According to a poll taken by InfusionSoft, nearly one in five small business owners do not use any type of digital marketing. Almost 49% who do their own marketing cited a lack of time as a significant factor for making an effort to engage in consistent digital marketing. As we’ve seen in 2020, people staying home during the Covid-19 pandemic meant more eyes were on social media and the internet than ever before, and it vital to have a strong presence.
What harm does avoiding digital marketing do?
Not marketing on every channel that is a good fit literally slows your growth, but there are a few things you can do to kickstart your marketing efforts:
Figure Out Your Goals
Not everyone wants the same thing from marketing. Spend a little time brainstorming what your personal goals for your brand are.
- Ideas for directions to go are:
- Get more leads
- Be a knowledge leader in your niche
- Attract more customers
If you choose the last one, attracting more customers involves going to where they are online such as blogs and social media. Never drop links to your own site as it is poor form, and no matter how kindly done it appears you’re trying to hijack someone else’s audience. However, if you can create a profile, you can put your URL in there. Any comment you make should be value-added and non-promotional.
Once you have your goals nailed down, you need to plan how you will execute it and how often to create a purpose-driven approach.
Avoid Overwhelming Yourself
Start with just one marketing activity. It might be blogging on your site or a single social media channel such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. A blog about your products, services, achievements, or day to day goings-on that show your brand’s commitment to service, quality, and customer service are great ways to create unique content. There is no perfect approach for this, do one area thoroughly and then expand. For example, if blogging is going well, expand that to other channels such as Facebook or LinkedIn.
Once You Start, Remain Consistent
As your online presence, most likely, so will your business, and it is easy to get busy and decide to post tomorrow because today is too busy. Suddenly two weeks have passed without a post on your blog or social media, and your traffic has noticeably died down.
Use the 15 and 15 Method
Before you go to bed at night, set a timer, and spend 15 minutes prioritizing your marketing the following day. Write down important events, holidays, sales, new products, and whatever you want to promote the next morning.
If you need blog posts or social media items created, it might be time to outsource the task to a small to medium-sized agency.
The next day, spend 15 minutes creating your posts and do this every day, within a month it will be a habit, and you’ll get faster and more efficient at it. If you outsource, post the content yourself or check-up and make sure your blogs and social media are handled to your satisfaction.
Need help getting your brand noticed? Horizon Marketing is here to help your business succeed in the confusing world of ‘online’ or ‘digital’ marketing. We focus our efforts exclusively on Internet marketing to give you the best Return On Investment possible. Call (310) 734-1493 Ext. 1 Now and request your Free Web and SEO analysis.