5 Signs You’re Ready To Shake Up Your Marketing
Did you start the new year with a “new year, new marketing” attitude, then when you sat at your desk on Monday you thought “where do I even start?!”? Then it could be time to shake up your marketing.
As small business owners we juggle a lot of roles and it is very hard to give 100% to them all. In many cases marketing always seems to slip down the to-do list, or due to time constraints there is no plan put in place and the approach is “I’ll just wing it as I go”. Now, there is nothing wrong with winging it - we all do it - but to see results from your marketing efforts it pays off to have a structure in place.
Below are the five common signs that highlight it could be time to make a change.
You have no plan
Have you ever sat with your morning coffee and thought “ok, I’m going to be productive today.” then when the thought leaves your mind you don’t put anything into action? It suddenly becomes 5pm and apart from finishing a series on Netflix you haven’t achieved anything. This is because after your thought about being productive you didn’t put a plan in place, you didn’t put a list together of tasks you want to try and get done that day. Marketing is the same.
If you have thought at the start of the year “I need to really put an emphasis on my marketing this year” but didn’t follow this thought through, then nothing is going to get done. It is important to start by working out WHY you want to or need to improve your marketing and then this gives you your motivation.
Once you have your why, you can then focus on the marketing areas you have the availability or budget to work on. You can then start to work out if you start to improve these areas what will this then potentially mean for your sales and this then gives you an insight into the end of goal and makes you more hungry to achieve this.
2. You haven’t found your niche
As we all know there are many different marketing platforms you can promote your business on. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn etc. and that is just social media, that doesn’t cover blogs, email marketing, podcasts or all the features you can use in each platform either. This can be really overwhelming and sometimes when we feel overwhelmed we then put off the task in hand.
Many small businesses try to cover all platforms as they feel the need to be on everything to get noticed, but that’s not the case. It is more effective to pick one platform that works for you and put all your effort into this. Putting half hearted efforts into all platforms won’t get you seen by more people, you then won’t see results and will end up deflated. What you should be doing is, putting all your effort into the platform your target customer uses the most and building your presence on this.
3. Nothing seems to be working
…or you don’t know if it is.
Sound familiar? When was the last time you looked at your analytics? Do you know which posts on your social media gets the most engagement? Which emails get the best open rate? What marketing activity is bringing the most traffic to your website?
If you don’t know the answer to any of these questions then you need to start looking into the insights of your campaigns. If you know what is working then you know where you need to spend your time, this is essential for small business owners as we are already extremely strapped for time and resources.
4. You don’t know your audience
At the end of the day, you are marketing your product or services to people in the hope that they will buy. If you are speaking to the wrong people then you might as well give your sales pitch to a brick wall.
Identifying your ideal customer does require some research and for those starting out this can be more difficult, however you can just use common sense and the knowledge of your product or service. If you are a business coach that specialises in big corporate companies, you may want to focus on LinkedIn. However if you are virtual assistant and your niche is to help small independents then focusing on Instagram would be a good start.
5. Your efforts aren’t reflected in your sales
A business’ main goal is to make money, if your marketing is not aiding this then something is wrong. Think about it like fitness, if you started a diet to try and lose weight but you actually put weight on you would change what you were doing. Marketing is the same.
The purpose of marketing is to support your business and help it grow, if it is not doing this then you need to find a new approach.
If these points have resonated with you and you’re inspired to reinvent your current marketing strategy then leave a comment below or DM me with your plans!