As we wind up 2019, it’s time to look ahead at 2020 and what you can do to grow your small business. Marketing should play a big role in your 2020 business planning. If you’re looking for some fresh ideas and inspiration to take your marketing to the next level, here are small business marketing resolutions to make in 2020 that can really boost your small business.
Take your content marketing to the next level
If you’ve been actively blogging for your small business this past year, we applaud you! Fresh, new, relevant content is critical to help your website attract new visitors and engage existing customers. Now it’s time to take your content marketing to the next level for 2020! An article by the U.S. Small Business Administration said it best: Content marketing today goes beyond words. It includes infographics, podcasts, videos, etc. Why go beyond blogging? Effective content marketing puts your customer’s needs first, not to mention the needs of potential customers. A Content Marketing Institute’s B2B report shows that 90% of the most successful content marketers put their audience’s information needs ahead of their own promotional messages. It’s time to take that awesome blogging that you’re already doing and put that same effort towards helpful videos, infographics or free guides. Yes, small business content marketing is hard but the payoff is worth it!
It’s time to measure your marketing
There are so many different ways that you can market your small business: how do you know which tactics are actually bringing you the ROI you need? The only way to figure that out is to measure your marketing. It’s surprising how few small business owners actually do this, yet it’s a critical part of your overall marketing strategy (or it should be!). A good start is simply using Google Analytics to see how your website is performing and what’s driving traffic to the site. Google Analytics and Google Search Console both give you valuable insights on your website that you can use to your advantage. You can also measure your social media efforts by using the tools provided by the individual social platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram all have nice reporting features that are fairly simple to use). And don’t forget to measure your email marketing efforts as well! It’s hard to believe, but it’s not a matter of how large your email list is, it’s how much engagement and return you’re getting from it, and the only way to know that is to measure. Check out the reporting tools on Mailchimp and Constant Contact to see how you can do this.
Consider adding public relations to your marketing mix
Many business owners shy away from public relations because they feel that they don’t have anything newsworthy to share, the media will never pick up their story or that PR really doesn’t do much for a small business overall. Not true! PR creates awareness for a company’s image and the products and services it offers while at the same time improving branding and driving traffic to the company website. A simple way to start a public relations effort is to embrace your local press. Every local newspaper has at least one journalist dedicated to business; larger papers have one specifically for small businesses. Find out who that person is, check out what they write about, and think about how your small business can contribute content they’d deem newsworthy. Still hesitant? We pulled together a few PR tips for small businesses that can help get you started.
Think about outsourcing your marketing efforts to a professional
Small business owners are used to wearing a lot of hats, and marketing is usually one of them. Who knows your business better than you, right? The challenge is, doing everything for your business isn’t scalable or sustainable if you want to grow, so why not use a small business marketing professional to help you with your marketing? A solid professional will partner with you every step of the way, creating a marketing strategy so that you know exactly what they’re doing and why, and how it will give you a better ROI. Why not free up some of your valuable time so you can work on growing the business strategically while a marketing professional handles the day to day efforts of marketing?
The new year always brings new opportunities to re-evaluate how we run our businesses and what we can do better. These small business marketing resolutions to make in 2020 can help you grow your business and set you up on a path to success. Happy 2020 everyone!
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