7 easy marketing tips that non-marketers should try

When small business owners find out I’m a copywriter, they immediately start pummeling me with marketing questions:

• Have LinkedIn ads ever worked for you? Why are they SO expensive?
• How can we stand out at such-and-such industry trade show?
• Why do I need a newsletter?
• Does our brand really need to join TikTok? (NO)

There’s a cloud of FOMO surrounding all things marketing. Companies feel like they need to be doing ALL the things all the time because they’re just one Jenna Lyons sponsored post away from blowing up.

When you feel like any single opportunity could make or break your next 10 years as a company and you’re hearing Cinderella story after Cinderella story of other small, scrappy companies striking it big…it can be easy to feel both overwhelmed and scared of missing out on any singular opportunity.

Marketing these days feels Sisyphean. With everyone glued to their phones and more data than ever available around where we are, what we care about and what we’re looking to buy….when it comes to marketing, it never feels quite enough. There’s always something more we could be doing. More messages to try. PR stories to pitch. Assets to create.

No wonder it feels overwhelming! It *is* overwhelming.

The good news is you’re not alone. Most small businesses face several similar marketing challenges.

The most common marketing challenges small businesses face:

• Small budgets: Many small companies don’t even have a marketing budget
• No one on their team owns marketing: When no one is accountable to marketing KPIs, it falls to the wayside
• Too much noise: It feels impossible to get noticed anywhere
• Overwhelm: Analysis paralysis is real
• Lack of clarity around the target audience: Who are you speaking to? What do they care about?
• Lack of clarity around their unique selling propositions: What makes you different from competitors? Why should people choose you to help them solve their problem?

Regardless of your industry or product, here are 7 things you can do that cost zero dollars (or close to it) and can have a big impact on your bottom line. No excuses.

Marketing tips for non-marketers that are free or practically free:

• Make sure your website copy is clear and has a strong call to action. You would be shocked by how terrible most corporate websites are. What do you do? How much do you cost? Where are you located? Really simple information can be borderline-impossible to find (buried at the bottom of some random page) or just sound like a mish-mash of corporate jargon word salad. We’re a medical solution for providers with an eye towards ROI. Stop. Try experimenting with your copy and language. Change out your headlines and some of your key selling points. Sharpen your elevator pitch. Then track your Google Analytics to see if you are getting more sales or outreach due to your changes. Pivot, as needed.

• Capture email addresses on your website and start building an email list. Anyone who ends up on your website is a prospect. Whether they Googled you or were led there some other way, if they’re there, they are curious about what you do and what makes you different. You need to capture the information of people who want to engage with you so you can keep them in the loop. Even if they don’t convert into a sale, they are now a warm lead or a prospect or whatever else you wanna call it. Offer them a free digital download or access to your newsletter by submitting their email address. Then start building your email list via an email client like MailChimp or something similar. Email marketing is an extremely powerful tool (when done correctly) and the longer you wait to start collecting emails, the more website visitors you’re missing out on inviting into your community.

• Create a blog. “But, Elyse! It’s not 2010 anymore! Do I really need a blog?” Yes, you do. Why? SEO, baby. By creating tailored, unique content that speaks to your audience, offers value and showcases your expertise, you’re creating a new way to drive organic traffic to your website. Blogs can help establish trust and demonstrate your value as an industry thought leader. They help you rank higher on search engines so the odds of prospects finding you are significantly higher. When done well, a blog can become a lead-driving machine. Just make sure you are being strategic around the content you are creating, you are posting consistently and following other SEO and blog best practices. If you’re overwhelmed and have some extra cash, consider hiring an SEO pro or content strategist to help.
• Make friendships and partnerships with companies who have similar audiences. This idea costs actually zero dollars. Get your LinkedIn Stalker Shoes and Networking Hat on (omg you look so cute!) and start looking for other companies with similar missions. They’re prob not your direct competitors, but poke around for companies who share similar values and maybe offer a slightly different product or service to the same audience. Then reach out and see if there are any ways you could partner. Some ideas: giveaways, content swaps (when they write a blog post for your website and vice versa), interviewing one another for a podcast, co-hosting an event together. This is a great way to get new eyeballs from an adjacent audience onto your product. Doesn’t hurt to ask. Doesn’t hurt to make friends.
• Choose ONE social media platform to invest in and create content for. Instead of creating 10 different social media accounts and not creating content for any of them, pick one to create and update. How should you pick? Where are your users/prospects? Maybe it’s LinkedIn or Instagram or YouTube. Pick one. And go hard in that one channel. Ignore all the others.
• Set up Google Analytics on your website and check it weekly. I hope you are already doing this, but if you’re not, make sure you have Google Analytics tracking on your website. Then pick one day a week to review the stats. How many visitors did your website get? Where do those people live? How are they getting to your site? How long are they spending there? These are great numbers to monitor because they’ll tell you if something abnormal is happening or if there’s specific content people are more interested in than others.
• For unique, timely PR opportunities, sign up for HARO. HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a platform that journalists use when they are looking for a source or expert on a specific topic. It’s easy to sign up and then you can respond to certain postings that apply to you. This is a really great way to try and get some fresh PR (instead of cold emailing every journalist you can find on Twitter).
  

Some bonus marketing mindset tips

• Do anything… Don’t let overwhelm or perfectionism stop you from posting an update on LinkedIn or sending an e-blast to your email list.
• …But also edit your work. Before clicking “send,” make sure your links all work, the coupon codes are up and maybe let Grammarly or the Hemingway Editor “read” through your copy first and check for mistakes.
• Pick 1-3 marketing initiatives and focus. Even the biggest companies can’t do ALL the things. There’s simply too much. So instead of doing a bunch of marketing campaigns half-assedly (not a word), pick a couple things to blow out (e.g. new product photography, a monthly newsletter, a content swap with a partner brand). Write those 1-3 initiatives down on a Post-It note and hang it by your desk. When new opportunities pop up, ask yourself if they align with those 1-3 goals and if not, then kindly pass.
• Make content for your audience. Don’t make it about yourself. I see so many brands using social media platforms to brag about their own initiatives or promote their own stuff. The cold hard truth: your users don’t really care. Unless it’s saving them money, meeting a need or solving them a problem. So try to make content that’s about them, the problem you’re solving or something they care about.

• Slow + steady. Don’t get discouraged if your video doesn’t go viral. 99.99999% don’t. Just remember to post content steadily and consistently. You’re running a marathon here, and there’s no shortcut to millions of followers or getting on Oprah’s “Favorite Things” list. Believe me, I’ve tried.

The good news? More than ever, it seems as though CEOs, founders and business owners understand the value of marketing.

They know it’s imperative to create a community and drive authentic engagement to keep growing their brand (and revenue). They just don’t know how…or are overwhelmed by the sheer number of ideas and opportunities. But you don’t need a fancy CMO or hefty budget to make meaningful progress. There are plenty of easy-to-implement, small wins that can grow over time and become strategic levers to pull in the future.

If you’re looking for some more in-depth or specific marketing help or advice, hit me up at elyse@elyseash.com - I’d love to chat.