Sunday, June 23, 2019

How to Successfully Market a Startup With a Team of One

By Jennifer Rogina

Your business is still in its infancy, but it’s doing well. You believe it can do even better, and you want to start marketing your company online. The problem? It’s only you.

You don’t have a marketing background. You don’t have a team. You don’t have budget to hire a team or agency. So what do you do? How can you start a digital marketing campaign for your small business?

1. Create a routine

Having a set routine is essential for your marketing efforts to succeed. As an entrepreneur, you already have more job duties than a standard full-time position; marketing is just one of the many hats you need to wear.

Figure out how to add some dedicated marketing time—even if it’s only an hour a week—into your existing schedule. It’s better to create a routine you know you can commit to, even if it doesn’t seem like you’re putting in very much time at first. If you can be consistent with this routine, you’ll see more positive results for your efforts, rather than if you put in bursts of time here and there.

2. Prioritize wisely

Time is money. Marketing your business online is important. But, so are all of the other jobs you do for your business. That’s why you need to focus on the marketing channels that make the most sense for you and your company.

To start a digital marketing campaign with no budget, focus on organic search and content marketing. Spend your limited time on content creation. Write content for your website and content to share on other websites.

If you have a budget but no time to invest, start with PPC (pay-per-click) advertising. This will give you results fast. Be prepared, though—this is a short-term plan. Once you stop paying for the ads you’ll lose the traffic.

3. Use a marketing task list tool

Now you have a routine in place and know which marketing channels you want to prioritize. That’s a great start, but what do you do now? Make the best use of your limited marketing time by using a marketing task list tool.

A marketing task list tool will give you the actionable tasks you need to complete at optimal intervals. Make sure the tool you choose also provides step-by-step directions for each of those tasks. Using a marketing task list tool eliminates the need for you to research digital marketing tactics and strategies, and instead lets you get straight to work.

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4. Track your results

You want to make sure the effort you’re putting toward digital marketing is effective. To do this, set goals and track your results.

Know what you want to get out of your campaigns. Is your goal to drive traffic to your website, gain social followers, or increase transactions? Once you understand your goal, figure out a way to track it.

Google Analytics is a great solution to track goals related to your website. You can use it to view how many people are on your website and the number of transactions you’ve had. To track social goals, you can look into the analytics tools provided by the network such as Facebook Insights or Twitter Analytics.

Goals are useless if they can’t be measured. So, choose your goal and confirm you can track the results.

5. Make data-driven decisions

Your time is precious, so make sure you’re focusing on digital marketing strategies that will bring you the biggest return.

Set up Google Analytics on your website so you have visibility into what types of content resonates with your audience. Look at pages with the most sessions and pages with a higher than average time on the page, and then produce more content like that. Is it a particular topic people enjoy? Or is it a type of content such as a video or infographic?

Promote the articles that are popular on your website across your social channels as well. In addition, look at the social posts that have the highest engagement. Can you learn from that data? Are those topics you can add to your website?

Make a plan to review the data you have. Then take notes with actionable items you can implement based on your findings.

6. Build your marketing muscle

You may find you enjoy marketing. If so, great, then you can stick with it; if not, it will still be a valuable skill for you to have. Taking on marketing tasks will help you build your marketing muscle. You’ll be able to create the voice for your brand, identify who your audience is, and have an understanding of what is the most effective way to market your product.

As your company grows and you’re able to hire a digital marketer, this knowledge will help you to better communicate with the marketer and hold them accountable. Even if you end up hiring an agency, it will be important for you to be able to communicate effectively about marketing tactics.

Marketing takes time

Digital marketing success doesn’t happen overnight, so don’t get discouraged. Dedicate the time you can towards marketing on a weekly basis. Even if it’s only an hour a week, that’s a great place to start.

The more time you spend on marketing, the faster you’ll be at writing and promoting your content. Remember to be patient with yourself and stick with it.

Growing your online presence is an exciting experience. Be consistent and you will see results.

RELATED: The No. 1 Marketing Tool Every Business Needs

About the Author

Post by: Jennifer Rogina

Jennifer Rogina is the co-founder and lead marketer of ClearPath Online, a marketing task list software company. ClearPath Online enables small business leaders to make more money with their websites by providing personalized actionable tasks that focus on growing their online presence.

Company: ClearPath Online

Website: www.clearpath.online
Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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