Small Business Marketing Through The Ease of COVID-19 Restrictions: A Guide.
In Western Australia, the roadmap for COVID-19 restrictions have been released – but where does this leave your small business marketing? In this article, we give a step-by-step plan on how to relaunch your business in a strategic way.
As we know, consumer behaviour will be a different ball game than ever before meaning that Perth businesses will need to continue to pivot until they find their new norm. Planning your marketing strategy in a volatile market can be challenging, but we are giving you a simplified guide that you can use.
Review Your Current Marketing Strategy
Now is a crucial time to review your past marketing strategies and SWOT analysis. You need to analyse your target market, offers and any market trends for the past two years. As the market is changing so quickly, it is best to review this every week to fortnight to ensure your business is staying ahead of the competition.
Understand The Marketing Funnel
The most important lesson in marketing is understanding the marketing funnel. As you can see below, there is a nurturing process involved with turning strangers into customers. This is why it is important to have a full scope strategy combining website, social media, online advertising and email marketing.
Image Credit: Medium.
Review The Functionality Of Your Website & Optimise
Most businesses have a website which plays the most important roles in marketing and sales. Now is the time to review your website’s functionality. You have 3-5 seconds to capture the attention of your future customer, so things to look out for on your website are:
- Website load speed time. The faster the better!
- Search bar for your users convenience.
- Easy, digestible information that aligns with imagery.
- Social proof such as reviews or case studies.
- Mobile responsive.
- Facebook pixel must be installed for future data collection and tracking.
- Website tracking such as Google Analytics or HotJar is installed.
Plan Your 30 – 60 Day Social Media Calendar
Now that you are aware of an open date for your business, it’s time to increase your social media activity. Over the next 60 days, you have a good idea of the roadmap for your business regulations which gives a solid foundation for you to plan your social media posts. Make sure that you are posting every second day (as a minimum) and you can schedule this content in advance using programs like Later. Once scheduled, you can set and forget – meaning that your posts will be published automatically and you can focus on the bigger things in business.
Social Media Advertising
Running a brand awareness campaign prior to opening is one of the easiest ways to spread the word about your business. To do this, you will need to have a Business Manager with an Ads Account and your payment options installed. Don’t worry, Facebook takes you through this step-by-step. Once you have completed that, you can direct to your Ads Manager, select Create and choose from the below options. If you are a Facebook Ads newbie, we recommend selecting Brand Awareness reaching a wide demographic, fast or Traffic to encourage people to head to your website. From there you can choose your budget, targeting options and ad creative.
Create An Email Marketing Strategy
Do you have a database that has given you permission to contact them? Whether there was a clause in their contract, form or they opted-in you can send them marketing through emails. Start setting up monthly email campaigns to send to your database. This should be filled with a mix of educational content, team introductions, offers, new products, social proof and any other news you think is viable. If you are unsure if you can send your database marketing emails, please visit the ACMA Government website here.
Review Your Analytics And Adapt To What Your Customers React Too
We are lucky enough to have detailed analytics on every part of our marketing journey. The best way to know if you are moving forward with your customers is to regularly check your analytics and adapt. For example, if you as a business owner don’t enjoy memes but your audience reacts largely to them – you know it’s time to increase the meme content regardless of the previous beliefs you had of your business. Your analytics are your bible in business.
Don’t be afraid to come through strong in your marketing. If you are providing meaningful and engaging content, you are not annoying people. The more you connect with your audience, the more your business will grow.
The biggest mistake a small business can make is to think like a small business.
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