QUICK TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING.

PUT THESE IDEAS TO USE FOR YOUR BUSINESS TODAY.

From a professional logo and branding to a great website and value-added content, your small business needs it all to effectively market your product or service. While you’re great at what you do, in a competitive marketplace, that isn’t always enough. Whether your market is cluttered with competition or your target audience is unaware of your unique offering, bringing in new sales requires being noticed.

All the pieces have to be in place to build a brand that moves your customers to act, grows interest and excitement, and creates a bond between your business and your buyers.

So, as a small business, where do you start? A good place is reviewing what you already have (and don’t have) in place to begin marketing your business.

2 SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING CHECKLIST DESIGN AT WORK

If you checked “NO” to more than 5 questions above, you could use some help. Although marketing can be complex, these quick tips will help you create and execute a broad range of compelling branding and marketing materials that help you stand out, get noticed and connect with potential customers.

SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING CHECKLIST Complete the questionnaire below to get a better idea of where your marketing currently stands.

¨ ¨ Logo: Is your logo professional, easy to read and look up to date?

¨ ¨ Tagline: Do you have a tagline that tells your audience who you are or how you can help them solve their problem?

¨ ¨ Brand: Do you have a brand that is unique and sets you apart from your competition?

¨ ¨ Internal Messaging: Do you have an internal company motto your employees believe in?

¨ ¨ Employee Recruitment: When you post a job opening, does your website, social media and Glassdoor reflect an organization individuals want to work for?

¨ ¨ Website: Is your website fresh, up to date and looks like a solid company you’d want to do business with?

¨ ¨ Search Engine Optimization (SEO): When someone searches online for your service or company, are you easily found?

¨ ¨ Website Content: Is new content in the form of blog posts, events or new pages added to your website consistently?

¨ ¨ Content Creation: Do you have engaging and relevant content on all collateral, including brochures, mailers, social media and whitepapers to clearly communicate your message?

¨ ¨ Graphic Design: Are graphic elements consistent across all collateral, including advertisements, brochures and email marketing?

¨ ¨ Email Marketing: Are you creating top-of-mind awareness by upselling your services electronically to your current and target audience?

¨ ¨ Proposals/RFPs: Do you look the part when going up against your competition in a presentation or proposal?

¨ ¨ Online Reputation: Do you have great reviews online and are all reviews responded to in a timely manner?

¨ ¨ Public Relations: Do you have a PR strategy for sharing news about your company?

¨ ¨ Social Media: Have you claimed your business accounts and stay active across social media?

Y N

3 SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING CHECKLIST DESIGN AT WORK

LOGO.Your logo appears everywhere, from the business cards you hand out to the website that every potential client will check out before giving you a call. The first impression of your business is your logo, making it key to building not only your business’s image but your corporate identity as well. Business logo design should always be present in your branding — from stationery, email signatures, signage, sales collateral and everything in between.

A well-designed logo should represent what kind of business or organization you’ve built. It should visually tell the story of your company – what you do, who you are and who your customers are – whether you’re selling business to business or business to consumer. It should also be something that stands the test of time and is not necessarily based on the latest trend. It should be simple, yet powerful. Essentially, it should be you.

A well-designed logo should represent what kind of business or organization you’ve built.

4 SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING CHECKLIST DESIGN AT WORK

BRAND.

branding example 1

You’ve heard the saying, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” That applies to your company’s image as well. You need a solid brand to ensure your business is memorable and confirms your credibility. Once you have a strong and consistent image in place, a solid marketing and advertising plan can help position your company the way you want potential customers to view you — today and tomorrow.

• Delivering your message clearly

• Making you memorable

• Confirming your credibility

Every company has to start somewhere, and the journey from small business to industry powerhouse rarely happens overnight. You might find yourself wondering how you can compete against the bigger competition in your industry, but the good news is that you don’t need to spend a fortune to craft a winning marketing strategy for your company. With time, effort and excitement, you can take your humble company to new heights.

• Motivating the buyer

• Connecting with your target audience

• Solidifying user loyalty

5 SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING CHECKLIST DESIGN AT WORK

branding example 2

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT.Your company’s website is its marketing pièce de résistance. Not only does it establish the credibility of your business online, it is often the truest representation of your brand. It speaks to who you are, what you do, and distinguishes you from others in your field. It’s also where most, if not all, of your other marketing tools point. In short, an exceptional company website design is a must no matter your industry.

To help your website perform and reach your target audience, consider search engine optimization. Having great SEO involves multiple factors that work in combination to tell Google and other search engines that your page is important. Incorporating the right keywords into content, securing high-authority backlinks and ensuring your site’s health is perfect, are all crucial factors.

But website development doesn’t stop when you launch your site. It’s imperative that fresh, relevant content is being added consistently — and we’re not talking about repetitive nonsense. The content you add in the form of blog posts and landing pages needs to be engaging and authoritative, because that’s how you’ll get traffic to your site. The more helpful and high quality it is with desired keywords, the more site users your small business will have.

Website development doesn’t stop when you launch your site.

6 SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING CHECKLIST DESIGN AT WORK

CONTENT CREATION.

EMAIL MARKETING.It’s a fact: the average American spends most of their day plugged in through their mobile device. So why not create a marketing strategy that reaches them? When you’re looking for a low-cost way to consistently engage your clients, try your hand at email marketing. Agencies like ours often use email marketing campaign services like Campaign Monitor and MailChimp to develop effective drip email campaigns to help you reach potential customers at home, work or on the go.

Email marketing falls under a category we like to call top-of-mind awareness. This marketing solution keeps your business at the forefront of your prospective customers’ minds and reinforces your brand. Use it as a tool to deliver announcements, newsletters, invites or promotions and to build trust and loyalty with your current and target audience. Set email marketing objectives and craft engaging text and designs intended to entice your audience to not only open your company’s email, but also read its contents and head to your website or call for more information.

Visitors. Leads. Prospects. Converting them into sales requires giving you and/or your sales people effective tools to help them do what they do best. Going beyond an online presence, reinforce your brand and tell the story of your product or service in a compelling way through content. To complement your website, create the other marketing pieces — brochures, flyers, sales presentations and product spec sheets — that help your team persuade buyers and close business.

Here’s a pro tip: An important aspect of your content development plan should be to position your company as a thought leader in the industry. To grow into that role, relevant and valuable content needs to be disseminated across multiple mediums (such as social media, blog posts, podcasts, articles and case studies) on a consistent basis. Determine your target audience and craft content they would find interesting and informative. This will help position you as an authority figure, which inherently increases confidence in your service or product and drives customers to you.

When you’re

looking for a

low-cost way to

consistently engage

your clients, try

your hand at email

marketing.

7 SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING CHECKLIST DESIGN AT WORK

You’ve now completed the checklist and learned what you need

to work on to help your small business thrive and bring in new sales.

Let us now if these strategies helped you or if you have any questions—

a lot of these thought starters do just that. They get the ball rolling.

Want it to snowball faster? Feel free to reach out to us at 832.200.8230.

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