I’ll start by stating the obvious: the internet has made it easy for small businesses to reach customers all over the world. The trouble though is now every Tom, Dick & Harry is online trying to sell something to someone and well… the internet is a bloody noisy place.
I think this is why so many small businesses struggle when it comes to marketing online. Whatever they do the results are the same… crap. The reasons are usually a lack of one or all of the following factors:
- no time to invest in marketing
- limited marketing understanding
- technical knowledge
Getting consistently poor results from marketing online is depressing, costly and quite frankly f$@king annoying. The owners of crappy marketing campaigns normally end up concluding something like: “marketing doesn’t work for us” or “we’ll just rely on referrals”.
Are your marketing campaigns more like a car crash?
Well, if you are struggling with marketing your business online then I’d like to bring things back to basics. In this post I share with you the important foundations you need to (re)establish so you can turn your marketing around and grow your business.
Focus on one niche
Going to broad is the most common mistake made by business owners when marketing online. Trying to sell to everyone (and anyone who will listen) will always return very poor results. You need to narrow your focus… don’t go too broad
I know a lot of people who have taken their businesses online and have burned through marketing budgets, for little to no results. This is all because they’re trying to sell to everyone – it doesn’t work, so stop doing it.
Create a customer avatar, which can be described as: a detailed profile of your ideal customer. When it comes to creating a customer avatar, there are a few essential components you should include, such as:
- Defined wants, needs, pain points, and goals
- A well-researched “history” and background
- A detailed profile of not just who they are, but how they’ll use your service or product
Do not focus on quick profits
You cannot expect your small business marketing to hit the ground running and start generating tens of thousand of dollars in sales. Your aim right now should be to build a sustainable marketing system that is at the very least breaking even – meaning for $1 you spend on ads, you’re getting $1 back in sales.
The key factor here is that every conversion & transaction you make from your initial ad campaigns will be building your mailing list, growing your audience and building trust. The sales can, and will, come later.
Once you dial in on a profitable traffic system, you can then build another… and another.
Systemise your client acquisition process
The next thing you need to do is to build a basic marketing funnel. A funnel is basically a series of steps your prospects take to becoming a customer. For example, if your ultimate goal is to sell a product or service, you need to set up a sales funnel that will attract the ideal prospect, convert website visitors into leads and nurture them towards your ultimate goal – a purchase, book a call, request more info etc… whatever it may be.
The benefits of a carefully mapped out marketing system is each stage can be measured. This is what’s known as conversion rate… the percentage of people moving from one stage to the next. It allows you to accurately measure your marketing efforts and optimise accordingly.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t optimise it.
Conclusion:
So, these are some of the most important tips for marketing your small business online. If you apply these tips then you will be well on your way to consistent growth and a lot less stress whilst doing it. If you need help with any of this, my calendar is open to you – click here to check