Your startup business is still in its infancy. You don’t have a marketing background or a marketing budget. You don’t even have a marketing team. So what do you do? Even if there’s only one employee in your business (and it’s you), these digital marketing tips for solopreneurs can help you develop a digital marketing campaign for your small business.
6 digital marketing tips for solopreneurs
1. Create a routine
Having a set routine is essential for your marketing efforts to succeed. As an entrepreneur running your new business alone (a solopreneur), you already have too many job duties—marketing is just one of the many hats you need to wear.
Figure out how to add some dedicated marketing time—even if it’s only an hour a week—into your existing schedule. It’s better to create a routine you know you can commit to, even if it doesn’t seem like you’re putting in very much time at first. If you can be consistent with this routine, you’ll see more positive results for your efforts, rather than if you put in bursts of time here and there.
2. Prioritize marketing tasks wisely
Time is money. Marketing your business online is important. But, so are all of the other jobs you do for your business. That’s why you need to focus on the marketing channels that make the most sense for you and your company.
To start a digital marketing campaign with no budget, focus on organic search and content marketing. Spend your limited time on content creation. Write content for your website and content to share on other websites.
If you have a budget but no time to invest, start with PPC (pay-per-click) advertising. This will give you results fast. Be prepared, though—this is a short-term plan. Once you stop paying for the ads you’ll lose the traffic.
3. Use a marketing task list tool
Now you have a routine in place and know which marketing channels you want to prioritize. That’s a great start, but what do you do now? Make the best use of your limited marketing time by using a marketing task list tool.
A marketing task list tool will give you the actionable tasks you need to complete at optimal intervals. Make sure the tool you choose also provides step-by-step directions for each of those tasks. Using a marketing task list tool eliminates the need for you to research digital marketing tactics and strategies, and instead lets you get straight to work.
4. Track your results
You want to make sure the effort you’re putting toward digital marketing is effective. So one of the most important digital marketing tips for solopreneurs is to set goals and track your results.
Know what you want to get out of your campaigns. Is your goal to drive traffic to your website, gain social followers, or increase transactions? Once you understand your goal, figure out a way to track it.
Google Analytics is a great solution to track goals related to your website. You can use it to view how many people are on your website and the number of transactions you’ve had. To track social goals, you can look into the analytics tools provided by the network such as Facebook Insights or Twitter Analytics.
Goals are useless if they can’t be measured. So, choose your goal and confirm you can track the results.
5. Make data-driven decisions
Your time is precious, so make sure you’re focusing on digital marketing strategies that will bring you the biggest return.
Set up Google Analytics on your website so you have visibility into what types of content resonates with your audience. Look at pages with the most sessions and pages with a higher than average time on the page, and then produce more content like that. Is it a particular topic people enjoy? Or is it a type of content such as a video or infographic?
Promote the articles that are popular on your website across your social channels as well. In addition, look at the social posts that have the highest engagement. Can you learn from that data? Are those topics you can add to your website?
Make a plan to review the data you have. Then take notes with actionable items you can implement based on your findings.
6. Build your digital marketing muscle
You may find you enjoy marketing. If so, great, then you can stick with it; if not, it will still be a valuable skill for you to have. Taking on marketing tasks will help you build your marketing muscle. You’ll be able to create the voice for your brand, identify who your audience is, and have an understanding of what is the most effective way to market your product.
As your company grows and you’re able to hire a digital marketer, this knowledge will help you to better communicate with the marketer and hold them accountable. Even if you end up hiring an agency, it will be important for you to be able to communicate effectively about marketing tactics.
One of the most important marketing tips for solopreneurs? Be patient
Digital marketing success doesn’t happen overnight, so don’t get discouraged. Dedicate the time you can towards marketing on a weekly basis. Even if it’s only an hour a week, that’s a great place to start.
The more time you spend on marketing, the faster you’ll be at writing and promoting your content. Remember to be patient with yourself and stick with it.
Growing your online presence is an exciting experience. Follow these digital marketing tips for solopreneurs, be patient and consistent, and you will see results.
Post by: Jennifer Rogina
Jennifer Rogina is the co-founder and lead marketer of ClearPath Online, a marketing task list software company. ClearPath Online enables small business leaders to make more money with their websites by providing personalized actionable tasks that focus on growing their online presence.
Company: ClearPath Online
Website: www.clearpath.online
Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Leave a Reply