4 Steps to Avoiding “Hope” Marketing

4 steps to avoiding "Hope Marketing." Hope your marketing will work? Stop operating on hope. Instead work on your business and know that you are making progress.

4 Steps to Developing a Smart Business Strategy and Avoiding Hope Marketing

Are you stuck spinning your wheels with your small business? Don’t do that. Don’t waste your time “hoping” your marketing, emails, and social media works.

Instead develop a plan a strategy for success. Here are a few things you can ask yourself when creating systems for you business.

 

Do You Have Systems?

What does that mean? Systems??? A system is like a plan. It’s how you run your business. It’s how you answer the phone. How you respond to emails. How you conduct business on a day to day basis.

Do you have a book or file on how to run your business?

If you hired an employee tomorrow would they know how to work in your business?

By having effective systems in place you can begin to automate systems. Maybe you add automatic responses to some emails or inquiries. Maybe having a binder with an intake form for clients who call you. Maybe this means having an FAQ page on your website or adding policies to your online shop. By taking a minute to examine you systems you can see what aspects of your business can be tweak to automate or save you time.

Do You Have Good Time Management Skills?

Do you spend hours to complete a few tasks? Consider developing better time management skills.

Try this:

  • Make a to do list, and do all of the easiest things first.
  • Set a timer. Create a schedule or set a timer so that you can focus all of your work on just one task at a time.

  • Set boundaries. Make sure your family, friends, and children all know the difference between work time and play time. Respect them by creating time for them.

Are You Consistent?

Do you slay at social media for 3 days, and then drop off for 2 weeks? Consistency is really important with anything, but especially with your business.

Try this:

  • Schedule posts for the week, or even the month when you have time.
  • Consider reusing or recycling content, photos, and web copy. (ex: I post to instagram once a day and often send those pictures to my facebook so I have two posts with half of the effort!)
  • Set a reminder on your phone to spend a certain amount of time every day working on your content for your business. (Blog posts, photography, web copy, and scheduling posts.)

Are You Clear?

When people see your name and look at your branding do they know what you do?

Do you have a clear and concise products and pricing list? Do you have a product line?
Do your products and services have clear descriptions and pictures?

Sometimes it can be difficult to see your business through the eyes of our target market. Remember, you are not selling to you. You are selling to a certain group of people who can benefit from your product or service. Get a trusted mentor, business coach, or even some friends who are in your target market to look over your marketing and branding materials.

Make sure that your branding speaks to your target audience!

Interested in learning more about creating a successful small business? Follow us on facebook!

Brittany Chavez is a mother to 5, birth worker, and licensed body worker. She is motivated and passionate about helping other small business create good time management skills while developing the tools they need to succeed. The reality is: most small businesses don’t make it, this is because often time entrepreneurs are passionate people who lack the business know-how to turn their visions into reality.

She has successfully grown a local business in under 2 years while
simultaneously juggling motherhood and the on-call lifestyle of being a
doula. She is ready to help you create an effective systems that will help
you be efficient and effective as a business owner.