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Top 5 Marketing Tips – 07/02/2017

The first thing to understand about marketing is that there is no blanket way to doing it right. Different business industries and sizes need very different forms of marketing – something that we always recommend you seek professional help and advice with. However, there are some standard practices that everyone should follow no matter how big or small they are and we have highlighted our top 5 tips below for you.

1) Don‘t keep open any social media platform you aren‘t using or don‘t plan to use shortly. It might just be an “out of sight, out of mind” existence to you but to a potential customer, an unused account showing your “top news” from 6 months ago as your last post means only 1 thing – you‘ve stopped trading.

2) Think about how you like to be engaged with. Every day we buy something – whether that‘s food in a shop, fuel from a garage, insurance for our homes or something like training, advertising or services for our businesses – what made you buy it? Was it price, convenience, choice, the person offering it or was it on a recommendation? Think about what they did that gave them the sale and incorporate it into your business.

3) Follow the chain of where the lead came from. If someone came through your website, that‘s great but how did they get there? It didn‘t magically come up when they put on their laptop/phone – somehow they found you. Could be a Google Search, your social media, advertising you have done or a recommendation – follow the chain back as far as it can go, even further past “Facebook” to find the source. Nurture your sources – clearly they work!

4) Invest in yourself – this doesn‘t have to be money but can be time too. It‘s too easy to just throw the odd social media post out, a newsletter every so often, an ad here or there but unless you invest the time (and money if you can!) into it, you‘re taking a stab in the dark instead of searching for gold.

5) Market yourself constantly, even when you‘re snowed under. The worst form of marketing is having a yo-yo going on. On knowing you‘ll be quiet in March/April you ramp it up in February but knowing July – Sept are your busiest period, you‘ll quieten it all down, maybe pause paid adverts, stop posting into groups, newsletters that are more generic etc. This is a yo-yo. You should have constant marketing going on…..people become used to you and your message, they come to expect certain things from you, especially if you theme days – the fact that you‘re busy is irrelevant to them. If you get enquiries in your busy period, just be open and honest with them – they might be able to wait or if they‘re really keen, they‘ll realise they‘re too late this time so book early for next time!

We‘re under no illusion that marketing can be an absolute mine field so with this is mind, why not contact us to see what help we can give to you. Give us a call on 07843 224988 or email contact@foresttraders.co.uk