Small Business Owners Marketing Survival Guide
With the many hats small business owners are wearing, it can often feel overwhelming to manage your marketing from day to day. There's plenty of information out there for what you could be doing and how you should be doing it, but lets face it, sometimes you must need to focus your limited attention on a few important tasks. In other words, what things are crucial surviving in the age of digital marketing.
We've broken down 3 tasks that apply to any business and that can be implemented immediately.
1. Optimize Your Website
Your website functions as a billboard, storefront and business card all rolled into one. It's you best asset when it comes to representing your business online. Sure Facebook is great, but the goal of social media is to engage with customers and point them back to your website. The most important part of your website is to be friendly. Yes, you heard it right, a friendly website is the key. This means that it is user friendly, mobile friendly and search engine friendly.
2. Social Media
You probably already knew this one. Once step 1 is complete, its time to move on to your social media. Here, the meta of the game is consistency. It might look good on paper to have a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linked In, Pinterest, Myspace, and Tinder. But if you're not willing to be active on ALL of those accounts ATLEAST 3 times a week, then they will be doing more harm than good. In order to benefit from social media, you must pick a few RELEVANT platforms and be extremely consistent with them. This probably the hardest of the 3 steps because it is the most time consuming.
3. Video Content
Where video ads used to be a luxury, they are now close to being a requirement. Once you have completed the previous two steps, this step will be the X factor that puts you ahead of your competition. What makes this step difficult is the quality that is required. Gone are the days that a you can just point and shoot on a cell phone camera and post immediately to your facebook. Videos are alot of work. Shoots must be planned, filmed, edited, and optimized for each platform. There is alot of behind the scenes work involved in making even the simplest 15 second ad. Our advice? Hire outside help. It will be too much work to attempt to learn editing skills much less purchase the equipment needed. Luckily, at AptoFX we have trained videographers on staff that do a fantastic job.
When these three steps are done IN ORDER, small business are GUARANTEED to see results. These are your most essential marketing practices in order to not only to survive, but to THRIVE.