After a full year of quarantining and placing everything on hold, we are now slowly getting back to life and back to business. It’s a critical time to publicize your business so that your growth and success can pick up where it left off 1 year ago. For this topic, we’ve gathered a panel of business experts who share their tips on how to get publicity for your business.
Such tips include filling the gaps; staying regularly connected with customers; utilizing digital marketing techniques; utilizing technology for more effective publicity and marketing; increasing brand exposure through messaging; building a successful website and online presence; focusing on content; growing your email list; utilizing social media and optimization; implementing a chatbot; producing quality content; cross-media marketing; repurposing content; and much more. Learn from these experts and implement these tips to better publicize your business during the second half of 2021.
Fill the Gaps Created by the Pandemic
In many ways, the pandemic created even more competitive fields in publicity and marketing for many industries. If there’s any bright side, it’s that many opportunities have been created for those that are agile and creative enough to seek out those opportunities and seize them. For us, through the heart of the pandemic we identified that there would be less sports vying for TV time, so we immediately pivoted to first developing a safe model for play for our players, and then petitioned our broadcast partners for the additional time. Production costs were at an all-time low, allowing us to deliver value to our sponsors with multiple broadcasts while at a discounted rate of cost to us.
The moral of the story is that whether it be your industry, competitor, or local market, there has been a gap created that is waiting for someone to fill. It will require some level of risk, but those that can fill the gaps will be the ones who have the smoothest transition from this pandemic-filled world back to a state of (semi) normalcy.
– Trey Ryder, CMO of American Cornhole League
Stay Connected with Your Core Customer Base
Being in California, our bowling center was mandated to be closed for over a year and we were just permitted to reopen about a month ago. As bowling centers in less restricted states started reopening, they reported that the first customers to return were their core base of weekly league bowlers. We knew that it would be important to be able to publicize and market directly to these customers and remind them that when the time came to reopen, we would be there for them. We used our customer database to send out several email blasts during the months that we closed to keep our customers updated with the latest information on when we might be permitted to open.
The best part about social media is that it’s free publicity and marketing. We used our Facebook page to create numerous posts about bowling and had contests to help keep them engaged. We sent a couple of mailers to let our bowlers know that we were still there and as the time to reopen drew nearer, we launched a phone publicity campaign with the league secretaries and had them contact all the bowlers to let them know the dates that each of their leagues would start. Overall, we have had a pretty good turnout. While we don’t have the usual number of league bowlers that we have during the winter months, our bowler count is still up for this time of the year. It’s been very encouraging after being closed for such a long period of time.
– Jim Decker, President of Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America
Focus on Native Digital Marketing Techniques over Platforms
With everyone cooped up inside due to stay-at-home guidelines, prospective customers are on their devices more than ever. For all entrepreneurs focused on digital marketing, that’s amazing news, but not all digital marketing is working amidst the pandemic. More content is being consumed online, but that also means more platform advertising is being ignored or skipped. YouTube saw the most significant usage growth amongst all the social media platforms during the pandemic, but ad revenue plunged as businesses cut back and users skipped 65% of ads.
Because prospective customers are consuming more content than ever before, consider publicizing and marketing through podcast host read ads through platforms like RedCircle or creator recorded ads in videos, which my tech startup Curastory powers hundreds of YouTube, IGTV, and Facebook Watch video shows. Naturally, potential customers are more likely to listen to ads from those creators they are already tuned in to see as it’s more organic.
– Tiffany Kelly, Founder and CEO of Curastory
Communicate Regularly with Clients
Here we are a year into the pandemic and we have been doing what it takes to keep our business thriving. A major lesson I learned to keep the momentum going through a difficult period was communication and publicizing and marketing to our clients and partners. Setting a schedule as part of each day to reach out through conversation, email, etc. has made it a more comfortable situation when we haven’t been able to travel and visit these customers in person!
Taking things for granted and having a mindset that our customers are here to stay is neither smart nor safe. Reach out, create conversation, and give your customer base the confidence that they are on your mind and in your focus. I think we all had to go a little out of our comfort zones with technology this last year to help stay connected to our clients and guests, but social media marketing allows us to do that. But you learn quickly when it’s the only option to communicate face to face. I am grateful for apps like ZOOM and Microsoft Teams, that allowed us to still maintain an intimate relationship with our clients and customers, and almost made it a little easier to reach potential customers or guests.
– Chad Belding, Founder of The Provider Life and American Almond Beef
Use Technology for More Effective Marketing Language
In the age of automatic text generation, artificial intelligence is getting better all the time at generating the words (text) used in publicity and marketing efforts. But actual wordsmithing? Or being able to sort and evaluate slight changes to text? To compare and score changes in a meaningful way? That is something new that Anyword has been able to harness and is now providing to marketers.
Anyword has developed an intuitive scoring system that ranks text, predicting results so that marketers can measure performance prior to launching a campaign and avoid costly and time-consuming A/B tests. With predictive performance, marketers know, in advance, how well text will perform with each audience base. Additionally, Anyword has filters that will generate tailored language for a specific audience (i.e. gender, age, etc.) maximizing publicity and marketing potential for that demographic. It is about using AI technology to workshop effective marketing language where even slight variations in wording will alter CPC and CTR results.
– Inbar Yagur, Head of Marketing at Anyword
Convey Point of Difference and Increase Brand Exposure Through Messaging
Start by identifying unique points of difference that make your company special and superior. Do a competitive analysis to find the unique selling points that you can amplify and own. Many entrepreneurs fail to put the time and resources into learning about their competition, and they don’t know what sets their company apart. If a unique point of difference doesn’t exist, it is imperative to create one. There are so many ways to set your company apart, even in a crowded marketplace, such as adding new services or faster delivery times, expanding product offerings, or even offering goods and services for free with purchase. What is essential is creating a competitive edge that will help you capture market share and drive sales.
When creating PureOlogy (though professional hair care was a saturated market), by looking at the competitive landscape and market trends, I was able to identify that there were not any products specifically addressing color care. Exclusively targeting color care became our unique point of difference and gave us a competitive edge.
It’s important to then create a concise and memorable tagline to convey your point of difference and use it consistently across every messaging touchpoint, whether packaging, digital marketing, or print. This message should reinforce that your company offers something unique that the customer needs.
Make sure to maximize your brand exposure through public relations and social media. Although hiring a PR or social media firm may initially seem like an added expense, the return on your investment will make it extremely worthwhile. A specialty firm or consultant will leverage its connections and expertise to amplify your message and create brand awareness that will catapult your brand. With social media and influencer relationships, you can create publicity and marketing campaigns to target specific audiences and demographics to dramatically grow your customer base.
– Jim Markham, Founder of PureOlogy and Author of Big Lucky
Build a Successful Website and Online Presence
Increases in website traffic since COVID provide an opportunity to make sure your website is 100% “buttoned down”. A website that attracts customers that do not find the cash register and convert is a wasted opportunity. It is critical that an audit review of your website be done to make sure that visitor experience is fully optimized.
The four critical areas to focus on in order to build a successful website and online presence include:
1) User Experience – Make sure the user experience is friendly. There should be user-friendly navigation, a professional looking web design, no bugs in user functionality, and a mobile responsive design.
2) Conversions – Make sure that clients can easily register or sign up and that sales are optimized by a call to action. The trust factor and attributes of the website should make a visitor feel comfortable.
3) Security & Speed – The performance and security of the website should be optimized so that page download speed is fast and secure. Make sure to implement an SSL certificate to promote website security.
4) Search Engines Ranking – Make sure the website is visible on search engines by selecting a keyword rich title and description metatags. Review the website for inclusion of alt tags, breadcrumbs, xml sitemap, and other on page SEO elements that will boost site ranking.
– David Reischer, Marketing Director and Chief Strategist at LegalAdvice.com
Focus on Content
Content marketing cannot start until you have the communication in place. Focus on writing the best commentary on an aspect of your industry, emerging trends, and DIY resources. Information is the currency of the internet, and having the best will make you an absolute stunner. Concentrate on improving upon outdated content from your competitors, or build the most comprehensive resources with videos and infographics, and full of sources. It’s not a race, so focus on making the best content possible.
– Mike Zima, Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of Zima Media
Grow Your Email List
If you “google” marketing trends for 2021, you get endless results with mainly the same items such as multi-channel marketing, automation, funnels, AI powered content creation, and so much more. In my experience, however, there’s a gold mine that a lot of small businesses underestimate: email. Grow your email list. A lot of people think that sending endless newsletters, for example, would be bothersome to customers. Remember, they subscribed to your list, so they want what you have to offer!
That is not to say that sending 5 emails a day can get you on some people’s spam folders since they will most likely stop opening and reading, but nurturing those relationships can absolutely bring money to the table. Once you have a few people in your email list, make sure to send them at least one email a week. You don’t need to sell anything everywhere; in fact, it’s better if you don’t every now and then give them something free, like a free PDF guide, mini training, a free digital print, or (if you sell physical products) a coupon. The goal is to grow your email list — that’s where the revenue is.
– Abby Herman, Director of Strategy for Snap Agency
Utilize Social Media
As real estate professionals who focus mainly on off-market properties — we never thought that having a social media presence would help us. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Since growing our social media accounts, we’ve significantly increased our business. You’d be surprised at who sees your posts, as small as your account is or may seem. We’ve increased our clientele and forged amazing partnerships with people solely through social media! It all goes back to the “tell everyone what you do” saying.
Simply posting once a day or a few times a week on social media, either adding value to your followers or just showing that you are active goes a long way. I recommend setting up a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter account for your business if you haven’t already, and just making a habit of posting at least a few times a week. Consistency is key with this. You will see results — it’s just a matter of time.
Another helpful tip with growing your social media is to try and find 5 to 15 other individuals or businesses that work in the same industry and create a “social media mastermind group” between them. Each time someone in that group generates a new post, he will copy the link in the group, and group members should engage with it. We’ve implemented this policy, and it’s gained us around 5 followers per day and we’re just starting out. Engage with other people’s posts on social media and you’d be surprised at how many people see that and will follow you.
– Ryan Whitcher, Owner of Harmony Home Buyers
Profit, Ad Creatives, and Funnel Optimizations
The ultimate success advice for any business is to first focus on profit! I see far too many businesses in the e-commerce space raising money without actionable steps to profitability. Early on in my business journey my partner now, Justin Kemperman, drilled into me how important profiting first was. Due to that mentality, we have had several companies scale to 7 and 8 figures with no outside capital. This meant that we had to budget accordingly, put in long hours, and focus on conversions over fancy design and branding.
We also placed a lot of focus on ad creatives and funnel optimizations. Ad costs are always on the rise, so creating content that converts is extremely important. Ads that look pretty don’t always convert. The most powerful ads for publicity and marketing are the ones that not only look pretty but also address your target audience’s problems and desires. When you have an ad creative that performs well, it’s up to the funnel to acquire the customer. We spent (and continue to spend) a lot of time split testing high converting funnels to support our ad creatives. Mastering these two pieces in Miracle helped skyrocket our business.
– Brandon Monaghan, Co-founder of Miracle Brand
Real Time Dynamic Marketing
Real time marketing is a brand-new, unique business model that will revolutionize mobile marketing and finally level the playing field. On October 20, 2020, ClikitySplit received patent # 10,810,619 on its revolutionary real time marketing technology.
Real time dynamic marketing turns advertisers into savvy marketers, empowering them to immediately react to deteriorating business conditions by changing their content in real time in just 3 minutes to publicize and run enticing special sales promotions (“Hot Deals”).
For example, all restaurants have a dead time after lunch and before Happy Hour. Using ClikitySplit, savvy marketers publicize and run time-sensitive “Hot Deals” to drive traffic. Once the content is changed, notifications are immediately pushed to the businesses’ Facebook timeline and Twitter feed, exciting their followers and filling those empty seats and stores.
The video “The Marketing Solution for Local Businesses” will give you a great overview of ClikitySplit’s differentiation. Five other informative videos are located at http://ClikitySplit.com/teachsmbs. To see ClikitySplit is action, tap http://ClikitySplit.com/merebulles. Just “X’ out the video that displays initially at login.
America’s small and medium size businesses (SMBs) are struggling and need a lifeline in order to survive COVID-19. ClikitySplit is the perfect solution for SMBs due to its uniqueness, differentiation, and simplicity.
– Jim Clouse, Founder and CEO of ClikitySplit.com
Implement a Chatbot
A successful business needs to strategize all departments but a common factor needs to be digital growth these days. After the pandemic of 2020, companies have realized that digital growth is a must to optimize their time & resources and to streamline communication with employees & customers.
A successful business calls for successful customer engagement and in small businesses, it is crucial that all the customers are given a personal touch. And when it comes to giving a personal touch, implementing an AI Chatbot on your website as a part of the digital strategy can give a real boost to the publicity and marketing strategies.
When small firms are expanding, it’s challenging to address new traffic on their websites with limited resources in customer support. But a business having a chatbot on its site can easily provide personalized support to prospective customers from different countries in their language — thus, giving them a quality customer experience. Furthermore, a chatbot can even qualify leads and assign them to the right service representatives which can save a lot of time.
The key takeaway here is the right use of automation to improve the business process. Implementing technology like a chatbot doesn’t mean less human work but rather efficient human work. It is this stereotype that small firms need to overcome. Even if they are just open to building their tech stack, they are one step closer to a successful business.
– Pranay Rathod, Sr. Digital Marketing Executive at WoTNoT
Network! Network! Network!
First, make sure the business is a good idea, the plan is well developed, and that you have tested by surveying your family and friends. Then, sell it. The best way to sell something is by talking to people. If you want to grow your business, you need to be open to initiating conversations. This can be done the old-fashioned way, but also virtually and using digital tools.
Reach out to people who you already know, and talk with them about what you are doing. Tell them how the business came to be and share with them the “why” of the business. As you are closing the conversation, ask for references about other people they know who may be interested. Other ways of networking can be through social media and sharing videos and resources that help explain the heart of your business.
– Karen Gordon, VP of Growth at Goodshuffle Pro
Produce Quality Content
Each of my businesses, including my online publications, have one common denominator to guide the business plan: quality content.
Quality content on your website is key. It is what keeps the readers engaged, it’s what brings them back, and it’s why they publicize your business/site to others. You need a website for your business, no matter what it is. Everyone now does their research online, and if you don’t have a presence, then they will likely click on the competition that pops up.
To beat the competition and figure first on search results you need a rock solid SEO plan in place. To do this without spending a ton on advertising, quality content — packed with relevant keywords — is your solution. If you visit my site, you will not see any paid ads; only information and services to make your customer journey more comfortable.
I also avoid the really long story-like content. It is true, story-telling sells in publicity and marketing, but there are some marketers who go beyond and have you scrolling for 10 minutes before you get that nugget of information you were seeking. This wastes people’s time and is counterproductive to your needs.
Attractive headlines, relevant images, and filling out the “About Us” section improves reliability, trust, and monthly visits. Once all of these rise, so does your conversion rate and sales.
– Phillip Ash, Founder of Pro Paint Corner
Cross-Media Marketing
As more businesses begin to reopen following the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 is presenting ripe opportunities for growth. The two biggest keys to grow right now and over the next year are publicizing and marketing across all media platforms (cross-media marketing) and to deliver the highest quality products while providing outstanding customer service.
Cross-media marketing combines the strengths of digital and print marketing to provide consistent messaging no matter where customers interact with your brand. For example, you can send postcards to clients who are working from home and include special offers that will then be replicated online through email/mobile marketing as well as the QR Code or website link included on the postcard. By reaching out to clients across multiple touchpoints, you are more likely to remain top of mind to them when it comes time to do business with you.
– Chris Biscuiti, Minuteman Press Franchise Content Specialist
Repurpose Content
During the pandemic, we can see that people have already adapted to spending their time and shopping online. Thus, we believe that the best approach is to go an online-first (digital marketing tactics). For small businesses, the more you stretch a small budget the better. For example, a good way to take this up is to gather all the existing content that you have and try to repurpose it for social media use. Next, be certain that your newsletter produces real value and not just auto-generated discount offers.
To add to your results, even more, make content for YouTube videos; IGTV “InstagramTV”; Podcast episodes, and other long-form audiovisual content. Then you can redistribute this content by cutting it into smaller “bite-size” pieces that can be used for your social media and blog. This is a good tactic that Google loves, and this is also one of the reasons why you can see more big businesses adding an audio alternative to their blog articles.
– Dimitris Tsapis, Head of Marketing at Coara
Design Sprint Methodology
The old saying goes, “time is money,” but money also buys you time in business. As a small business, you often lack both resources, so you must focus on cutting costs and time-saving devices or methods to stay in business.
At Marketer’s Genius, we have found one of the fastest ways to turn a company around is by getting a lot of quality work done quickly. Designed by Google and instrumental in the development of Gmail, a Design Sprint was designed to fix large product design problems in a week; however, design sprint methodology can be adapted to solve other types of problems.
We use the methodology to solve publicity/marketing and sales-related issues for clients in a marketing sprint. The goal of a marketing sprint is to fix the main problems in your publicity and marketing campaigns within a week. You can accomplish this in a short time frame by developing overall strategies and testing hypotheses with small user testing. By rushing the time period from months to a few days for a publicity and marketing plan, your business only focuses on important aspects of the problem, and your team does not get lost in the weeds.
A marketing sprint can also become a part of your regular publicity and marketing processes with agile marketing methodology. Small businesses need to adapt faster than ever, in order to survive and thrive in 2021. One way to achieve incredible results in 2021 with extraordinarily little time and money is a marketing sprint.
– Evan Thacker, Founder of Marketer’s Genius
Final Tip: Empathize with Customers
In conclusion, small businesses need to get publicity and get the word out in order to survive, grow, and succeed in 2021. The intent of this article was to provide you with insightful tips from business experts across many industries.
A final tip, provided by Colin Palfrey, CMO at Majesty Coffee is to get out of your comfort zone and go out and talk to your customers. If we learned anything in 2020 during the pandemic, it’s that everybody is human. Publicity and marketing teams need to remember that the people in your audience aren’t just one-dimensional people interested in your product or service. Ask your audience about their lives beyond your product or service, and you will discover new insights that will make your marketing so much more effective. Palfrey sums up this final tip by saying, “Connect with your customers as people. You’ll be able to empathize with them, which will help you build stronger publicity and marketing campaigns, even when times are tough.”
