I’m too busy, I haven’t got time for marketing. Does this ring true? You have ideas, yet putting them into action is too time-consuming.
It’s a common problem. Producing quality marketing materials: flyers or posters, pitch decks, social media imagery, infographics and lead Magnets, takes time and effort.
You may think it isn’t important, so let’s start with the reasons that finding time for marketing is essential.
Why is marketing essential for SMEs?
As a small business, you are competing against established, large companies with dedicated marketing teams and budgets. This makes it challenging to get noticed. Yet, consistent, focused and informative messages enable you to find your followers, solve their problems and convert them to customers.
Marketing makes your business visible, familiar and approachable. It informs prospects of what you can assist them with and cements you as the ‘go to’ organisation when that need arises. In addition, marketing builds connections with existing customers, so they feel valued and remain loyal.
In short, marketing is essential for SMEs, as it helps strengthen and grow your business. Done well, it can save considerable effort, time and expense in maintaining a pipeline and gaining sales.
Despite this, a report by The Marketing Centre states that only 33% of small businesses have a marketing plan. What’s more, without appropriate tools in place, many businesses had no idea if their marketing efforts worked. This is one reason why it’s an undervalued skill. However, the report indicates a correlation between marketing activity and growth. So, how can we streamline marketing?
Easy marketing with branded templates
Despite being well aware of this, marketing remains at the bottom of the pile for many SME teams. Who has time to maintain a social campaign or collate information for a newsletter when the customers are calling and invoices need paying? Marketing just isn’t an urgent priority.
What if I told you that I’ve helped many SMEs in this position? By creating branded templates in the desired marketing formats, you can quickly add the relevant content and send, post or publish it. Not only does this streamline your marketing, but it also ensures design consistency. Let me share some other benefits of marketing templates.
The benefits of marketing templates
You’re keen to announce a new service or a product launch through an email to your contacts and a social campaign. It’s simple! Just pull up the relevant templates, add your image and text, check the content, and then it’s ready to go. Equally, it’s easy to tailor your content to specific audiences and send the variations to segmented groups.
With marketing templates, there is no need to start from scratch. The blank screen and blank mind are replaced with a branded layout in your brand colours and font. As a result, it’s quick to compile marketing messages, and they always look professionally presented.
This is important, as consistency is key. Regular communication and a recognisable style are known to be effective for building brand recognition. They help to keep you fresh in the minds of prospects and customers. Then they know where to turn when they need what you offer.
Sounds good, but who has the time to create those templates? Let me assist by creating personalised templates for all the marketing channels used by your company. That includes, but is not limited to, newsletters, pitch decks, social post formats, brochures and infographics.
6 Essentials of effective marketing
Successful marketing encourages people to trust and buy into your brand. You want to inspire your audience to access your community. So, let’s look at ACCESS and its role in marketing in more detail.
A – Authenticity – transparency and honesty are valued by customers more than a façade of perfection. In a world of automation, the human element and a bit of character are appealing. So, stay true to your brand values and celebrate the people in your business to make your company approachable.
C – Clarity – get to the point! What is your core message, and what do you want people to do with it? Share your marketing message clearly to ensure it isn’t missed among jargon or waffle.
C – Consistency – repetition in brand style, marketing channels and tone all build familiarity. When customers instantly recognise your brand, it increases the perception of trust. As such, it feels less of a risk to do business with you because they already know you.
E – Engagement – mix it up! Start with a title that sparks interest or is relatable and a layout that promotes readability. Add imagery, infographics and interactive elements to bring the message to life. Consider the emotional connection and remember that we all skim past thousands of carefully crafted marketing messages that fail to engage us.
S – Simplicity – an intuitive layout, a clear structure and a short, impactful message. That’s all you need. You’ll reach a wider audience if you avoid complexity.
S – Synergy – good marketing makes the audience feel involved and understood. You aren’t doing something for them, you are collaborating with them. To foster this feeling, your values must align, and the audience needs to feel represented in your marketing message.
Fresh look for your marketing
There’s no time like the present. If you need to step up your marketing, get in touch and I’ll create professional, personalised templates for your business.