How to create a marketing plan for your small business - build a brand, target customers and set prices that will maximise sales.
The internet has transformed business marketing. No matter what you do, the internet is likely to be at the heart of your marketing strategy.
Good advertising puts the right marketing message in front of the right people at the right time, raising awareness of your business.
Customer care is at the heart of all successful companies. It can help you develop customer loyalty and improve relationships with your customers.
Sales bring in the money that enables your business to survive and grow. Your sales strategy will be driven by your sales objectives.
Market research exists to guide your business decisions by giving you insight into your market, competitors, products, marketing and your customers.
Exhibitions and events are valuable for businesses because they allow face-to-face communication and offer opportunities for networking.
Facebook allows you to reach your audience and engage with them without spending a ton of money on marketing campaigns. So if you're not already on Facebook as a business, you're missing a trick. A big, lucrative trick.
Facebook is the ultimate social network. It's a platform primed for sharing every kind of content, from articles and ads to live video, memes and more. With more than a billion active users worldwide, the potential for your business is immense.
As with every other social media channel, I would recommend putting together a plan for your content. Your Facebook activity should link into your wider content (and business) strategy. You can only use Facebook to help you achieve your goals, to help you promote your offers, and to piggyback peak times in your industry if you plan for it.
A strategic approach allows you to batch and schedule your weekly posts in one sitting, which saves so much time in the long run. Buffer and Simply Smart Social are both great for this. Remember to share curated content (ie content from other sources), as well as your own work. This stops your people from feeling sold to all the time.
There should be a clear boundary between your personal profile and your business page. And yes, you do need a separate business page - without one, you can't benefit from Facebook advertising. Also, you can get in trouble for using your personal profile for business purposes.
Often, if people are looking for your business on Facebook, they'll come across your personal profile first - to point them in the right direction, use your cover photo to send them towards your business page. Just upload a high quality image to a free editing tool such as Canva and add a text overlay.
Facebook Graph Search, accessible through the main search bar at the top of your screen, is a fantastic resource when it comes to finding out more about your market.
Find out what interests your target market, other than your specific niche. This data, once compiled, can help you put together targeted marketing messages that will appeal to your prospects. Try searching for:
There are two main ways to engage on Facebook - through your page and via groups. Pages and Groups have specific purposes and benefits - they're not interchangeable.
A Facebook Page is like a personal profile for your business and allows your fans to follow a brand. It's easy to update, you can post whatever you like and you can personalise it. You also use Facebook Insights to monitor the performance of each of your posts. A page for your business is essential if you want to run ads.
A Facebook Group brings people together. It's an incredibly powerful way to build connections, but it is definitely more about a personal presence than a brand. You will be reaching a narrower audience, but it will also be a more focused one.
Streaming live video is huge - it's a brilliant way to engage with your followers in a more intimate way - they start seeing you as a person, as well as a business, and they have the chance to ask questions, live.
Facebook Live is the in-app streaming function, now available to all users. You can repurpose these broadcasts for other platforms.
Facebook can be a powerful way to raise your profile and reach your people. Once you have the basics in place, there are no limits to what you can do, including targeted advertising.
