Tip 34) 9 things ALL small business owners should know about marketing!

Here are my top 9 tips that I wish I'd known when I first started out in business many years ago!

1. You need to be clear on your target market. Identify your top five target markets and get to know them inside out and back to front. Only then can your marketing materials speak directly to them.

2. You must connect with your prospects. We are in the age of connection people! Make sure your social media, marketing materials and website show who you are as a person. Let them get to know you and your team. 
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3. You've got to be adding value, adding value, and then adding some more value. Publish great content: interesting blogs, how-to videos, newsletters, events, freebies, offers. Show how you go the extra mile. Do what it takes to show them that you care.

4. You need to understand WIIFM. With every marketing message think: what's in it for them? They are far more interested in what you can do for them than how many offices or products you have. Make it all about them! 

5. You must learn to work smart. Leverage your marketing efforts. Cover all the social media options using platforms like Buffer or Hootsuite, enabling you to schedule your posts in advance. Share your Instagram post to LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. 
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6. You should be consistent in your message and the delivery of it. Have a plan and stick to it.

7. You must have a website or FB page. It's your shop window. 

8. You need to understand the 90-day rule. Many marketing strategies can take up to 90 days to deliver results. Most people give up after a week or so! 

9. Marketing is the one thing about your business that you can't afford not to learn. Go on a course, Google it, watch videos, read a book. Unsuccessful business owners say 'but I don't know how to market, it's not my thing', while successful business owners will say the same but add 'so where do I go to learn it?' And they go learn it! 

Be like a successful business owner.

To your success

Jo Richings x