“The key to setting achievable marketing goals is to spend time evaluating
your current position.”

Marketing remains essential for businesses in order to successfully compete, sell products/services and become profitable and grow.  Following are effective marketing best practices.

 Set Attainable Goals

  • Determine your position in the market and decide what you want to achieve.
  • Keep your goals realistic, making them something you will be able to accomplish.

Establish Brand Identity and Target Market

  • Brand Identity: Communicate what your business does with the right name, logo, colors, imagery.
  • Target Market: Consider the age, gender, interests, location, etc. of your target customer.

Maintain a Website

  • Nearly two-thirds of small businesses rely on websites to connect with customers.
  • In this digital era, websites are the window to virtually any type of business.

Combine Online and Offline Strategies

  • Combine online channels such as blogs, social media, etc., with offline marketing practices.
  • Be mindful of SEO (Search Engine Optimization¹): incorporate relevant keywords into websites/online portals to rank higher on search engines.

Use Google Tools                                                                                                                

  • List your product/service on Google My Business² to gain search visibility, customer insights and display useful information to help customers find you.
  • Prepare for a Google Ad Words³ campaign by setting a budget, finding the right keywords and creating landing pages that bear significance.

Don’t Discount Email Marketing

  • Every new subscriber to your email list is a potential paying customer.
  • Sixty-six percent of emails are opened on mobile devices; use mobile responsive templates that automatically adapt emails to mobile formats.

Prioritize Content Marketing

  • Eighteen percent of marketers said content marketing had the greatest impact on their business.
  • Create and share quality, unique content through webinars, blogs, social media posts, etc.

Join Local Business Groups / Solicit Customer Reviews

  • Network and showcase your business and meet like-minded people to share stories/goals by joining local groups.
  • Ask your customers for a review: feedback is a powerful tool for small business owners;

“The key to setting achievable marketing goals is to spend time evaluating your current position.” — Shanelle Mullin, Director of Marketing-Onboardly

¹SEO:  methods used to increase traffic to a website by increasing its search engine page rank (techopedia.com).
²Google My Business: a tool to manage your online presence across Google.
³Google Ads: an online advertising program (support.google.com).
Source:  smallbiztrends.com, reported by Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead