As a small business owner, you probably know that there’s no exact science to marketing. What works for your competition won’t necessarily work for you. What worked for you in August might not work for you in January.
Successful marketing is usually involves a lot of trial, error and experimentation.
But that’s no excuse to go charging into 2021 without any plan at all. Any great small business has a great marketing strategy behind it. Here’s how to create yours as we head into 2021.
Take a Trip Down Memory Lane
While we can all agree that 2020 is a year we’d like to forget entirely, you likely learned a few lessons that will help you in the future. And since you can’t get to where you’re going unless you fully understand where you’ve been, it’s time to take a stroll into the past. Here are three vital questions to ask yourself:
- What were your biggest successes of 2020?
- What goals did you meet and how?
- Which marketing channel was the most successful?
If your Facebook page gained thousands of new followers who regularly interact with your business, social media is probably something you’ll want to focus more on in 2021. If your email campaign fell flat on its face, that’s something you can put on the back burner until you have time to improve on it.
A solid small business marketing strategy should include things that you already know work well — in this example, social media. Once you have the foundation built, it’s easy to customize as you go.
Decide What You Want to Achieve in 2021
Now that you know where you came from, it’s time to figure out where you want to go. What would it take for you to sit here a year from now and declare 2021 a success?
Do you want to increase sales? Expand your offerings? Build better relationships with your customers? Get your goals down on paper!
Trying to create a successful marketing strategy without knowing exactly what you want to achieve is an exercise in futility. After all, how are you supposed to know that you’ve actually succeeded? Don’t skip this step!
Take Current Events into Consideration
The world looks a lot different today than it did this time last year, and if you fail to take that into consideration, you’ll pay for it.
In-person shopping has decreased tremendously. E-commerce is booming. Trade shows and other events where you might have had tons of success in past years are almost nonexistent.
Your marketing strategy needs to reflect the here and now, bleak as it may seem. Read the room. If your strategy focuses heavily on in-person events and blowout sales in your brick-and-mortar store, you’ll definitely come across as tone deaf in the current climate.
Get Strategic
It’s time to decide what you’re going to do and when.
Map out small business marketing strategy for 2021 month by month. Maybe you’ll start the year off by promoting your blog and educating people about your company in January. Then you’ll funnel them into a webinar series in February. That will serve as a kickoff to your product launch in March.
Your marketing strategy should be designed as a natural progression that leads people exactly where you want them. When you think about it as a series of small steps rather than one long slog toward the finish line, it’s easier to keep your customers on the right path!
Don’t start the new year off without a plan. Nail down your marketing strategy in the waning days of 2020 and start 2021 off on the right foot!
Would you like to focus less on marketing and more on growing your small business? Let Mischa Communications handle the hard part. We’re here to help!