As soloists we’re always in a rush, and often marketing activities that would take weeks in a corporate environment, we squish in between a morning meeting and lunch at the desk.
However, time and time again, I see micro business owners who start marketing and PR campaigns without the basics in place. Here are three non-negotiables you could knock over in an afternoon that will make your marketing work better for you.
Do you have one? If not, get a pen and paper now and start writing down some ideas. A tag line is a snappy sentence that you can use across everything from email signatures and business cards, to Facebook ads and press releases.
“Mentos are the freshmakers.”
“Lust Have It are Australia’s #1 beauty box service.”
“Nandos are the home of the original flamed-grilled chicken.”
Who are you? While it’s hard to sum up your business in a sentence, your tagline is crucial to helping people understand what you do at an emotional level.
Be careful not to throw money at marketing without a strategy behind it. Be clear about your goals and write a list of them. It’s important to refer to this list every time you’re looking at spending time or cash on anything! If it’s not to meet these goals, why are you doing it again?
Don’t buy an ad because it’s cheap, or run a Facebook competition because you can’t think of any content ideas. Your marketing should reflect your business needs.
For example: a marketing strategy for getting new customers would be very different to a strategy to encourage current customers to repurchase from you.
A lead capture system is essential. This could be a whiteboard, an excel document, but ideally it’s a great CRM system like MailChimp or Infusionsoft. If you’re having leads slip through the cracks because you’re busy, you’re losing money. Before you start running marketing you need to have a tight system that captures and nurtures all the leads coming through the door.
That way you can take advantage of every opportunity that’s coming your way.
Have you got these three essentials in place?
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