These are some highly recommended marketing habits to kickstart your efforts and help you focus on doing things that matter. Work your TO DO LIST around getting these done and you will see your marketing begin to gain momentum.
- Always take a Business Card and make a reminder note
Whether you use digital or paper business cards, always ask for one and make a note of a characteristic to remind you of the person, the date and occasion of the meeting. Tell the person you would like to stay in touch, drop them a follow up email and add them to your email list.
2. Write a Blog to share helpful info monthly
A Blog is key real estate. You create content you own which can be repurposed to share on social media networks, email updates and engage a new audience. Blogs are a recommended way to create a link building strategy and add fresh, quality content to your website which search engines love to consume.
3. Listen and Respond to Customers Daily
Your online community requires your attention consistently and daily if you are going to grow and build trust. Listen to respond conversationally to help and support; not just to ‘reply’.
4. Create Social Media Profiles on all the major platforms
It pays to claim your place on the major platforms to help you attract new audiences and be discoverable. Ensure your profiles are set up professionally and that branding is consistent and recognisable.
5. Post Daily where your Ideal Customers Hang out
Not all networks are created equal because tones and audiences vary. Instagram and Facebook are currently the giants but you have to be there daily to get a chance of being heard. Create quality unique content for these two platforms and repurpose to the rest, posting as often as the content is relevant. Don’t neglect YouTube!
6. Read a page a day of a Self-Development book
We often get so caught up in ‘doing’, we forget to learn, improve and reinvent ourselves to stay current. I try to read 20 minutes a day and I’m regularly surprised at how it pops up at the right time during that day or even weeks later, just when I need it.
7. Join Influencer Discussion Groups
This is an opportunity for online networking. It is a place to listen, learn and ask. Remember, the people we surround ourselves with, online and offline, are the biggest influence on our behaviour, attitudes and results. Choose wisely!
8. Participate consistently in Groups to establish authority
Without dominating the conversation, add constructive opinion or valuable advice to establish your credibility and build a worthy reputation.
9. Build an Email List of Ideal Customer
Your website and email list are highly valued business assets. Make it a marketing habit to build, develop, grow and manage them to support your business objectives. Clever marketers maintain a list, keep it clean and segment it to enable niche marketing. I recommend you start with new prospects, micro commitment, past and present customers.
10. Mail your List as often as you have something valuable to share
Different marketing objectives and different segments will value different content. Don’t add to anyone’s overloaded inbox and rather build a reputation for valuable content that gets your emails opened and read.
11. Never stop learning what makes your Ideal Customer tick
THIS really should be Marketing Habit No. 1!
An Ideal Customer Avatar that is properly researched and updated is the cornerstone of your marketing effort. Once you know who you are targeting, where they hang out and what they want most from you, your marketing becomes effective with great return on investment.
12. Build an Image Gallery of quality images and graphics
You can Google the numerous free image sites but some are clunkier than others so get started with this DOWNLOAD list of my favourites.
I generally work on the message and marketing objective before I start my image search but while searching, I always find one or two that I just know I must have. I immediately download and save to my gallery with a name (read ‘keyword’) that will help me find it later. That way I have a wealth of creativity to call on when needed. And oh yes, test images vs. graphics to talk to different niches on different networks because they may stand out more. Remember you can improve what you don’t measure.
13. Get a Customer Recommendation every week
The top three reasons customers write reviews are to help others make a better buying decision, to share an experience, or to reward a company for good performance. However, people need a nudge to write reviews so ask a happy customer in their moment of bliss and make it easy by supplying them with a clickable link to your review platform. This way you have more control over where people review your business and monitoring the narrative.
14. Update your Website with a new customer Review every month
Research is an integral step in the online customer’s buying journey. Consumers read reviews because they trust reviews and, they believe that these will help them make the right decisions when making a purchase or choosing a company. The more recent and the more abundant the better so you don’t force them to go look somewhere else. If they like what they see on your website the next obvious step is BUY NOW.
15. Research and use the Keywords prospects type into Search
Your language and marketing communication should always include the actual words your ideal customers use to describe your product or service and, the solution you provide. That helps search engines rank your content in search results and gets users thinking you can read their minds.
16. Submit newsworthy updates to Industry-Related Publications
The old fashioned press release formula applies. Keep your services and business top of mind by staying in touch with influencers who may need a snippet to fill a space in a newsletter or publication.
17. Pay it Forward by treating others as you want to be treated
Please don’t tell me you are marketing on Facebook and yet not engaging with other Pages and Groups. If you want an active audience, get involved. If you want people to Share your stuff, lead by example. And, if you only look for ‘Free’ or ‘Cheap’ you’ll probably attract that label! Remember to have an attitude of gratitude too!
18. Network Face-to-Face one a month
Get out from behind your computer and meet people face-to-face. While video and Live broadcasts help, you cannot connect in quite the same way as when you authentically make eye contact and share energy.
19. Pay to Play on your primary social network
All the tools and platforms you use are also in business. Be prepared to upgrade as you grow. Paid Ads on social media are essential if you want to put your content in front of your ideal customers.
20. Send prospects to your website from every possible source.
Your website is on your own online real estate, your shop window if you will. Why would you not ensure it looks fabulous, on-brand and tempts people in? Please search and get to know you in many different ways but every possible road should lead to Roma AKA your website. This is where you convert prospects to customers.
I have got a whole bunch more tips to tell you about but this is a good start although I’d love for you to share any Marketing Habits you think we should add. Take a look at my Marketing Workshops where we go beyond “telling” and put actionable tactics to work for your business.