THE BUSINESS. You’ve stopped calling it by its name because that’s what it’s giving you, THE BUSINESS, day in and day out, month after month. What used to fill you with entrepreneurial joy is now a thorn in your side. The books are in the red, and significant positive change seems about as likely as striking it rich on a scratch ticket. You’ve marketed and marketed, but nothing seems to work for your small business. It’s time to take a step back and reevaluate your marketing efforts. It’s time to reboot the business.
Are You Using Dead Marketing Techniques?
Repeat after me: Memorable. Shareable. Clickable. This is your modern marketing mantra. If you’re blowing your budget on traditional ad initiatives, then you’re wasting your time, not to mention your money. Traditional ad initiatives may work for major brands that have gobs of loot and super-sized budgets, but for a small business trying to sell cupcakes, gift cards, or operate a pet hotel, this is not the case. So what’s the alternative? You need to reach out and get social. You don’t just need to build a social media presence for your small business; you need to build a social media empire.
Today’s customers look to their peers for guidance in determining where to go, what to do, and who to do business with. However, interacting with current customers and courting new ones on social media is only the beginning of this marketing effort. You need buzz. You need feedback. You need social recommendations. By using websites like Zuberance, you can get the brand advocacy ball rolling; customers will rate and review your business. Repeat after me: Memorable. Shareable. Clickable.
Yikes! What’s Up With That Presentation?
If you’re running a small cupcake business, then your website better have a picture of a cupcake that looks so good (butter cream frosting, exquisite flowers) that a potential customer starts eating pixels like they’re rainbow sprinkles. Ok, not really, but you get the idea. A website presentation with third-rate, Etch-a-Sketch graphics won’t do. You need to work with a graphic designer to make that icing or chocolate fondant pop. After that, you need to work on your content, so hire writers to describe how mouthwatering those Red Velvet cupcakes really are.
Who is Your Customer?
Do you know the needs, interests, goals, and motivation of your target audience? The Content Marketing Institute emphasizes the importance of buyer personas in creating a strong and well-focused marketing campaign. Surveys and interviews are old school methods of collecting this type of data. However, chances are you don’t want to take the time to create a survey, and it is safe to say most customers don’t want to be bothered with filling one out. Quora, Mechanical Turk, and Google consumer surveys are just a few of the tools available that can help you collect buyer persona data.
Damon H is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
