Social posts are going out. Blogs are being written. The website has been updated. Perhaps you’re running Google Ads, sending emails or attending networking events.
You’re certainly doing marketing – but is it actually working?
It’s an important question for any small business, particularly when time and budgets are limited. Being busy with marketing activity doesn’t automatically mean that activity is helping you achieve your business goals.
Start with what you want to achieve
Before deciding what marketing, you should be doing, ask yourself what you actually want it to achieve.
Do you want more enquiries? More website visitors? Greater awareness locally? More repeat business? Or perhaps you want to attract a particular type of customer.
Once you have a clear objective, it becomes much easier to decide which marketing activities deserve your time and budget.
Look beyond likes and followers
Social media engagement can be useful but likes and followers don’t tell the whole story.
Look at what happens next. Are people visiting your website? Are they making enquiries? Which website pages are attracting attention? Where are your leads coming from? Are people finding you through Google, social media, referrals or something else?
Sometimes the marketing activity generating the least noise can be producing the best business results.
Stop doing things just because you always have
One of the easiest traps to fall into is continuing with marketing because “we’ve always done it.”
Marketing should evolve with your business and your customers. If something isn’t delivering, look at why. It may need improving rather than stopping completely, but don’t be afraid to change direction.
Equally, if something is working well, could you do more of it?
Small changes can make a big difference
Improving your marketing doesn’t always require a completely new strategy or a huge budget.
It could be updating an important page on your website, improving your Google Business Profile, changing your advertising, following up old enquiries, asking happy customers for reviews or simply becoming more consistent with your communications.
The important thing is knowing why you’re doing it and what you’re getting back from it.
Not sure what’s working?
Sometimes it helps to have someone outside the business look at your marketing with fresh eyes.
I work with SMEs and sole traders to review their current marketing, identify what is working, spot opportunities and focus their time and budget on the areas that can make the biggest difference.
If you’re doing plenty of marketing but aren’t sure what it’s achieving, get in touch or call 07753941231for a no-obligation chat.
