Business Strategies

For business marketing to be effective. We have to be well informed and have an understanding of our competitors and the options at our disposal. We need to combine technology and offline ways of marketing.

These marketing tips and ideas can help anyone achieve better sales results, so take a few moments to study them. I hope you find the following marketing tips and ideas useful.

Marketing Tip 1: Throw that old marketing guide in the bin!

My first marketing tip is this: If you want to avoid wasting stacks of money and missing countless sales opportunities, throw your old marketing guides and audio programs in the recycling bin!

Marketing tip 2: Content marketing – Learn how to use content to market your business!

Content marketing works. In fact, so long as the material you produce is of extremely good quality, Content Marketing can work REALLY well. Last year, I generated over £150,000 in fees and sales from this blog, exclusively through Content Marketing.

Marketing tip 3: Email marketing – Start using email marketing NOW!

Email marketing is extremely cost effective and one of the most powerful marketing tools available to small businesses. This is because it provides predictable results and costs little or nothing to use

Marketing tip 4: Build a well-connected network

One of the biggest myths in business is that you must have a large network if you want to succeed.  In fact, you need just 5 or 10 people to begin with.

Marketing tip 5: Internet marketing – Start taking your website seriously

Most small businesses are unaware that their website is capable of being a 24/7, lead generating or sales machine.

Marketing tip 6: Match your fees to your promises

There is a common mistake, which loses small and medium sized businesses a fortune. It’s simply this:

Their marketing promises a high quality service, BUT they charge a bargain-basement fee. By doing this, they send a mixed message to prospective clients, which loses theme businesses.

Marketing tip 7: Use inbound or ‘attraction marketing’ — not pursuit marketing

I am sure you will have noticed what happens whenever a beautiful woman or a handsome man walks into a crowded room or a bar?  People look at them.  In fact, some people will actually walk over to them and offer them a drink or strike up a conversation with them.  The reason we call these kind of physically striking people ‘attractive’ is that they literally attract the attention and also the interest of other people.

Marketing tip 8: Do some competitor research

It’s impossible to effectively sell or market your services unless you have researched your competitors. You need to know what offers, guarantees, prices or fees you are selling against, in order to make YOUR offering the most attractive to potential clients.

Sourced from: http://jimsmarketingblog.com/top-10-marketing-tips/

The most important steps to marketing is to ensure all the content is accurate and up to date, understand your audience well enough. Your advertisement should reach the intended audience.

As we close the door on another calendar year, it’s time to start thinking about effective marketing ideas for small business owners in 2017. Here is a list of seven tips to give you a competitive edge in the new year.

1. Get Into the Data Cleaning Routine

Data cleaning shouldn’t be an annual affair. And if you’ve been neglecting your database, your entire marketing strategy could be off-kilter. In fact, 75 percent of companies feel that dirty data is undermining their ability to serve customers.

Why? Because successful marketing relies on data-driven decision making. If your data is inaccurate, your decisions won’t be much better.

2. Get Reacquainted With Your Audience

When considering marketing ideas for small business owners, think about your audience first. Who are they? What do they do? How can you help them do it better?

Buyer personas are a great way to define your audience in terms of demographics, responsibilities and interests. Done right, a buyer persona will take on a life of its own and give you a target. Plus, these personas can be used to segment your list and better personalize your sales and marketing messages.

3. Stay on Target With Your Content

When you know your audience, it’s much easier to create targeted, relevant and (above all) valuable content. A thinly veiled sales pitch just won’t cut it in 2017; you want to reach your audience on the most personal level possible. Let them know you understand them and care about their wants and needs.

4. Pay Attention to the Details When Optimizing Emails

Email marketing is a tricky business for small business owners. Even if you have great content, there’s no guarantee that recipients will open your email. There are, however, ways to improve audience engagement, open rates and conversions.

First, make sure your emails are coming from a recognizable sender name, preferably a business address. Next, think about your email subject line. Does it tell the reader what’s next? Is what’s next worth clicking? If not, you’d better head back to the drawing board.

5. Give Your Social a Much Needed Turbo Boost

As social media algorithms evolve and it gets harder to gain traction organically, paid advertisements and boosted posts have become the best way to level the playing field. In fact, paid ads are expected to generate $11 billion in revenue by 2017.

6. Take a Show-and-Tell Approach

A well-turned phrase still has its place, but visual content is where it’s at as we move towards 2017. After all, the human brain processes images 60 times faster than words.

Of course, if you want to be on the cutting edge of visual content, stop hiding behind your keyboard and step in front of the camera! Video content (as seen on Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook Live) is all the rage. And it’s an easy way to engage your audience.

7. Don’t Be Afraid of Marketing Automation

No matter how hard you try, you can’t do it all. Why start the new year bogged down and overwhelmed by responsibilities that could easily be delegated and automated for efficiency?

If you’re looking for marketing ideas for small business owners that will save time and money, keep you top of mind and maximize referral leads and customer retention, you can’t do better than marketing automation.

Sourced from: https://www.outboundengine.com/blog/marketing-ideas-for-small-business-owners-in-2017/