There are year-end financials to tackle. The holiday sales rush. And a million other things on your list to do in preparation for 2017 – or at least that’s how it feels.
Not to add fuel to the fires you’re putting out, but your small business marketing strategy isn’t going to plan or execute themselves. We’ve worked with more than 300 small businesses owners on their marketing tactics and fall into that same small business category too. We know a thing or two about prioritizing marketing tactics that are must dos and should dos.
If you haven’t done the following things related to your website, customers and general marketing strategy… you really can and should.
Pay Attention to Your Website
Spoiler alert: all of these are must dos. Most advertising and marketing roads (content marketing, digital advertising, print advertising, social media) eventually lead back to your website. Your website is just too important to your business for you to put it on the backburner for another month, quarter or year.
Convert your website to a responsive, mobile-ready platform already.
In April 2105, Google announced it would “penalize” non-mobile websites in its search rankings. Enough said. Make your website responsive now, if not for search purposes, then do it for your customers who regularly visit your site (who are most likely now using their mobile devices).
Read and understand your website traffic analytics at least quarterly.
If you’ve invested time or money in your website over the past year, why wouldn’t you want to know the impact of your investment? You might find yourself pleasantly surprised.
Test the technical (back end) aspects of your website usability monthly.
Broken page links, forms that don’t work, pages that don’t load, plug-ins that haven’t been updated, images that don’t appear are all significant problems. There are too many other websites visitors can click to when yours isn’t working properly.
Communicate With Customers
Connect more often.
For as much as a small business depends on customers, they easily get pushed aside to make time for running the business. Even though most everything you do is for your customers, does it matter if they don’t know what you’re doing? Take time to connect with the people who drive so many of your business decisions and marketing strategies.
Talk to your customers more than just at billing time.
Sure, recurring revenue is the goal, but if the only time a customer hears from you is at billing time, you are sending a bad message. Let them hear from you more often – at least 12 times a year with conversation that is more than about them owing you money.
Rein in Your Contact Database
Get your contact database under control and organized.
“Sure we have a contact database. It’s in our Outlook.” Rethink that strategy in 2017 and instead assemble, combine, consolidate, prioritize, append and manage your contact list. A well-managed database of clients, prospects and others is a quantifiable business asset. Treat it that way.
Set Meaningful Priorities
Stop worrying about Facebook Likes and worry about what Google likes.
How do you rank among your competitors on Google’s search engine? What about other search engines? Your Facebook “friends” already know you, and a thumbs up doesn’t mean new business. Now a first page Google ranking on the other hand, that’s credibility and reaching new customers.
Conduct a SWOT and don’t ignore the T.
SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is perhaps more critical for small businesses to undertake than large ones because smaller businesses can’t afford to take big hits whether seen or unforeseen. The good news though is that small businesses can adjust quicker to changing market conditions. Pay close attention to threats a SWOT analysis reveals. A significant rise in commodity prices. Turnover in the sales ranks. An aggressive new competitor. Changing consumer tastes. All these threats can turn a good year to mush. Plan ahead and have back up plans in place.
Don’t Advertise for Advertising’s Sake
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
John Wanamaker, U.S. department store merchant. Circa 1910
Determine what works, what doesn’t and know why.
If you can’t make the correlation between marketing investment and business success, begin by measuring incrementally and increasing marketing budget as sales grow. Connecting the dots between lead generation and sales growth isn’t easy or always apparent how to do, but incremental measurements are the best way to start.
Think about your company brand, honestly and often.
Brands boil down to one statement. All of your branding should point to the answer.
“Our customers think we are the best at _________________.” If you, your staff and your customers don’t agree on how to fill the blank, you have some brand building to do.
Need more help or guidance on setting your 2017 marketing priorities? Let’s talk.