Tech Savvy Small Business Marketing in 4 Easy Steps

Whether you chase the latest gadgets or proclaim yourself a technophobe, you can use easy tech to improve your marketing.

With the latest digital tools, you’ll streamline your processes, save precious time, and boost your sales. In this article, we introduce you to the essential processes for small business marketing in 2021. And don’t worry – the tech we recommend is easy-to-use and mostly free. So let’s dive in.

Step 1: Plan

If you’ve been doing a bit of marketing-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, it’s time to rein it in.

Planning helps you save time because it takes away the guesswork. In your plan, you’ll outline your goals, then strategise for success and measure results. This process makes you more efficient each go-round.

If you want to plan marketing like a pro, use the SMART method to guide you.

SMART goals are:

• Specific – Target a specific area to improve​.
• Measurable – Track your progress to calculate success. ​
• Attainable – Reach for what’s possible​.
• Relevant – Pick goals that will have a positive impact​ on your business.
• Time-bound – Set a timeframe or target date​.

Step 2: Develop your tech stack

Choose and set up your selection of digital marketing tools. Here are some examples to help you get started:

• Social media
  • Choose the channels best for your brand and audience, from Facebook to LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and so on.
• Website
  • If you don’t have one already, create a website using WordPress or Wix. See more in our comprehensive guide How to Create a Website that Customers (and Google) will Love.
• Blogging
  • Use your web platform (WordPress, etc.) to create and schedule blogs.
• Images
  • You’ll need plenty of images for your blogs and social media. Design graphics using Canva and source free stock images using Pixabay.
• Email​
  • Use Mailchimp to create free email marketing campaigns and view in-depth analytics.

Step 3: Create your content

Now that you have your tools for managing, publishing and promoting your content, you can use technology to make your content more engaging.

Here are some of our favourites for:

• Readability
  • Your content needs to be as ‘readable’ as possible so that busy people can grab the info they need quickly or snack on fun titbits throughout the day. Use apps such as Hemingway​ or Grammarly.
• Headline​s
  • Craft those thumb-stopping headlines, taglines and slogans for your blogs and social posts using CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer.
• Content Curation
  • Use social media management tools such as Hootsuite to share your content and other interesting morsels with your audience.

Step 4: Analyse

You’ll be glad you dedicated the time to analyse the results of your marketing efforts. This is the moment you get those epiphanies about how to do things more efficiently in future.

Many of the essential marketing tools and platforms come with their own in-app analytics, perfect for small business marketing needs.

Improve your marketing by asking yourself the following questions:

• Have we​ reached our audience?
• Are we​ converting leads?
• Did we post at the right time?
• Can we say what sales come from our content marketing?
• Did people like our content?
• How much money is it costing?
• Is our audience growing?
• How much​ money are we making?
• Are we there yet?

With the answers, you can tweak your strategy to be On Budget, On Time, and ​On Target​.