Last week, I spoke about taking a look back at 2022, and making plans for 2023. This week, I want to talk about how to start making progress toward those goals. If you’re like most brick & mortar business owners, you want to see improvement over last year. And, for most people, that means improved sales. How do you make more sales? Through better marketing.
The big question is, where do I start? For most small business owners, they immediately jump to social media. Last year, I was on a class trip with my daughter and started talking to one of the other parents on the trip. I learned that he owned the landscaping business that recently opened near my home. I told him what I did, and his first question was “do you do social media?”.
It’s always amazing to me how much importance people put on social media.
Here’s why:
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- -Social media is changing constantly and its effectiveness is somewhat out of your control.
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- -You do not own your social media account, and it can be taken away from you at a moment’s notice, for any number of reasons.
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- -There are several other marketing channels available to you that you can own and control, like email, a blog, or a website.
Don’t get me wrong. Social media is an important tool in your marketing strategy. And, because it’s free and quick to set up, I can see the appeal in using it to promote a new business. However, it shouldn’t be the only tool you use. I regularly hear about brick & mortar businesses who lose their accounts due to hacking, or some odd restriction that Facebook has put on their account. It just happened 2 weeks ago to a lovely woman who owns two businesses in my town. If your only means of communication with your customers is social media, or hoping they walk into your place of business, that’s a real risk to your livelihood. It’s important for you to own at least one communication channel yourself.
Having said all that, if you are new to business, or have a limited budget or limited time, social media could be the right tool for you. Like I said, it’s a good place to start. But, you’ll eventually need more. This makes some people think they need to have everything set at once, with social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, plus email, plus a website? ARGH!. That can be incredibly overwhelming, especially if you’re not so tech-savvy. I created a tool just for this reason. If you don’t know where to get started promoting your business online, you can download my free decision tree, which I call “The non-tech guide to decide where to promote your brick and mortar business online.” Download it here: Get the Guide
If you still feel overwhelmed by this, or want more help, please email me: hello@threebirdscreative.com
I can help you consider all of your options and make a recommendation for you and the stage that your business is in today.
