No budget to hire a marketing director? Maybe your company is down to the bare bones with just you as the person who is wearing all the hats and you are struggling with understanding Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Email Marketing, Blogging, etc. and you finally have a website and people are telling you that it needs to be updated and fresh. Ok, so how can you build a marketing team to help with very little resources?
First, because I am a marketing coach, I will tell you that you save money and time by working with a professional in this field who can help you to jump ahead of your competition and still remain within your budget! A great marketing coach will share with you that there is so many resources at your fingertips that do not cost you money. The most obvious one is to enlist family and friends to help you with marketing projects and to brainstorm on creative ideas to sell your products or services. If you haven’t considered asking for your family and friends’ help, recognize that most people know about 200 people. If you enlist 10 people to help build your dream by asking for their support you quickly reach about 2000 people with just their contacts. If they are on your Facebook or Linkedin page it makes connecting with them a lot easier.
Some of you might feel overwhelmed with all of these on-line networking sites and having a strong internet presence. Is it really worth the efforts? YES! However, you have to know how to determine exactly how much time to devote to building this and understand that it does not produce immediate results so patience is needed. That works great if you have time for this, but chances are you are lacking the staff you need to allow you the time to set-up all the accounts and to maintain them. Can you afford to put it off? A marketing coach or PR firm can easily do this for you as part of their assistance to your business, but you can also consider contacting the local colleges to see if they have students who are marketing or communication majors and want to do an internship as part of their senior credits. These energetic and tech savy students can help you get started. Today I chatted with a business that I had given this idea to last year and they have seen great results with their on-line networking because of the work this college student has done for their business for free.
Local networking groups like your Chamber of Commerce, BNI, Le Tip, Business Forums, and non-profit volunteer organizations can also help you to market your business with just being a member and connecting with other members. They are also a key part of your marketing team. However, look at your budget and choose the active groups with the members you are looking to connect with first since these organizations do require membership fees. Expand to adding a few more groups when your annual budget allows for this and you can make time to get to some of the events that they offer. Staying in your office and waiting for a phone to ring just because you have a website is not the best way to connect locally. Often we need to get out and about and let others know we are in business.
Finally, consider your clients as part of that marketing team! They are the people who REALLY know the great work you do and can share actual stories about the benefits of being your client. Do not be afraid to ask for their referrals and to write you a recommendation that you can use on a Testimonial page or in your marketing material. Be sure to give back when you can to help their business, too. We really need to help each other so that all of our businesses have the growth they need to be strong in the years ahead.
Purple Diamond is a marketing coach who is committed to seeing businesses gain the success they desire within the budget they can afford. If you do nothing, your results reflect just that. But, if you step boldly in to seeing that there are options within any budget and you just need to build your marketing team, you will feel energized and close more business.
All my best to your success,
~Charlene
