With the summer break winding down, and kids going back to school, it’s a good time for small business owners to reevaluate and revitalise their marketing campaigns. By dedicating some time to the following seven tactics, you will be able to get your marketing into good shape for the months ahead.
These are all really simple actions that any business can implement, so what are you waiting for?
1 – Renew your customer list
First thing’s first: get your customer list in order. Sort through it and take note of both long-standing and inactive customers. Reach out to each of these groups and thank them for their support and determine if they want to continue hearing from you. Your next step is to run some behind-the-scenes analytics to get a better understanding of your audiences’ interests. This includes the content that gets the most clicks, which emails get forwarded, how many new subscribers come in through sharing, etc. As you take a closer look at these metrics, brainstorm ways you can develop more customised messages to the subgroups in your larger customer database.
2 – Update your social media presence
Dedicate time to either revise or overhaul your social channels. This includes your Facebook Business Page, LinkedIn profile, and adding more contacts to follow on Twitter as well as reciprocating with people that follow you. Additionally, take a look at what your competitors are doing in these forums and consider new ways you can expand your presence and engage your audience including Facebook polls,LinkedIn discussions and Twitter chats.
3 – Locate new customers
Identify the types of customers you want to attract. Write down key attributes of your ideal customer and conduct research to determine where these target customers are most active online. Follow their conversation threads and build your next campaign around their interests as they intersect with your business. Once you’ve captured their attention, ask permission to keep the conversation going either via email, your Facebook Business Page or by subscribing to your newsletter.
4 – Be smarter about milestones
Go through your files and identify upcoming milestones that you can turn into campaigns. These can be recognition of your 100th customer, your fifth year in business, and award you have won, or other important events that present an opportunity to thank customers for their support. Additionally, remind customers how much you value them. Consider sending personalised notes to customers so they can celebrate their anniversaries with you.
5 – Back to school
Further your education by taking advantage of free online tutorials on how to make the most of email and social media marketing. Also, spend some time asking customers, either formally or informally, what they like, and what they’d like to see more of from your business.
6 – Embrace community spirit
Reach out to local businesses to partner on joint marketing activities. Find those businesses that are complementary to yours and/or are in close physical proximity, to create co-marketing campaigns. Working together is a great way to better connect with the local community and to get closer to customers both online and off.
7 – Think local
Create a local deal that inspires existing customers to revisit your business while including a compelling incentive for sharing the deal with their friends or peers.
Remember to revisit this check-list on a regular basis to ensure your marketing campaigns remain ship shape.
