Inglewood Business Magazine July 2017 Final

IBM
BUSINESS MARKETING
to the table. It may seem simple, but in the
end, it will help save you time and money.
I use a Worldwide Marketing Calendar
divided by months and categories that are
relevant for my business. A tech startup’s
list of categories might include product
launches, audience acquisition, marketing,
public relations, social media, advertising,
and brand assets.
3. Get personal
Now that you have a goal and a plan, it’s
time to think about tactics. If you want to
acquire and retain loyal customers, and keep
your followers engaged, personalized oneto-one
marketing is no longer optional, but
a requirement.
There are easy ways to make your business
a little more personal. For example, I’m
a loyal customer at my local steak house.
Every time I go, the seating host knows
my name and the waiter has my favorite
scotch waiting for me. If you’re not a
restaurant owner, there are still ways you
can personally address your consumers. A
retail owner can send exclusive discounts
to their most loyal shoppers or an airline
can respond via social media to stranded
travelers with tips for entertaining
themselves in the airport. Getting
personal with consumers equates to more
emotionally connected customers who will
help drive word-of-mouth referrals and
online reviews.
4. Remember: Content is (still)
king
I’ve said this a number of times in the
past and I have yet to be proven wrong:
Developing quality content should be
the rule, not the exception, regardless of
industry. Content marketing sometimes
scares startups, and for good reason: It can
be time consuming when done in-house;
meanwhile, if you outsource it, it can cost
between $2,000-$20,000 per month. It’s
important to determine what your team
can manage and when you need to hire
a specialist. Have a team member with
graphic design experience? Keep that inhouse.
Need someone to write copy? Hire a
copywriter.
Whenever possible, use strategies that
will save you time. If you don’t have the
resources, don’t try and build everything
from scratch. On my podcast All Business
with Jeffrey Hayzlett, I sat down with
Dave McCann, vice president of customer
success at Constant Contact, an online
marketing company, to discuss the best
ways small businesses can produce quality
content marketing. When done right, it
contains original research, is well written
and provides value to your audience. In
other words, good content marketing is time
consuming to produce. However, there are a
few strategies that help speed up the process.
Delegating the writing or research to
competent team members, running regular
columns that share the same basic format,
and creating new content that supports or
enhances existing content can save you time.
For example, I do weekly video segments for
my podcast. Since I have already recorded
the podcast interview, the video segment
doesn’t need a long script or any additional
research.
It’s a perfect example of work smarter, not
harder, a philosophy that should apply to all
your marketing efforts.
Inglewood Business Magazine July - Oct 2017
23