5 Skills to Master and take Your Small Business to The Next Level in 2021
Katie Batchelor
We know this year has been tough on businesses, especially small businesses, but we at Deearo Marketing want to help. We all know that January is prime reinvention time. People use New Year’s to reflect on their lives, their choices and even their bodies to see where improvements can be made. Then, they resolve to change.
The thing is, we think that you’re wonderful just the way you are, so this January we encourage you to ditch the unhealthy juice cleanses and get your business into shape instead, with our top five skills we think all small business owners should have:
1. Audience Analysis
This is all about knowing your audience. Who is your target audience, your ideal customer? Does the wording on your website and online content engage with them? If you don’t know, then find out.
You need to know what sort of people are going to be likely to want your products and how to talk to them. Manobyte say that “When it comes to marketing of any kind, […] you must know your target audience to be effective”. It’s no good marketing to teenagers with slang and emojis in your emails if you have a babywear boutique. No matter what the teenage pregnancy rate is in your area, they are not the slice of the market with expendable income for premium price baby accessories. So, get to know your demographic and engage with them.
2. Social Media Oversight
Even if your social media is managed by someone else, you should know how to read and understand insights and analytics on social media. The misconception is that social media success is all about how many followers you have. Not true. Of course, you want followers because it means that more people will see your content, products and offers, but that’s not what it’s all about.
Engagement is the aim of the social media game. That means analysing visiting patterns to your webpages and noticing which type of posts get more likes or more views. Having lots of people following your brand is a good thing, but engagement is even more key. So, make sure you
look beyond the number of people who like your page and look at the patterns of people who engage with it.
3. Branding Consistency
Everything to do with your brand needs to be consistent with the image you want to present to your customers. You may need to reconsider the colour palette of your website if it denotes the wrong ambiance. If you are a meditation coach, then acid green isn’t the colour for your webpage headers.
Whatever you write, share or design for your business, make sure it is all consistent with the brand. Even down to the font you use. It needs to match your company image and for the love of all that’s good, it should be consistent. No mixing up the calligraphy half-way down a webpage. You want customers to be amazed by your incredible products, not your ability to source an outrageous number of obscure and illegible fonts. Like a colour, pick one and try to stick to it across everything associated with your brand.
Also consider your tone of voice in the content you write. Whether you’re going for relaxed and witty or professional and formal, it needs to be consistent across your online platforms. You should also think about if your tone will engage with your target audience and if it honestly represents your brand? If not, then it’s time for a change.
4. CRM Knowledge
PC magazine describes CRM as “a dynamic repository of contact information and client
history,” but it’s more than just an online address book. It can help you keep tabs on your current
and potential clients, jobs and tasks while delegating to your team.
At Deearo Marketing, our favourite CRM system is Hubspot. We recommend Hubspot to all of our clients and those who are starting up their business as they offer a free package which is easy to upgrade as your business grows. Getting to grips with a CRM system like Hubspot early on in your business journey will make your customer database and sales far easier to monitor. If you’re not sure where to start with Hubspot, we provide Hubspot training for your business and employees. Get in touch with us to find out more about our training programmes.
5. The Art of Regular Content
Being consistently active online could mean all sorts but believe us that good, consistent content leaving your social media and blog at regular intervals is the ideal. Many businesses fall in the trap of releasing reams of posts and content close together and then neglecting their social media for weeks. Why? Because we’re human, we get busy and we forget. So, plan ahead.
Get ahead of the game and write your content ahead of time, then stagger when it’s going to be released. Before you hit post, there is usually an option whether to schedule the post for a time in the future. Look for that and use it well, because if you don’t post for some time, people will lose interest. We know you’re just busy, but your customers may think you have nothing to say.
If constantly creating content is a problem your business faces, then outsourcing your social media management to a marketing company could be the way forward. At Deearo, we know that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) posting is one of the most effective ways to bump you up the search results list on Google when people search for keywords relating to your business. But we know not everyone has the time or resources to devote to creating consistent streams of optimised content. You have a business to run after all. We can help. Get in touch to see how we can help you improve your online presence and optimise your online marketing.
Deearo Marketing offers a range of team training resources to help you and your employees get to grips with these skills which will help your business succeed. Chat to us about how we can help your business take off this year by educating your team.
