Improve your marketing in 90 minutes

Every business needs a comprehensive, carefully formulated strategic marketing plan, but there are no shortage of roadblocks to that perfect scenario for the entrepreneur. Here are seven no-cost tactics you can do in about 90 minutes that will improve your business today – because the best marketing is the marketing that gets done.

Make contacting you easier

Look at your website with the eyes of a new customer. What information are they most likely to be looking for? Make that content obvious. For example, if you are a chiropractor, masseuse, personal trainer or any type of personal-service professional, make your rates and appointment procedures obvious. Similarly, don’t bury your location, hours, phone number and email address in the Contact Us section. Put them in the header and footer of each page. Time investment to make contacting you easier: 10 minutes.

Review your website

When is the last time you checked every link on your website to make sure it’s working? Broken links undermine your credibility. The same goes for outdated content and photos. Have you browsed your site from a tablet and a smartphone? Make sure your site is optimized for mobile or your visitors will find one that is. Your business should project an image of success and professionalism. Keeping your website updated will go a long way towards achieving that. Time investment to find website credibility leaks: 20 minutes.

Spell out your value

Your home page isn’t necessarily the first page people view on your site. Find out which pages are. You can ask your web developer, or consult your Google Analytics account for this information. On these prime landing pages, be sure to spell out your value. What are you selling? What do you offer that your competitors don’t? If your visitor can’t immediately understand what you uniquely provide, they will most likely leave. This doesn’t have to be complicated. It should be as simple as, “The Hilltop Inn is a 16 room hotel with the quietest rooms on the Front Range.” Time investment to clarify your value: 20 minutes.

Create a Google alert

Staying informed of what your competitors are doing, what’s happening in your industry and what’s being said about your business online can save you money and bring you new customers. Sounds hard and time consuming? It’s not. You can do this by creating a Google alert. You can set up a Google alert for specific words, names or phrases. Google will send you an email when there are new results, so you don’t have to remember to search those terms yourself. Set up the alert for your specific search terms, and any time those terms appear on the web, you’ll receive an email with details and links to the stories. (Go to google.com/alerts.) Time investment to set up alert: 5 minutes.

Monitor your competitors

Keeping an eye on your competitors can earn you new business. For example, a disgruntled customer writes in a blog about the terrible experience he or she had with your competitor. You make a comment on the blog and include a 20-percent-off coupon to try your services. Time investment to acquire a new customer: 10 minutes.

Stay informed on your industry

Monitoring your industry can save you money. Let’s say that your company designs and builds wood furniture. You learn that there is a company in India introducing a new wood lathe that promises to cut production times in half. You contact the Indian company and get on its guest list for its exclusive product demonstration in the United States – weeks ahead of your competitors who don’t get on the list and miss the opportunity. Time investment to surpass your competition: 10 minutes.

Listen for mentions

Knowing when you and your company are mentioned on the web can validate the trust your customers have placed in you. For instance, the New York Times does a story about apprehension in the housing market in the post-recession economy. You have the local office of a large insurance agency that garnered a positive mention in the article. You can post the link to the Times article on your Facebook page along with a thanks to your customers for their confidence in you. Time investment to increase your customers’ trust in you: 15 minutes.

Small business owners typically struggle to find the time and budget to market themselves. They also often don’t know where to start or how to get the most bang for their marketing buck. Taking 90 minutes to implement these changes is an effective, no-cost first step.

Marilyn Heywood Paige is the principal of Broomfield-based Paige Integrated Marketing. Contact her at 720-999-4082 or at MHP@PaigeIntegrated.com.

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