8 Marketing Tasks For Small Businesses

And they might be right! According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of US small businesses will fail before their first year. And small businesses face serious marketing challenges. You’ve clearly proven that you’re ready to take the test, so let’s take a look at some of the marketing challenges you are likely to face and ways to minimize them.

Of course, resource constraints are the number one obstacle for most small businesses to expand or even start marketing. For any business, operations take precedence over marketing because the business needs to work! You need to sell to get more sales, but you need to have fewer sales to go to market in order to provide more bandwidth.

Let’s take a look at how this cycle hurts your bottom line, and how you can start getting out of it.

1. Lack of marketing budget.

Budget constraints are a problem for small businesses in all areas. But the biggest mistake business owners make is that they don’t allocate any budget strictly for marketing. You will read many articles on how marketing in the social age is “free,” which makes entrepreneurs feel like they should be able to get tons of customers for the low $ 0 price tag.

Unfortunately, nothing is free in this life, especially marketing. Even if you don’t plan to spend money on advertising in advance, time is money and marketing takes time. Whether you’re marketing yourself or bringing in someone to do it in addition to your other responsibilities, someone needs to spend less time on other areas of the business for marketing to become a reality. Make sure to set aside time for someone else to waste.

2. Small marketing teams.

Even if you have a small and motley crew that can wear a lot of hats, there are still limited hours in the day. There are an incredible number of marketing tactics in front of you beyond your day-to-day business operations, and trying to do it all with limited resources can frustrate business owners with poor results.

Marketing is not very useful when viewed as a side project, which means outsourcing certain tasks may be the missing piece to start converting brand awareness into sales. Use independent contractors and freelancers until you can hire. These types of workers may be hired temporarily or as part of a project to help move forward.

3. Trying to do everything with your own hands.

Especially now, in the digital age, we use many of the same channels for personal use as companies do for marketing. This is a huge advantage for business owners because even if you are not a social media connoisseur, you can still learn how to use the platforms yourself. However, don’t fall into the trap of thinking it’s that easy!

Social media marketers use audience-building techniques, work to drive engagement, and watch the best-performing content to create campaigns that generate conversions. Email marketers test content, understand email privacy practices, and track website traffic to make sure campaigns are driving sales. These are just a few parts of the marketing mechanism, and even a seasoned marketer can find it difficult to do it alone. Keeping your finger on the pulse of marketing is great, but the ability to outsource talent will drive growth.

4. Inconsistent or sporadic marketing efforts.

The lack of a dedicated marketing person can lead to inconsistent marketing. Teams take a chance when they have time, but as soon as another priority comes in, marketing must take a back seat. For a business, this may not seem like a big deal, but for a client, it is a whole different matter.

Consistency is part of building brand confidence from customers. If potential customers receive emails at unpredictable intervals, don’t see any new messages after signing up on social media, or never see a brand name pop up again, they’ll have a hard time remembering or trusting you. To prevent this from happening, try putting together a promotional calendar ahead of time, or consider turning on marketing automation to fill the gap when time is short.

5. Limited availability of content.

Inbound marketing is king when it comes to strategy. This means that depending on your goals, you will need content that is useful, useful, or interesting to your customers. Inbound marketing is based on placing content in the world, which then attracts your ideal customers to your brand.

The content can be articles, blog posts, photos, videos, or even webinars. However, if you are not in the business of creating content, this becomes the biggest hurdle for most small businesses. If the content isn’t your forte, consider contracting a content strategist who can come up with a complete plan for the quarter or even the year. These parts can then be outsourced or processed in-house.

6. Be aware of marketing trends.

When you can only devote a limited amount of time to doing marketing activities, forget about staying on top of the trends! New technologies are emerging all the time, especially in the digital space. While every trend isn’t worth chasing, some are game-changing by transforming space. For example, early adopters of Marketing Automation are now in a better position to offer personalized customer journeys while other companies struggle to catch up.

This applies not only to digital but also to traditional marketing methods. Are you aware of best practices for email programs? Do you know the average cost of sponsoring an event? Time constraints will make it difficult to keep up, so be sure to check with a professional or research before doing anything.

7. Finding the right talent.

Owners and employees of small companies wear a lot of hats. It’s not uncommon to see a back-office manager who also runs a Facebook page or a customer service representative who also uses Instagram. While this may be a short-term solution, it will not help the business grow. I’m thinking about it. If you were running a bakery, you wouldn’t hire someone to help customers, pack goods, and be the head baker, right?

When you outsource important marketing activities to people with little or no marketing experience, you will get these very results. To grow, you’ll need to find marketing talent. But if you’re not a marketer, how do you need to know how to hire one? If you are hiring employees outside of a reputable freelance center, be sure to check the online presence of all job seekers and take a simple test they can take to demonstrate your skills.

8. Constantly see results.

When there is barely enough time in the day to do marketing, there is definitely no time to report and optimize these actions. Entrepreneurs are too quick to abandon marketing for seeming lack of results.

However, most marketing strategies take time, know-how, and tweak to show a direct ROI. Many companies struggle with the fact that they cannot directly link marketing activities with sales, and marketing is back in the background.

Investing in a marketer or freelancer to help track and optimize efforts so you can see conversions is not only the best way to start getting a return on investment but also a way to reassure you that the marketing engine is working and customers are coming.