Finally getting a marketing budget can be exciting but intimidating at the same time. It can be tempting to immediately spend it on a huge website redesign or a Facebook ad campaign, but it’s important to approach your new opportunity with a plan.
Establish a strong foundation.
Start by nailing down the basics. As a small business, establishing a strong brand the first time is crucial. Work with an agency or freelancer to assess your logo. Does it explain your company? Build a foundation that stands out in the marketplace. Figure out what colors you should use. What are your fonts? Identify all the pieces of your brand so you can move forward with them.
Internally, build a cohesive brand feel and brand culture. Your logo & your name are secondary to your culture and values. This will help you hire, fire, and find the right clients.
Start developing value-adding content.
The next big thing to invest in is content. The market has proven time and time again if you don’t have photography and videos for your brand, you’re going to blend in with everyone else. In the digital field, our goal is just to catch our audience’s attention long enough to get them to stop scrolling and look at our post.
Content goes hand in hand with your brand architecture. Start by investing in foundational content for your website: explainer videos, page copy, and product photography. You want your bases covered as far as “We know who you are.” and “We know what you do.” Try to sell a product or service you can’t learn more about on a website is nearly impossible these days. Marketing and sales were always separate. Now marketing and sales are blended. In this day and age, you can’t grow a business without having marketing at the forefront.
Utilize social media.
The next investment is ensuring you’re posting on social media every day. If you’re going to do this yourself, there are tons of free tools to help you. Buffer is great for scheduling and VSCO is one of our favorite photo editing apps. This can be a great area to take some work off your own shoulders and free up more of your day. You can work with a freelancer or an agency to post every day on your behalf.
Set attainable goals.
The most important thing is remembering to set attainable goals and focus on achieving those goals through your marketing efforts, to ensure everything you do has a purpose. These are going to be small at first- “I want to get 100 new followers across all my social media channels.” Next would be “I want to provide valuable content to my audience.” Gradually your goals will grow and build off of each other, but they will always provide a road map for your investments and efforts. As you progress with you’ll need to invest effort in each of the different areas- putting all your energy in just one area will not help you see the same success.
