Wednesday, October 31, 2012 posted by Rebecca Daneault
Let’s be honest – as a business owner, you’re not always
going to love every hat you have to wear. One of the most challenging tasks in
getting a small business off the ground and making it successful is marketing,
yet not everyone enjoys this piece of the puzzle, regardless of how important
it is. The good news is it’s still possible to successfully market your
business even if it’s not something you particularly enjoy doing. Here are a
few tips to help make it a little easier for you.
Get an Accurate Picture – There is really no right or wrong way
to market a business, and different people approach it using different methods
and techniques. The first thing you need to do in order to get over your
immense dislike of marketing is dispel the misconceptions and get a clear and
accurate picture of what you need to do, how you can do it, and how much it
will cost. When you remove the mystery, it is much less intimidating.
Pick Your Pleasure – Ask yourself if there are any marketing
duties that you actually don’t mind. Perhaps spending some time on social media
interacting with your clients and prospects is something you enjoy, or
blogging, or measuring ROI. Whatever it is that you really like, identify and
focus on it. Then, if possible, delegate the other duties to someone else in your
office or hire a freelancer to do it for you. If that’s not an option, try
tackling the tasks you like the least first and then leaving those that you
don’t mind for last, to make it more tolerable.
Dive In – Once you have an idea of what strategy you are going
to take, and how you plan to tackle it, it’s time to get started. There are
plenty of resources online if you need some help, and many of them don’t cost a
thing. For instance,
here’s
a list of 149 free internet marketing tools that you can tap into without
having to worry about cost.
And there you have it! Now you have a game plan, a schedule
of what needs to be done, who will do what and when, and a bunch of free tools
to play with. You’ll see that once all the smoke and mirrors are removed and
you get a clear picture of what you’re dealing with, marketing isn’t as bad as
you may have made it out to be. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and
market your business!
Labels: marketing, small business tips
posted by Rebecca Daneault @ 6:57 AM