Three steps you can take before you start marketing your small business

Ahead of their Small Business Sucess Workshop, Digital Freelance share the three questions small business owners should ask themselves before starting their marketing activities.

One big question I get asked by lots of small business owners is 'where do I start marketing my business?'

And it's not easy.  If you Google “small business marketing” you will find so much information, lots of "quick solutions" and a few cautionary tales…

But we all know, deep down, that it takes lots of consistent work to get your marketing working and, the reality is, you have to start somewhere.

So, the purpose of this blog post is to show you 3 steps you can take this week that will help you identify where to start. 

Step 1: Measure your marketing by numbers.

This will help you identify where you are starting out from.

• Crowd - the number of people who know about you on your social media channels including Facebook likes, Facebook Group members, Linkedin connections, You Tube subscribers, blog posts, Instagram followers.
• Capture - the size of your contact database/mailing list.
• Conversion – Conversion rate into clients/customers.

Start with the number of customers you currently have.

•  Cash Value of your initial sale.
• Continuity - % of referrals or repeat purchases.

We created a single sheet of A4, called Measure Your Marketing By Numbers, so you can measure your progress towards success with your digital marketing and see for yourself the main drivers which cause your sales, your marketing, your results, your bottom line and your profitability to improve.

Once you know what the drivers are, you know what to do to improve.

Click here to download measure your marketing by numbers and get started!

Step 2. Create  Inventory of Marketing Assets...

This will help you identify the content that you currently have in your business, which can be used for marketing including:

• Client or customer testimonials
• Brochures or leaflets
• Interesting stories
• Blog posts
• Facebook posts
• Photographs

Step 3. Create your avatar. 

This will help you identify your audience, prepare to talk to one person, face to face either in copy or in person.  You can use this information to write the copy to engage, get attention and start to build a relationship with your market. 

We're going to create an 'avatar' which is a bit like an imaginary customer. If you already have customers, pick your best ones and imagine a single person with all their best qualities. 

Answer these questions, write 3,4 or 5 paragraphs and be specific: 

• What is your ideal customer called? 
• How old are they? 
• Are they male or female? 
• What are their interests, hobbies and passions? 
• What are their needs, hopes and desires?

and if you want to actually get started,  I want to personally invite you to join us for a small business success workshop at 71, Saint James Street, Kemp Town on the 19th September at 4 o’clock.

Our small business success workshop is for you if you’re a small business owner and you want to improve your sales, your marketing, and your results and your bottom line and your profitability.

You can register here 

Thanks to Digital Freelance for writing this blog.  

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk