I talk to a lot of business owners and one thing that comes up regularly is that they don’t know where to start when it comes to marketing! They’re feeling overwhelmed and distracted by all the platforms and ways to market themselves that they end up trying to do it all and spreading themselves too thin. Instead of doing only a few things really well, then end up not doing anything well. Sound familiar?!

All businesses are different and so are the strengths of each business owner so marketing is never a one-size-fits-all solution. Available resources play a big role as time and budget is a huge factor when planning a marketing strategy.

That being said, one thing that applies for all businesses is that having a robust plan to include online and offline initiatives is the best strategy. Ready to rock a new a marketing plan?

Here are 6 effective ways to market your business:

1) Collaborate with other business owners and brands to cross promote to your audiences. Partner for a giveaway, event, Instagram Story takeover, or share each other’s content to reach more people. You might decide to share their blog post on social media or with your email list if you think that content is valuable and interesting for your audience and vice versa.

2) Get out there in your community to support causes and sponsor events that align with your values and customer demographics. Determine what your goal is for each and then make sure there’s a clear mention back to your website or business either through a link from their site, your logo in a highly visible place, placement in their promotional material or more.

3) Don’t forget about email! Focus on building your email list constantly and consistently. Capture emails during transactions (online or in-store), incentivize opt-ins and include an opt-in link in all customer service or business email signatures. For every new resource or content that you develop, ask yourself if this could be a good opt-in/lead magnet?

4) You likely spent time and money developing your website but can anyone find it? Use SEO to drive organic traffic to your website by optimizing for keywords in the body copy and back end elements of the site. It’s not overly complicated if you know what you’re doing and you can schedule time to batch work optimizing your website or blog posts to make impactful changes to your site.

5) Work on getting more reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook and other review sites that are more known within your industry. These reviews not only make someone more confident in your product or business and provide social proof but they also improve SEO. Win, win!

6) Run Facebook/Instagram Ads to raise awareness, inform, showcase, demo, or educate on how your products or services work. It takes 6-7 touch points with your business before someone is likely to purchase so ads are one of the best ways to reach your audience multiple times. Using combination of paid ads with email marketing is a match made in marketing heaven!

Marketing is a long-game and it should be a continual focus and investment for your business. Plus, it can be a lot of fun!

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