5 Ways to Maximize Your Marketing Efforts

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As a small business owner you are well aware that you have to get the most out of your time, effort and money so it’s important to look for ways to maximize your efforts. When it comes to marketing it can feel like an oversized challenge, especially for solopreneurs. So what do you do?

  •  Start with a Plan and a Budget – Most business owners I talk to don’t have a marketing plan and very few have identified a budget from which to operate, which makes the task of marketing more challenging. When this happens business owners tend to overspend. Why? They have no clear direction or strategy. When you take the time to put a plan together to include a budget, it helps you understand exactly what type of investment it will take to successfully implement your marketing campaign. Not having a budget or a plan makes it easy to get distracted by various opportunities that will undoubtedly come your way. Do your research to determine what your market needs. Designate what percentage of revenue will be used towards reaching this audience, then outline your strategies and tactics based on the resources you have available. 
  •  Collaborate and Let Others Help Promote Your Company – There are a lot of opportunities for building awareness and a number of ways in which others can help you. Have you established partner relationships and strategic alliances? Do you speak for free, volunteer, provide nonprofit or discounted rates for clients? Don’t forget the value of increasing exposure. Always be on the look out for ways to gain more awareness. For example, an organization or affiliate may be willing to highlight your company in their newsletter, include you on their partner page, or allow you to speak or pass out business cards at one of their events. Strategic partners can work together by putting links on each others web pages, mentioning each others services on social media and ultimately expanding the others reach. 
  • Become Memorable – When you make yourself memorable, people automatically want to share and tell others. Have you considered how Gangnam Style could create a viral video that could generate over 800 million views on YouTube in a matter of months? (If you’re not familiar with this video, you can view it here). There are all kinds of marketing analysis dissecting just how this music video has been able to garner the reach that it has, but one of those reasons is that it’s just plain memorable. Whether it’s a lot of fun, a little controversy, a new twist, or a different approach to a familiar concept, when you make yourself memorable you will ultimately maximize your efforts.
  • Do Small Things Great – While reading this morning I came across a statement by an author referencing Napoleon Hill: If you can’t do great things, do small things in a great way! I love that and I think we should all take note. Of course most of us agree that we will do great things, but for the moment you may be feeling discouraged because you’re not there yet and you don’t have the resources you need. So what if you can’t launch a major marketing campaign, focus on what you can do and do it really well. My dad always told us coming up, it doesn’t matter what you do, just do it well. Keep that in mind and you’ll begin to notice that by doing the small things great, people will pay attention.
  • Understand ROI – When you establish your plan and set a course of action, make sure you understand up front the Return on Investment. Whether it’s time, money or energy, you need to know that your efforts are efficient and showing some level of return. And It’s important that you define that. As an example, very few small businesses embrace PR like I think they should, but of those that have, I’ve often heard disappointment based on expectations, such as, I just knew my phone was going to ring off the hook after that article came out. While your PR efforts may not have led to the sales leads you had hoped for you still have to look at other returns such as expanded visibility and exposure, increased credibility and so forth. Make sure whatever strategies and methods you are using, that you are indeed getting some type of ROI and you understand what type of return that is likely to be, otherwise you will surely feel you are wasting your time.

 

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Biz Practitioner

Sheronde Glover is a speaker and strategist and the CEO of The Business Practitioner. Sheronde helps organizations, leaders, and teams re-energize with purpose, passion, and action using the ACE (Aim. Change. Excel) framework. Ready to ACE it? Contact us at 678-250-4192.

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