 How are you feeling about the progress you've had this year in your business or organization? If you haven't quite hit your revenue and growth goals for 2018, then, I'd like to recommend some key strategies you can implement right away so that you can close out the year strong. These are strategies you should be implementing throughout the year, but they are particularly helpful when you want to create quick revenue growth. The three strategies are referral strategy, email strategy, and event strategy.
Today I am going to focus on referral strategy. Stay tuned for my upcoming newsletters to get details on the other 2...
0 Comments
 Creating content regularly is still a widely recommended marketing activity. Fresh new content posted regularly in front of your target audience, community and tribe is one of the best ways to stay top of mind. Of course, the content you produce has to be valuable to your community. But, this is also the dilemma. What exactly is valuable content? Valuable content is information you share that is relevant, useful and actionable to the reader. Ask yourself, would the person on the other side reading this gain something from applying the information you are sharing? This information should work for them even if they decide never to buy from you. That is valuable content.
Now you don't have to guess what this information should be exactly. There are ways to figure out what your specific community finds valuable...  We are living and conducting business in a new economy. In this economy many of the old rules just do not apply. But, far too often, I run into businesses or organizations that are stuck in the habit of doing things the old way. I'm not here to blame, because many of these organizations and many of the marketing professionals and firms out there are still practicing some very old principles. These principles are still taught in MBA level textbooks across the country. So today, I want to help you break out of that cycle and emerge into the new economy. But, first you have to learn what it is that you are doing wrong. Which is why, I am going to share to with you the top 4 things you should stop doing in your marketing right away...
 Businesses and nonprofits often ask me what they should be focusing on when it comes to marketing. It’s a good question because how you spend your time and energy is very important – but what goals and tasks should you prioritize?
The answer depends on where you are in your marketing business, the size of your company or organization, who your target market is, and of course what you are selling or asking money for. ALL of these factors have to be taken into consideration when figuring out your marketing mix. However, no matter what size you are, no matter what you sell or who your market is, there is ONE thing that you absolutely have to do...  Even though fall is now upon us and we are already in our 4th quarter, it is not too late to do some creative marketing planning to close out the year and hit some of those financial and business goals. A great strategy for getting organized so that you are on top of your marketing for the rest of the year is to create a marketing schedule.
You are likely implementing several different marketing strategies, from social media, to emails and PR. Therefore, writing down all that needs to take place and when it all should happen will make it much easier to do what you need to do to stay consistent and get results to your bottom line. A marketing schedule makes it especially easy for you and your team to collaborate and work together towards the goals of the business or organization...  As we slowly creep in on the last quarter of the year, are you left reminding yourself that tomorrow you need to work on the marketing tasks you have been putting off? Whether you are a new business or an established business, marketing is an essential part of your businesses' success. The average consumer spends almost 2 hours a day surfing social media for new content. Getting the right message to your connections at the right time can be tricky, especially if you don't have the time, don't understand, or maybe don't even like marketing...
 Do you put out fires first thing Monday morning? The beginning of the week is always hectic. Mondays are rushed. It’s inevitable right? You have so much to do, like things left over from the week before as well as projects that were late to start. You are behind and you can’t get ahead. I get it.
Let’s say this week we are going to change things. Let’s take an honest look at what the most important work in your business is. I’ll suggest that one of those things is marketing. The reason being is because marketing is directly tied to your bottom line. If you don’t do some sort of marketing, you will struggle. If you don’t do marketing well , then your chances at failing in your business become, like rushed, hectic Mondays...inevitable.  Photo credit: betterhousekeeper.com I want to share a story with you.
The summer I turned 14 years old, my dad decided he was going to designate the task of cleaning windows to me. I was to go around the entire house and clean every window from the inside of the house. He would clean them from the outside. So, I began. Mind you, by age 14 I had pretty much everything figured out, especially when it came to cleaning our house. I had a solid 5 years of experience cleaning our house. I got a rag, I got glass cleaner and I started cleaning. I imagined sparkling windows and my dad giving me huge praise for doing such a stupendous job. Instead, I got streaks. I got white spots and lots of fuzz from my rag. The windows were getting clean, but the results I wanted were no where to be found. While I cleaned and went from window to window, my dad kept telling me to use newspaper instead of a rag. I rolled my eyes every time. I thought to myself, "how in the heck would newspaper do the job better than a rag? He must be making it up. There goes dad again, trying to tell me how to do everything HIS way." I certainly did not need anyone telling me how to clean, of all things.
Yesterday, I read a report by MarketingProfs, a leading marketing research, and management company. One of many of organizations dedicated to studying and reporting on marketing and communications findings.
The report they published showed what major marketing departments across the U.S. are utilizing and spending their money on to get their message across to their target markets.  I am a huge advocate for reviewing your marketing plan and tactics every few months. At the very least, you should review it every 6 months. The end of July is right around the corner which is a perfect time to closely inspect all of your marketing to determine what is working and not working with your marketing.
Here is where most of my clients get stumped. They know the concept of reviewing, but they don't know what information they need to really look at to make decisions like, whether to spend more money on something, or to stop doing it all together. I want to help make it simple. |
Archives
July 2019
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
|
Copyright © 2019| Firefly Strategies. All rights reserved. | photos by Genevieve Russell of storyportraitmedia.com
|
 
|
