Prioritizing your Small Business Marketing Efforts

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What do bags, shoes and jackets have to do with small business marketing? Prioritization. Like most people, I love to shop, but I have to watch my budget too. I will spend a disproportionate amount of money on bags, shoes and jackets because (1) they are worn more often (2) have a greater impact on the overall look and (3) when I buy quality, I can keep them longer. The marketing equivalent of bags, shoes and jackets are your website, business card, and marketing folder (used to hold your marketing kit materials.) I’m continually shocked by how much time and effort will be devoted to nit-picking a direct mail piece, when the website looks like it was developed in 1995, and the business card doesn’t even tell me what the company does. I refresh my business cards about every six months! Once you have these fundamental marketing pieces in place, THEN you can look for other ways to market your business and generate leads. These pieces function to generate awareness and leads, while they raise your credibility level. Clients and friends are always asking me, “How much of my time and money should be spent online?” In most cases, I recommend about 75% of a small business’ marketing effort should be invested online – but there are exceptions. For example, you may have a tradeshow that’s a cornerstone of your marketing plan. If that tradeshow drives above-average awareness and sales activity, you should be spending more time and money on that tradeshow. If there’s a magazine that with a long shelf-life that’s avidly read by your target audience, you should be in it. But in all cases, small businesses need to focus their marketing efforts where they’ll get the biggest bang for their buck. Make sure your website, business card, and marketing folder look as polished and professional as you do – you’ll quickly reach your goal of getting people to KNOW, LIKE and TRUST you. How do you prioritize where to spend your marketing dollars? Are you focusing on the right things?

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Written by Adrianne-Machina