As business owners, we often get stuck when it comes to marketing because we don’t always know exactly what we need in order to successfully and profitably market our businesses.
Oftentimes, business owners say things like… “I’ll invest in marketing my business when I have x, y, or z.”
The reality is that marketing takes a whole lot longer than we think. So, marketing your business sooner than you think is necessary or sooner than you are ready – is essential. What you do now, typically won’t pay off for three months or longer. Marketing is a process and there is no silver bullet that will take you from zero to a thousand in thirty days or less (and if someone says there is, don’t trust them!)
When your business is in a slump, market your business. When your business is doing well, market even more!
There are a few things that are essential for your marketing when you are trying to grow your business to the next level. These are the critical steps and processes you have to have in place in order to scale to six figures or to accelerate from six figures to seven figures – whatever that next level is for you.
Here are the 5 Marketing Must-Haves to Accelerate Your Growth:
1. Time OR Money (you don’t need both)
In order to successfully market your business, you need either one or the other: time or money. If you don’t have the money to invest in your marketing, you’ll want to invest your time to learn how you can effectively market your business.
If you don’t have the time to market your business, you’ll want to invest money in order to do it. This will likely look like hiring out your marketing to the experts who can best help grow your business.
2. A circle of influence.
As soon as you open your doors, you need to be visible. Start with your circle of influence. Let them know you are there, what you do, and who you serve. Step into the world and say, “I own a business, this is what I do, this is who I serve, and this is who I want to be connected with.”
3. A clear digital marketing strategy.
Having a clear digital marketing strategy will help you to successfully grow your business. Throwing spaghetti at the wall will never get you where you want to go.
You need to know what you’re going to do, when, how, and why. Create systems and processes to step into a strategy that works for you and your business.
It is essential that you include a plan for social media and how you will use it in the context of your larger marketing strategy.
4. Paid traffic.
One of the things that makes the biggest boost in accelerated growth is investing in paid traffic. Paid traffic does not just mean Facebook Ads. Paid traffic can happen on YouTube and Twitter and Pinterest and LinkedIn and Instagram, too. All of these platforms offer paid traffic sources.
Paid ads are not typically where you’ll start, but they will help to accelerate your growth when you are ready. When you have the right message, when you have the right audience, when you have the right market, paid ads are like pouring gasoline on a fire. Using paid traffic, you can explode and grow your business in such exciting ways!
5. A marketing consultant or agency.
When it comes to marketing, there is a lot to learn and it can be overwhelming. If you are able to invest in and work with a marketing agency that can do it all for you, you absolutely should. If you are not able to make that investment, I’d recommend reaching out to a consultant who can help you through the process of establishing your marketing strategy.