“Really work morning to night. Think about it in your sleep. Seven days a week. No breaks.” Those are Elon Musk’s (Tesla CEO and real-life Iron Man) words of advice to budding entrepreneurs — but, as you probably know, they apply to just about every small business owner, regardless of your company’s age.
With the day-to-day grind of making sales, fulfilling orders, and generally keeping the lights on, who has time for sleep, let alone marketing?
Unfortunately, we don’t have any shortcuts for effective marketing that speaks meaningfully to your target audience. There are some ways to “market smarter,” though — making the most out of your time, resources, and readily available tools to maximize your results.
1. Define your goals. Short term or long term (or both), know what you want to accomplish. Once you have that endpoint, you can work backwards to more easily lay out your strategy and tactics.
2. Stick to a schedule. A manageable schedule is critical. Try to do too much, and it becomes too easy for you to fall behind and call it quits. Perhaps you want to write two blogs a month, make 4 YouTube videos over the next year, and tweet twice a day. Pinpoint deadlines and set times for each action, and make time to work toward those accomplishments.
3. Fill out your “tool kit.” They’re not shortcuts, but marketing automation and social media scheduling tools like Hubspot, Hootsuite, or Buffer can help streamline and organize your content creation and posting schedules. You do the legwork of quality content creation, these helpful tools take care of the more tedious aspects. Instead of trying to carve out spare minutes throughout the day, you can set aside a chunk of time a day — or even a week — and let the software do the rest.
4. Expand your concept of marketing... Effective content marketing is a bit different from the traditional idea of advertising — sitting down and hammering out concepts, creative, and distribution. For manufacturers and industrial business owners, the expertise you’ve built up throughout your career – as well as your everyday experiences on the job – can provide exactly what you need to tell a great story, solve a common customer problem, or answer a technical question you run into again and again. These are all unconventional yet useful ways to establish your brand and identity online and help customers find you.
5…But narrow your focus. Especially if you’re strapped for time, choosing a well-defined target audience or “ideal customer” is essential. By identifying a key persona or two, you can become more efficient in your messaging, speaking directly to them. You won’t cast as wide a net – your website visits may not go through the roof, and your social media following might not hit 6 digits — but when the right customers find you, they’re exponentially more likely to make an order — and make an impact on your bottom line.
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