you’ll have a resource to help guide you and keep you on track.
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Facts to Remember

1. You may have the most amazing product or service in the world, but if your target audience doesn’t know about it and you’re not marketing to them, they’ll never know it exists.
2. Marketing isn’t complicated, keep it simple.
3. Keep focused and don’t spread your marketing efforts too thin or else it will become ineffective.

Steps to Follow

1. Make sure your product or service is viable and profitable
2. Know your target audience(s) who aligns with those products or services, inside and out. Talk to them so you know how to reach them.
3. Develop a brand that resonates and captures the attention of your target audience(s)
4. Determine your bandwidth that can be devoted to your marketing program
5. Decide how much time both you and your team members can devote to marketing each week
6. Schedule the time you can devote to marketing on your calendar
7. Find a mentor, colleague, or stakeholder that will hold you accountable and offer an objective eye
8. Create your marketing plan for a given quarter, season or year
9. Do this by prioritizing your business goals
10. Align the target audience(s) associated with each business goal
11. Determine how you can best reach those specific people so you can achieve the goal
12. As an example, if social media is a strategy, use only social media platforms your target audience uses
13. Create an action plan specifically for each marketing strategy including how to track each strategy’s effectiveness
14. Create a “file” where you can keep emails, photos, and details regarding this strategy that is easily accessible
15. Map out the steps needed to complete those strategies, those responsible and specific due dates
16. Remember, you have a marketing production crew in your back pocket, aka your smart phone, so use it daily
17. Document the entire project so you don’t need to recreate the wheel in the future, always keeping in mind how you can repurpose photos, videos and other content you create so it can be used in other ways
18. Once a week, unplug and go into airplane mode to evaluate your progress and step into your customers’ shoes (speak with them if possible) to confirm you’re on the right track
19. Evaluate your programming and promotions to determine their effectiveness and document this information
20. Schedule regular “walk-throughs” or audits of your customer experience to ensure you’ve created a path for them to get what they want and make their lives easier and happier