Marketing your business in 2020 and beyond
2020 has shown us a new way of living and working for the majority of the world’s population. It is now more important than ever to start doing better as in 2020 we all know better.
This knowing better is hitting hard at businesses who may have names that are not as ‘woke’ as they could be in 2020. Colonial Brewing Company is one that was recently in the news as a Melbourne bottle shop was partitioned by a reporter to stop stocking their beer. The bottle shop complied and it was reported across MANY media outlets. Bringing negative and positive responses from all sides of this discussion.
We really need to use our two ears to listen more than we talk with our one mouth as we may all be a little wiser.
What does this mean for you the small or micro business owner?
You need to regularly be reviewing your marketing and business strategy. This goes without saying but many business are stuck in an old fashioned way of doing business still refusing to change.
- Do you have a strategy for marketing your business?
- Does your marketing strategy and content match the plans you have for the future of your business?
- Is your business evolving with your customers’ needs? Don’t remain frozen in how you do business or you will be left behind.
- Are you sharing a message that resonates with your customers and drives business?
- Are you sharing a message that is confusing or outdated?
- What do you need to keep doing and what do you need to scrap or review?
History lesson
20+ years ago we had one way to market our small businesses. It was in print and there was a large book yellow in colour delivered to every business and home. This was the one and only way to advertise your small business other than local papers.
To advertise in this book for 12 months was extremely expensive, even when measured by today’s figures. Upwards of 10K to get your business to stand out from the crowd as people who were looking tended to choose the largest ads. Now 20+ years ago this was a lot of money for a small business to spend on marketing every 12 months.
Imagine today if there was only one choice, you only got to create it once each year so it had to be correct and it had to be inviting. It was not unheard of for businesses to have ads without the correct phone number or with content errors as they did not proofread their ad thoroughly before it was published. 12 months is a long time to live with an expensive mistake like that.
How much are you spending each month/year marketing your business? Does this also need to be reviewed so that it is a more realistic figure? Has your business mindset changed with how we now do business in 2020 and beyond?
Marketing today
To get in front of your ideal clients beyond 2020 we have the wonder of the internet. If we make a mistake or don’t get our marketing quite right it can be fixed, replaced or after time it is no longer noticed. Usually, there will be something else to take peoples attention away from what is there.
The internet, with all its positives and negatives, looking at marketing, it can be very positive for small business. It is also available for zero or little cost for all business and consumers to use.
However, the internet has a lot of content. Some of this content is real, some may be fake and some is in between. There is more content than ever for consumers to evaluate and then decide who they are going to do business with.
My Sassy Business can help you with many aspects of your digital marketing, contact us today.
Your content
Have a look at the content your business has out there for everyone to see and ask yourself:
- Is it correct or does it need updating?
- Does your content make sense in today’s climate?
- Is any of the content insensitive in today’s climate?
- Is it too focussed on current events and not a balance of marketing your business?
- Do you need to pause campaigns or alter campaigns that may not be helpful in today’s climate?
- Are you engaging your followers in topics that they care about but that also relate to your business?
- Are you being cautious to not make your business channels too personal or political?
- Have you advised your followers of the changing ways that you are doing business? Online meetings or virtual workshops for example.
- Do you have a balance of sensitivity and relevance while you stick to business as usual?
Don’t stop marketing
Consistency in marketing is always the key. Daily social media posts, consistent blogs published, a modern responsive website, an ongoing advertising campaign and more. So long as you plan to stay in business you need to keep up your online presence all while being sensitive to any current events.
If you are a regular follower of my blogs you will be well aware of the different ways that you can market your business digitally.
- Are you doing enough?
- Does it need a refresh or an update?
- Should you outsource it so you can work on your business?
During the lockdowns, social media usage has been at an all-time high. Not just in Australia but worldwide. Are you driving more awareness about your business online?
- If people are spending more time online is your business getting found in the Google search results?
- Ensure that the content you are producing is accurate and transparent. Consumers are smart and they know how to do their own research. You don’t want to have your business caught out with misinformation or even worse fake news.
Twitter is testing a new feature to slow the spread of misinformation. This encourages people to make sure they are reading content linked before retweeting it. I imagine this is to stop the bots that quickly share a lot of misinformation.
Being digitally literate
By improving our knowledge we all benefit and there are many ways you can do this. If you are doing your own marketing you need to keep improving your knowledge about marketing. Reading plenty of articles each day and keeping up with best practice across the platforms you use. While actually using the various digital tools that are available helps you to understand how your clients also use them.
Outsourcing your marketing allows you to work on your business and grow your business knowledge. You leave the upkeep of constantly growing marketing knowledge to the company that you are outsourcing your marketing to. However, it is still important that you use and appreciate the digital world as this is the world that your customers are familiar with.
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