When it comes to marketing your business, there are so many tools and tactics it can be positively overwhelming. And if you’re trying to find the ideal consultant to help you market your business, the process becomes even more daunting.
And if you don’t have some kind of framework, even a basic framework to direct you, it can be a frustrating experience that gets you nowhere fast.
But you plan to hire a marketing consultant to handle all this, so what’s the problem?
Well, the first problem is what I mentioned above—hiring the right firm or individual to handle your marketing is a job in itself. And in order to find the right person or team tasked with the job of effectively marketing your business, you need to be clear on a few things.
If you can answer the following questions, you’re in good shape. If your mind draws a blank, it’s time to meet with your team and strategize.
So, if you are working to create effective marketing for your small business, take these three steps first.
1. Let’s start with your website: If someone clicked on your home page would they understand what you do in a few seconds?
Trust me, you only have a few seconds. In a recent study, “results showed the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, or around the time the mobile revolution began, to eight seconds.” Read about that study here.
Does your website clearly show what you do? Do copy and visuals work in harmony to convey that message quickly? And what about a next action? Do you want site visitors to call you, email you, sign up for your list?
If this isn’t clear it’s time to get busy. You can start here.
2. Next we’ll move on to those individuals that pay the bills, clients: Have you defined your ideal client? That one special individual that is the perfect person for your business. Here’s an example…
“Jill is the new marketing director at Becker CPAs. She wants to improve her firm’s brand presence and create marketing that brings results. She knows about the power of content marketing, branding, and story, and wants a system to put these practices to work. She needs a marketing partner to provide services, to guide her and her company through the process, and most importantly, to accelerate business growth.
Jill represents our core market: Marketing savvy professional services firms (Small to Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs) 1-10M annual revenue) that are ready for big change. They want great work and results and would prefer the attentive service you get from a smaller firm.”
The example above clearly defines who that ideal client is, where they work, what they need, and defines exactly what they are looking for. You should create your own ideal client description, find a photo that represents that person, print it out and tape it to your wall.
3. Now on to what makes your business so special: What is your core difference?
Here’s ours:
“We help small businesses develop a clear, unique, and highly targeted brand that truly represents their business and speaks to the right prospects. We then create a comprehensive marketing system built to support the brand and accelerate business growth.”
If you haven’t created a short statement, get to work. To begin start learning about the “6 steps to bring your brand to life”.
For today, I think three steps are enough. Why? Because these steps are part of a strategy before tactics mindset.
The steps are also part of an initial branding process that is extremely important to your business. Before you pursue any marketing venture, you need to clearly articulate exactly what your business provides, know who you are talking to, what they need from you, what makes you different, and then work on how you are going to convey that message so they quickly and clearly understand what you do.
Want to create a marketing system for your business? Start with strategy, brand strategy.
Do you want to bring your brand to life? Taking a few minutes to complete our brand audit will help you think about your current marketing efforts and what might need to change. It will also help me suggest several ways to improve your branding and marketing now: Brand audit.
After you complete the form, we’ll contact you to schedule a time to go over the results and see how we can help.
If you are interested in learning more about our branding and marketing process, sign up for my email list below.
The post Want to Create Effective Marketing for Your Small Business? (Take These 3 Steps First) appeared first on McBreen Marketing.