We are continuing our theme for the month of October on the topic of Tricks and Treats for Marketing Online. Today we will talk about why marketing is so important.
“If you build it, they will come” is a quote from one of my favorite childhood movies, Field of Dreams. The truth is that this quote doesn’t apply well to marketing because bringing people in simply does not happen without a little work. You have to build a platform. No one will know who you are or care about what you have to say if you don’t put yourself out there, and that involves marketing.
Today, we are going to talk about five reasons why marketing is important for your business.
First, marketing lets people know that you exist. Did you know that there are more than thirty million small businesses in the United States alone? In addition, if you are marketing your business online, you are not only competing with businesses in the United States but also the entire world. It is important to let people know that you exist.
I started my business sixteen years ago. As a matter of fact, I am celebrating sixteen years in business today! I calculated my years in business by using the day I had my first order, which was in October of 2007. This is important because it all started through marketing. Even though one order led to another, I learned very quickly that if I stopped marketing, then I stopped getting new clients. I can tell you firsthand that marketing is important to your business.
Second, you have to know the number seven principle. This is a marketing rule of sevens. It states that a potential customer must see a message at least seven times before they are provoked to action. They have to see it over and over again. Think about it this way: when you are watching TV, listening to the radio, or even your favorite podcast, you hear the same ads on repeat. This is because it is said to take at least seven times for you to act upon what you have seen or heard.
Third, marketing is important in order to stay relevant. When I first started my business, one of the things I went through often was what I call the feast or famine mode. I would be on a spurt of marketing, marketing, marketing my business, and I would get an influx of new clients. Alternatively, I would begin to pull back and not market my business as much, which would put me in what I considered famine mode, not having as many clients coming in. Feast or famine is very real if you choose to pull back on your marketing. I always say, “Never stop marketing.” You should market on a consistent basis.
Fourth, marketing creates the know, like, and trust factor. Marketing is our opportunity to allow our potential clients to get to know us, to like us, to trust us, and to do business with us. You can use opportunities in your marketing to educate and share your expertise in order to boost your know, like, and trust factor. Building the know, like, and trust factor is so important to your business. If you use social media and email, these strategies can be weaved into your marketing.
Lastly, it is important to market your business in order to make sales. The reason we market our business in the first place is to reach our ultimate goal, which is making sales. If you never market, then you will never make sales. Marketing and sales work together. Here is a little bonus. I am going to give you a few ways to market your business.
One way you can market your business is through content marketing. Content marketing can consist of quite a few different things. When I think of content marketing, I think of marketing used to attract, engage, and retain an audience. There are several ways to do this. You can use content marketing by writing articles or blog posts, either through your own blog or by submitting to other publications. Creating videos is huge today. Content marketing also consists of creating podcasts and other forms of media. Content marketing can be very strategic. You can repurpose your content. There is so much that you can do with content marketing.
Content marketing leads to the second way to market your business, which is social media. You can create content that you can share or repurpose on social media platforms. Social media is a huge area of marketing that is free for your business.
The third way to market your business is through email marketing. Email marketing builds a list. Where social media is a platform that is not your own, with email marketing, you own your list. With email marketing, you are speaking to those people who are choosing to be on your list and engaging with you, and that is a place where you can build trust using the know, like, and trust factors.
If you struggle with content marketing, social media, and email marketing, you may want to hire someone to help you in that area. As a virtual assistant, myself and the team that I have here in my virtual assistant business offer help in all three of those areas. We offer help in content marketing, creating content, editing, creating social media content, repurposing your other content for social media, and email marketing. If that is something that you are interested in, click here to check out our services.
Many times, we struggle as small business owners to juggle all the many different things that we have in our businesses, and it is difficult to be able to be in all places at once. Sometimes you might feel like you’re drowning, so I wanted to be able to offer the right hand of help. If you have considered getting help, I would like to give you the opportunity to schedule a free consultation with me to see how we can help you.
Marketing is very important to your business. It is the foundation on which you build your business. It’s the launching point, and it is something that you must consistently continue to do if you want to stay in business. Thank you for listening to the podcast. I hope to hear from you if you need help with your business’s marketing.
STAY CONNECTED
I have a Facebook group for Christian authors, speakers, and coaches. It’s called The Christian Business Advantage, and each month I do a FREE training around the third Wednesday of each month. Please come join our group, and you will learn tips and tricks for your business.
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