You’re a Momtrepreneur. One of the trailblazing women proving to the world that business can be better, that business must do better, and showing the legions of smart, capable women trying to make it behind you that they can achieve their dreams.
Has it been difficult? Yes. Have you found yourself wanting to give up at times? Of course! But through the adversity, the struggle to gain funding and the legions of voices explaining why you couldn’t do it, you continued to believe in yourself. Your commitment to your brand and your product was steadfast, and while you were always happy to listen to those who wanted to impart sage advice, you were also careful to block out the naysayers. The sad truth is that there will always be some people who don’t want to see a woman succeed in the world of business.
But only by taking their jobs, their careers, their livelihoods and their income into their own hands can women address the fundamental inequalities of the statius quo, and drive onward with a new, fairer kind of commerce.
Now you’ve established a fully functioning business with a dedicated core of customers. You’ve managed to tweak and streamline your operations in order to keep up with the growth in demand. You may even have a full-time team behind you, dedicated to making your vision a reality. You know that it’s time to grow, and that you have the infrastructure to maintain that growth. You’re just not sure how to make it happen. You’re sure that marketing is the key. But if you hold stock in these persistent marketing myths, your strategy could actually harm your business’ growth. Let’s bust some of these myths wide open…
Your Brand Is Just a Logo
Before you can get started on your marketing efforts, you need to understand your brand inside and out. Of course, nobody knows your brand better than you. But it’s essential that you have a holistic view of what your brand means to you, and what you want it to mean to your customers.
Your logo is important, as is the color scheme on your website, as is visual uniformity in all your branding. But your brand is so much more than these creative flourishes. Your brand should make a promise to your customers. It should represent a set of values and standards inherent in your mission statement that you promise to keep to. Once you’ve thought a little harder about that, it will inform all of your marketing efforts going forward.
Your Message Needs to Reach as Many People as Possible
In your zeal to grow your audience and spread the word about your independent, female-owned business, it’s important to remember that not everyone is your customer. And trying to appeal to everyone is the easiest way to appeal to no-one. Only huge multinational conglomerates have the resources and marketing budgets to cast a wide net, and you’re never going to be able to compete with them on their terms. Indeed, attempting to can see you waste a fortune advertising using high-competition keywords.
The better you know your niche, the better able you are to create marketing materials that are based around their needs, their concerns, their aspirations and their desires. This is why market research and customer profiling should be an ongoing part of your operations.
The moment you start telling your target audience what they want instead of listening to what they want is the moment your brand loses traction with them.
There’s No Need to Bother With Print / Mail Campaigns Anymore
In an age where brands of all shapes and sizes seem to have their sights set squarely in the digital realm, you could be forgiven for assuming that there’s no room in the world of marketing for print / mail campaigns. But nothing could be further from the truth. Direct mail campaigns can be extremely effective in reaching audiences in ways where digital copy struggled. After all, we’ve become so accustomed to seeing advertising copy online that we’ve become numb to it.
It takes something really special to engage our attention online these days.
Direct mail campaigns, however, allow us to engage audiences in a more meaningful way. Especially if you partner with a company like Action Mailing & Printing Solutions to create materials that look and feel special or even contain free gifts and treats. You can create something really special with a print campaign and it can be a wonderful way to supplement your digital strategies.
PPC Ads Are the Only Way to Go
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising can be a great way to engage the exact kind of people who would benefit from your goods or services. Long gone are the days when businesses had to adapt the inefficient “spray and pray” approach necessitated by national and local print advertising.
PPC allows you to deliver targeted ads to your audience through the social platforms and search engines that mean the most to them. However, when you focus all of your efforts on PPC ads, they can quickly become a money pit. You’ll get a surge of attention, but this will dwindle if you don’t follow through with organic strategies like content marketing. Speaking of which…
Only You Can Write Good Content Marketing Copy
Finally… There’s no denying that content marketing can be a great way to engage your audience. It gives them something of value for free as you share your insights, knowledge and experience in order to help them overcome frustrations, pain points and everyday struggles that they encounter. Whether it comes in the form of blog posts, videos, infographics or even live chats, content marketing is a great way to build value that can even improve your SEO too.
Still, while creating good content is a great way to make your unique voice heard, don’t make the mistake of assuming that you have to dedicate hours to it every day. An agency or freelance copywriter will be able to replicate your tone and create well researched content that will read and feel as if you wrote it yourself. Outsourcing your marketing needn’t mean compromising your brand.
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