As a new business owner, it would be great to see high-impact results immediately. Without millions of dollars from venture capitalists, though, gaining results can be a long road. However, while there is no magic formula to marketing, there are some easy, high-impact tactics you can use:
Commit to your Marketing Plans
Getting new clients is one of the aspects of marketing a business. But marketing a business involves a whole lot more than merely getting hold of clients. Branding is a part of marketing a business. Sales too are part of it.
1. Set several hours aside each week to plan out your social media and email campaigns for the week. Then, set out a few hours for pure content production to promote your product.
2. Set clear marketing goals. Study shows that you’re 45% more likely to achieve your just by writing them down on a regular basis. Write down specific marketing goals that you would like to achieve over a set period of time.
3. Stay patient! Great marketing doesn’t happen overnight. Playing the long game by consistently creating great content eventually yield better results.
Focusing on a few core channels
Without focus, a marketing plan is all over the place. It lacks a mission and a purpose. It lacks a central objective that guides its every move. Without focus, you don’t have an actionable marketing plan.
You only have a few hours each week for marketing, be super focused on doing things that will have a big impact.
The key is to experiment as often as you can until you find one or two channels that show really good traction. Then, double down on those marketing channels until they become ineffective.
Tell your brand’s story, authentically
Great marketing content for your business isn’t only about showing the value of your product or your services. It’s also helps people get to know you and your business.
Many top brands today prosper by creating and cultivating a brand voice. They each have a personality, they stand for something, they’re relatable. To put it simply, they’re human.
Social media for small businesses
1) Embrace Video
Video is definitely the most effective way to engage with your audience across all social media channels. A study from Kantar TNS shows stated that 82% of connected consumers in Malaysia watches online video content daily.
Keep your videos between 15-90 seconds for highest engagement. Get straight to the point. The first 3-5 seconds matter to keep people watching.
2) Boost your most performing content
Your top performing posts are proven content — content that is proven to engage your audience. You should consider boosting them immediately. With the right ad targeting, these posts would continue to engage more people, reach even more people.
At Beta Social, we’ve seen incredible results with video ads on Instagram Stories. For example. One ad, in particular, has driven more than 1,000 clicks to our website for less than RM0.30 per click.
All we did was look at our top performing posts, identify that this post was performing really well, and put some ad ringgit behind it.
3) Understand the science behind great content
At the end of the day, a majority of social media success comes down to your content.
You can have the best product in the world, but if no one cares about your content, it’s going to be difficult to generate engagement and results.
Listen to your customers. Keep a close eye on the trends in your industry. Invest in the creative aspect of content such as video and visuals.
Email marketing strategies for small businesses
Is email marketing dead? No. And here’s why.
Email marketing is not dead, and it's not dying anytime soon. The amount of emails being sent and received per day is increasing by 5% every year, and by the end of 2019, it's expected to reach 246 billion. This indicates that email is still an effective way to market your business.
As a small business, email is one of the few remaining marketing channels that you actually own as a small business, making it a critical piece of any marketing strategy.
An engaged email list will allow you to share your story, promote your business, and showcase your products, all while turning subscribers into paying customers.
With that, we’ll start with growing your email by:
1) Branded pop-ups and email signup forms on your website
2) Automate your emails to/for:
a. Welcome new subscribers
b. Abandoned cart emails (ecommerce)
c. First time customers
d. Follow up emails