Of Course Your Business is Market Ready. But is it Market-ING Ready?

Let’s face it – most small businesses avoid marketing if they can. They would rather just worry about their product and their customer, and let word of mouth do the rest.

Unfortunately, if that strategy doesn’t work, they start marketing in a time of crisis, when they need immediate sales, and to boost revenue right now. But that urgency can lead them to make unwise, expensive decisions, and ignoring a marketing strategy up until the point of crisis makes the work more difficult and more costly than it has to be.

Marketing should be built into your earliest decisions as a business owner.

In fact, most small businesses think of their marketing strategy from the very beginning. They don’t open a Greek restaurant right next door to another Greek restaurant. They don’t open a boutique and leave the windows dark and dusty. They don’t price their product at twice the cost of all their competitors. These are all marketing decisions, and they are good ones.

But there are several things every small business should do, and can do, from the very beginning, that don’t require the services of a marketing professional. And these things will save time, money, and energy in the long run. Here’s a list of ways you can get your business marketing-ing ready for very low cost:

1. Take beautiful photographs. If you have a physical product or location where your service is delivered, take beautiful, well-lit photos. If you can’t take them on your own, hire a professional photographer. Look at competitor photos on Instagram. Ask the opinion of friends and strangers, to make sure your photos are attractive and appealing. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and are one of the most compelling marketing assets you can create.
2. Make a website. It doesn’t have to be fancy, and, if you’re not a technical person, it’s best to keep it simple. If you plan on selling things online, go to Squarespace, which is a great choice for built-in e-commerce. If your site is informational only, go to WordPress. In either platform, create an account, choose a template and fill it out completely, using your photographs to showcase your products. It’s more important that the information be complete and accurate than that you have a fancy website. Buy your domain; it’s crucial for establishing credibility.
3. Claim your business on Google. This is particularly important if your business has a physical location and you want customers to find you on a map, but it’s critical for almost everyone. Find your business or address on Google maps, and click “claim this business”. Fill out every field in those forms, ensuring that all the information on Google is accurate and up-to-date. This is crucial in helping customers find you, in person or online.
4. Make a Facebook page for your business. Many people search for businesses specifically within Facebook, and every business should have a Facebook presence with their business information.
5. Secure your social media accounts. It’s not a bad idea to create multiple social media accounts for your business, even if you don’t plan on using that network. At least you will have secured your account in case you need it in the future. Remember that it’s not just Twitter and Instagram (and Pinterest or Snapchat, depending on your demographic), but also Yelp or Tripadvisor or anywhere your customers might be looking for you.

In all of these instances, make sure you fill out all the form fields on every page completely and accurately. Fill out the “alt” fields for your images, giving a short written description of the picture. Fill out categories, tags, slugs, and everything else on every page as accurately as you can. In the example of a Greek restaurant, you may find yourself typing “Greek food Albuquerque” “Greek restaurant Albuquerque” “New Mexico Greek food” “restaurant in Albuquerque” and so forth over and over again, and it may seem boring and repetitive, but it also helps people find your business no matter how they phrase the question.

Performing these online tasks is simple, inexpensive, and essential. It’s every bit as important as having a clean storefront, treating your customers well, and providing good value.

When does a small business need professional marketer?

If time and money were no object, your business would be using a professional marketing agency, consultant, or strategist from the very beginning. They would be partnering with you in helping to craft your brand assets and messaging in a way that best connects with your customer, and helping all your efforts reach that customer. But in real life, it often doesn’t work out that way. You need professional guidance when:

• Your business isn’t breaking even. If your business is actively losing a lot of money, then the problem isn’t with your marketing, it’s with your business plan. But if you are close to breaking even, but not quite there, you need to sharpen your marketing.
• Your business has plateaued. For many small business owners, a plateau is a good thing: it makes their work output, investment needs, and sales and income more predictable and consistent. However, a long-term plateau is a sign of a potentially unhealthy business, and you may want to consult a professional marketer.
• You want to broaden your customer base. If your Greek restaurant does great business with tourists in the summer, but you want to also reach out for local business in the winter, or if you’re having good sales at lunch but things lag at dinner, it’s time to invest in marketing help.

The moment you hire a consultant or an agency, they will, of course, want to revise your work. They’ll want to change your website, redo your logo, take new pictures, update everything… partly because that’s how they make their money, and partly because that’s part of revising your overall messaging.

But if you’ve completed the 5 steps above, then you have already looked after the basics and established your online presence. You’ve made sure that your business is searchable and findable, and that any customer who wants to can call you, visit your website, buy your product, or send you an email, and you’ve gone a long way to boosting your sales and saving yourself marketing money in the long term. You can get yourself market-ing ready in no time. Contact Villon adVentures when you are ready for the next step.