If you run a small business – a recruitment firm, a software development agency, a boutique law firm, or a consultancy, for example – keeping up with the digital landscape and the marketing needs for your business can quickly feel overwhelming.
Your website needs to be regularly updated. You want to ensure your brand’s presence on social media platforms. It would also be great to generate organic traffic to your site through search engines. Oh, and there are all these visuals and templates that need to be developed and maintained. Wait, what’s that, you’d like to consistently capture inbound leads? That’s a whole other process you need to set up. And don’t forget the newsletter. And on and on it goes.
Shaping and maintaining your brand’s online presence is not for the faintest of heart. However, it is entirely possible to take control over the process as opposed to letting it control you. And that’s what we’ll be covering in this post – some of the best practices we’ve learned helping dozens of small businesses become more self-sufficient in their marketing and brand management efforts.
1. Opt for quality and consistency over quantity
Your brand can’t be everywhere. Nor should it. Figure out which channels and strategies have the highest potential for your business and focus on those. For example, as a B2B brand, it’s wiser to build up your brand and following on LinkedIn as opposed to Instagram. Don’t try to have a podcast and a blog and YouTube videos. Focus on consistently creating content for your corporate blog instead. Zero in on the specific subjects your target audience would be interested in. Repurpose that content for your LinkedIn posts.
2. Set up templates and document processes
One of the biggest mistakes we see small businesses make is failing to templatize and document their marketing. This typically results in a lot of wasted time.
Use tools like Canva to create templates for your marketing collaterals. This popular and user-friendly tool will allow you to set up such foundational elements for your brand as colors, logos, fonts, etc. Easily re-size and replicate templates.
Make sure to document all the processes as you go along. Do you create visual posts on social media every Tuesday and Friday? Add it to your marketing documentation, outlining which templates you use, the themes you cover with the posts, what time you typically post them, and other details. It may seem time-consuming at first, but it will save you a ton of time and sanity down the road – when you hire a dedicated marketer, hire an agency to run a campaign, or pass it over to other team members. Documenting these processes will also help you create habits and identify optimization and automation opportunities, making the entire process that much more efficient.
3. Do not let external agencies confuse you with technical jargon.
You should always know exactly what you are paying for when hiring an external agency, be it for your website development, SEO services, or digital advertising.
Naturally, you want to hire agencies that will deliver stellar results. However, don’t be fooled by the fancy promises or technical terminology. Ask for explanations regarding the processes, tools used, what the handover back to you would entail, etc.
We’ve seen many small businesses find themselves locked into contracts with external agencies where the smallest website update required the agency’s participation or a digital advertising agency failed to explain why the €5,000 spent on a campaign failed to justify the costs.
Don’t settle for anything less than transparency and accountability.
4. Identify automation opportunities
There are a ton of processes within your marketing and brand management that can be automated. So be proactive in looking for such opportunities.
For example, instead of setting up the inquiry form to send you an email notification, give your leads the option to quantify their interest. Ask what their inquiry is about and depending on which category they pick, have the request automatically sent to a relevant team member as well as added to your CRM with a lead owner assigned.
5. Dedicate time every week toward learning best practices
To own your brand’s digital presence, make an active effort to continuously educate yourself. Read up on best practices for increasing engagement on LinkedIn. Check out an article on Google’s updates to its algorithm. Learn a new feature within one of the tools you’re using.
You don’t need to know everything from the get-go. But you do want to continuously deepen and expand your knowledge. This will also come in handy when you’re evaluating the abilities of external agencies that you are considering hiring.
6. Monitor and analyze performance
Experimentation is at the foundation of marketing. Yes, you should absolutely have a thorough understanding of your audience and which channels are best at reaching this audience. You should try to follow best practices. However, not every campaign will be a smashing success. Not every article will resonate with your readers. Not every social media post will receive the same level of engagement.
That’s why it is imperative to set up systems that allow you to monitor performance and regularly analyze the results. This will allow you to continuously optimize your efforts and maximize the ROI.
7. Make sure you own all templates, processes, and systems developed by external agencies
Say you hire an SEO agency to boost your website’s visibility in search engines. Throughout the engagement, the agency shares with you Google Sheets document that outline the editorial calendar along with keywords, dates, etc. Additionally, it shares an outline of a 12-month strategy, how it will be executed, and what targets it plans to achieve at every stage. Another template is a tracker for monitoring the performance of various campaigns. And so on. Make sure to have a copy of all these templates and documents that are prepared for your brand.
If a design agency develops marketing collaterals, ask for source files.
Of course, you can’t expect to be given access to their proprietary methods and processes. However, everything that’s created for your brand’s account should be in your possession should you ever decide to part ways.
Your digital presence is your gateway to connecting with your audience, showcasing your expertise, and growing your business. Take ownership of it.
But here’s the good news: You don’t need to do everything all at once. Nor do you need to rely entirely on external agencies to navigate the complexities of the digital world. By focusing on building the right processes, investing in tools that simplify your efforts, and continuing to educate yourself, you can gradually take control of your brand’s online presence.
The key is to start small and prioritize consistency.
Remember, self-sufficiency doesn’t mean doing it all alone; it means having the knowledge, systems, and processes in place to make informed decisions and keep your brand thriving.
