Let’s be honest — few entrepreneurs and business owners start a company simply because they had a love for marketing. While some excel at marketing strategy and execution, for others just the thought of a marketing plan can be extremely overwhelming. Where do you start? Who should you target? What are your short- and long-term goals? What can you afford?
In this blog series, we offer six quick and easy ways to boost your small business on a limited budget.
1) Manage your contacts in one place
Like many people, there’s a good chance your contacts exist in multiple places, such as a Gmail or Outlook account, an email marketing app like MailChimp, or maybe even your phone. If so, now may be the time to clean up your contact lists and merge them into one place for easy access and segmentation.
There are many ways to sync all of your contacts so you can build and manage marketing lists more efficiently. Many popular apps now make it easy to sync contacts between them. For instance, Gmail can sync with many customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Outlook and Salesforce also offer an easy integration option. The good news is, thanks to these tools, you no longer have to spend countless hours copying and pasting contacts between apps.
Note: Before syncing your contacts with a third-party app, be sure to check their privacy policy as some of these apps may sell your contact information (which is definitely not a good way to build customer trust).
2) How to Create and Manage a Newsletter
Once your email list is organized, a newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with customers and prospects, and we offer a few key tips in this post.
3) Pros and Cons of Starting a Facebook Page
While having a social media presence is essential, it’s important to note the pitfalls as well. Let’s breakdown the pros and cons of starting a facebook page.
4) How to Promote Your Business on Social Media
Once your social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others have been created, how do you make the most of them?
5) Which Tools Help You Sell Your Goods and Services
Now that your social media accounts are ready to go, how can you manage orders and process payments? There are many eCommerce tools to choose from.
6) Prepare For a Big Sales Event
For many small businesses and entrepreneurs, big sales events such as Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) offer a big opportunity to boost sales and awareness. Some of these events may be more relevant to your business than others, but it’s important to plan well in advance (at least two or three months), to ensure your marketing efforts are impactful.
Ready to start managing your contacts today? Check out our guide on lead management.
