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December 23, 2015 by RonTester Leave a Comment

How to Set Marketing Goals for Your Business

DoThisNotThatMarketing.com Marketing GoalsEffective marketing goals can help you have your best year ever.

Goal setting is an important part of doing business. If you really want to grow your business, you should set goals for every important part of your business and that most certainly includes marketing. You’ve likely heard that goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time sensitive—what we call SMART goals. I’m a big believer in SMART goals and recommend my clients use SMART as a way of constructing and evaluating the goals they set. SMART gives you a good framework when it comes to setting out your goals. But before you start setting SMART goals, I want you to think through these building blocks.

Understand Your Audience

All marketing starts with your audience, and without knowing who they are it will be difficult to create a marketing plan that will work for you.

Know Your Products and Services

Understanding how your products and services benefit your audience will also help you know where to start with your marketing efforts. Does your audience know that they need what you have, or do you need to educate them?

Know Your Purpose

You may have goals for various purposes for your marketing such as generating leads, spreading awareness, building your email list, getting more social engagement or something else entirely. The important thing is to understand the purpose of the marketing that you’re doing.

Where Do You Stand Now?

Knowing where you are starting from is critical. If you don’t have much of a list or a social media following, then it’s important to decide what you should do first. Should you build more of a following and if so, exactly how will you accomplish it? And how will you measure your “following”—people on your email list? People who engage with your Facebook posts? Likes? Shares? Retweets?

Where Do You Want to Be?

Once you know where you stand, it’s time to think about where you want to be. When you think about where you want to be, make sure you pick specific, measureable outcomes. If you say, “In the future I would like to have more leads,” it won’t be that helpful. In every case I can think of, being more specific will be more helpful.

Determine What Is Next

Now that you know where you are and where you want to be, you need to think about what you should do next and what you’ll need to do when you accomplish that. Knowing what you’ll do next when you reach a particular goal is helpful when setting marketing goals for your business. It’s not always first things first — many marketing efforts happen concurrently: building your blog, building your list, marketing to the list. But some things are first things first, and for those things you need to think sequentially from one goal to another.

Map It All Out

Creating a map on paper of where you have been, where you are now, and where you want to go will help you succeed in the marketing goals that you set for yourself. It will also enable you to see gaps in your choices so that you can fill them.

Don’t Jump the Gun

Your marketing efforts need a strong foundation. Get good at the basics before you try advanced strategies. You want to start where you are now, and work your way up to where you want to be. Too many people spend too much time and effort pursuing advanced strategies when they would accomplish much more by sticking to the basics. Once the basics are well established, then consider advanced strategies. Avoid the bright, shiny object syndrome.

Do the research you need to do in order to know your audience, learn your products, and to evaluate where you stand today. Then you’ll be able to choose the best marketing goals for your business today and in the future.

If you’re not sure how to set good marketing goals for your company, feel free to email me. I’m here for you and I want you to succeed.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Small Business Marketing Tagged With: DoThisNotThatMarketing.com, Goal Setting, SMART Goals

December 22, 2015 by RonTester Leave a Comment

Are Press Releases Worth the Time and Effort?

DoThisNotThatMarketing.com Press ReleasesPress Releases Are an Old School Tactic That Can Pay Big Dividends

One of the oldest marketing ploys around is the old-fashioned press release. But, do they still work? The short answer is that if you have a newsworthy reason to issue a press release, then by all means you should do it. Press releases still have great value for many reasons. They still get results, although not always the types of result you might expect, and they are best used as part of a systematic marketing plan.

Low Cost

Press releases are still relatively low-cost ways to get the word out about a new product, service, or event. This is true whether you do it yourself or hire a service to do it for you. If you are choosy about when you send a press release as well as to whom it is sent, the cost will be a lot less than other forms of advertising.

Improves SEO

Today, one of the biggest benefits of a press release lies in the SEO value. This is one of the main reasons I got started doing press releases for my company. Google Search still places a press release at high value in term of content. This is mostly because scammers don’t typically spend a lot of time, money and effort on producing press releases, so if your business does then you must be legitimate.

Potential for Wider Exposure

Even when you target your press releases they can be picked up by others, and often are if they fit a news story someone wants to tell. Therefore, you have a large potential to reach so many more people than via normal advertising methods.

Becomes Part of the Record

Press releases, especially delivered online, become part of the record and can be found long after the opening, product launch or other newsworthy events. In this way, someone who is looking can find a record of your business.

Establishes Expertise

The record and combination of releases will help establish you and your business as experts in your niche. They help get your name or the name of your business associated with a professional business.

Enhances Credibility

People who don’t take their business seriously don’t send press releases. So by sending them out you are establishing that you’re a serious contender and business entity, which will give you credibility with your audience.

Improves Branding

Any way that you can regularly get the word out about what your business is doing, through blogs, articles, and press releases, will improve your brand’s image, especially if you make it part of your normal marketing efforts.

Viral Potential

Every press release you send out has the potential of going viral if you send it to the right people at the right time. Be sure to not only send them out, but also to share the online version on your blog, website, and via social media accounts to help the process.

You should send out a press release any time you open a new business, add a new product or service, or have anything that is newsworthy to report about your business to the world. In addition, it’s imperative that you learn how to target where your press releases go so that they get in the hands of the right people.

If you’d like more information about how to get started using press releases to help get more exposure, grow your business and make more money, please email me or comment below.

Filed Under: Small Business Marketing Tagged With: DoThisNotThatMarketing.com, Press Releases

December 2, 2015 by RonTester Leave a Comment

How the Chamber of Commerce Can Help Your Business

DoThisNotThatMarketing.com How the Chamber of Commerce Can Help Your BusinessMarketing as a Member of the Chamber of Commerce

Unsure of where to go to market your business? You should strongly consider getting involved with various community organizations and groups to get your name and business out there. You’ll recognize many of the organizations we’re going to talk about on this blog. Perhaps some will be new to you. Let’s take a look how they can benefit marketing your business. Today, let’s take a look at the Chamber of Commerce.

I’m going to be honest. I’ve been a member of the Chamber of Commerce a couple of times in the past. The first time I joined, I paid my annual membership fee and waited for good things to happen. They didn’t. The second time I joined, I paid my annual membership fee and got involved. Instead of waiting for good things to happen, I made the most of the opportunities the Chamber offered and made good things happen.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Chamber of Commerce. What you may not have known is not only is there a local Chamber of Commerce, but also a national membership. Take a look at the US Chamber of Commerce website for more information about membership. Joining the local chapter does not always automatically enroll you at the national level though, nor does joining at the national level guarantee you membership in the local chapter. Be sure to look online for your local chapter’s website and phone number. There are benefits to both organizations. You can find more information regarding the differences in membership on the US Chamber of Commerce website’s FAQ. Your business, like most small businesses, will have a monthly membership fee of around $30-40 with yearly memberships being around $300-400 a year. This is an average and may be more or less depending on number of employees and your location. Of course, the benefits of joining will ultimately depend on how much time you spend attending events and getting involved with your Chamber of Commerce.

Did you know how important being a member of the Chamber of Commerce in your area is to marketing your business? It’s primary function is to help business owners, like you, network and grow. Not only is joining the Chamber of Commerce great for fostering your business’ B2B (business to business) relationships, but also, customers are more likely to look at you more favorably if you are a member of the Chamber of Commerce and are more likely to use your business. The Chamber of Commerce can help you get in touch with local businesses for your needs, and some of those businesses provide discounts to Chamber of Commerce members. Also, you can learn something new from other members at luncheon’s and you can provide expertise as well in your field of business allowing businesses to think of you when they have a problem. How about some free press? Often the Chamber of Commerce publishes newsletters and they usually have a website that features their members. Some even organize ribbon cuttings for your business gaining more exposure for you for a grand opening. If you’re still unsure how you joining the Chamber of Commerce will benefit your business, get some referrals and ask a few business owners their experiences with being a member.

Next, I’ll be focusing on local service organizations, like Rotary, Kiwanis, Optimists, Kiwanis, and Jaycees. How can being a member of one or some of these help foster your business relationships and bring about growth.

To make sure you get more information to help you grow your businesses, join my mailing list and I’ll send you great information.

Filed Under: Small Business Marketing Tagged With: Chamber of Commerce, DoThisNotThatMarketing.com, Ron Tester

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