Marketing Basics for Elgin Area Small Business Owners

Most small businesses and entrepreneurs painstakingly monitor their bottom lines. Tight budgets and minimal staff require flexibility and finesse and, as a small venture, one way to save money is by managing your own marketing. It’s likely that you’ve already been attempting; however, it’s possible your methods could use some tweaking. The Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce shows you how below:

Study Your Current Approach

To develop your own marketing department, begin by taking stock of your current marketing strategy. You may find that you need to change directions. This can include setting some SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) goals for your marketing efforts. Once you've set your goals, decide which metrics you'll use to measure progress. This could be something like website traffic, social media engagement, or newsletter signups. After you have chosen your metrics, it's time to start planning how you will achieve your goals. 

Choose Your Marketing Channels

There are a variety of marketing channels available to small businesses and entrepreneurs. These include things like email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, and paid advertising. According to Page Design, the way to figure out which channels will best serve your venture is by experimenting with different ones and seeing which generate the best results. 

But you should also do some research on your target audience to learn more about where they are and what they like. Creating a customer profile can help you determine which social media platforms are best, or if paid advertisements in magazines, music streaming services, or television stations are best. Once you have this information, you can focus on a few marketing channels that you know you will reach your customers and that you can commit to updating consistently.

Shape Your Message Accordingly

After you’ve decided which channels to use for your marketing efforts, it's time to start crafting your message. This involves creating compelling copy that accurately reflects your brand voice and speaks to your target audience. Make sure the language you use is clear and concise so that people can easily understand what you're trying to say. In addition, try to focus on creating messages that offer value rather than just trying to sell people on your product or service outright.

Once you develop your new or revised voice, you may find that you want to revise some of your previous marketing materials. Unfortunately, they may be saved as PDFs, which can be difficult to modify. However, you can learn how to convert a PDF to Word using a free online conversion tool. This tool will allow you to change the file type to one that is more edit-friendly, so you can make the changes you want before converting it back to the more stable PDF file type. 

Use Analytics to Track Your Campaign

After you have launched your marketing campaign, it's important to keep track of how it's performing. This means regularly checking in on your chosen metrics and making adjustments as necessary. For example, if you're not seeing the results you want in terms of website traffic, try experimenting with different types of content or increasing the frequency of your posts. If you're not happy with the number of newsletter signups you're getting, try changing up the call-to-action in your emails. Regularly monitoring your campaigns will help ensure that they are as successful as possible. 

Bring in a Marketing Expert

Bringing in an outside perspective can be helpful when trying to improve your marketing efforts. A freelance marketing specialist can provide some much-needed expertise and guidance when it comes down to things like evaluating your strategy or refining your message. However, working with a freelancer does require an investment of both time and money. If done correctly though, it can be well worth it in terms of the results you see from your campaigns.

Embrace DIY Marketing

There are many benefits to handling your marketing. These include saving money and having more control over the direction of your campaigns. However, there are also some challenges that come with taking on this role. These include having less time to focus on other aspects of running your business, challenges redesigning difficult file types, and not having access to specialized expertise. Overall though, if done correctly, becoming your own marketing department can be a great way to improve the effectiveness of your campaigns while also saving some money along the way.

Connect with and learn from other local business leaders by joining the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce.