Top Tips For Investing in the Right Marketing Channels For Your Home Business
When you run a home business, you don’t have the budget or time to waste on marketing tactics that are not effective. You need to find tactics that are going to help your business grow, avoid platforms that you are not familiar with, and ensure you don’t get caught up in scams and conspiracies, such as the yelp extortion theory. Your sole focus as a small business should be finding the channels that work for your business and your customers, and will have the best return on investment. Marketing is a key aspect of any business that wants to grow, as it enables you to increase your brand awareness and put your product or service in front of your customers' eyes. Marketing is therefore something that cannot be missed. Here are some top tips for investing in the right marketing channels for your home business, to ensure you get the most out of your budget.
#1 Learn about your customers
Learning about your customers, in detail, is vital for all aspects of your business, from creating your product or service, to marketing it on the internet. Before you embark on any marketing activity, you should create a customer persona, which details demographic information, personality traits, values, and attitudes of your ideal client. This literal depiction of a person will enable your business to cultivate this into all the work that is completed. This will ensure that every message you put out into the world, will be relevant and of value to your ideal customer. If you put marketing content out there that is too broad, you are likely to waste time and budget as it will not speak to anyone. If you can speak to your clients on a personal level, you are more likely to capture their attention and build their trust. By learning about your customers, you can tell them that you know about their problem and have the key to solving it.
#2 Figure out your options vs. your budget
There are a plethora of marketing channels available, each with its own budget, advantages, and disadvantages. You should familiarise yourself with each available option, and compare this with your budget, as well as your customer needs. There is no point in putting all your time and money into Facebook Ads, for example, when your customers use Instagram and TikTok. Some of the most popular marketing channels that are currently used by businesses of all sizes are:
Social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok)
Search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo)
Directories (Yelp)
#3 Start with organic
With each platform that you can choose to market yourself on, there are typically organic and paid options available. It is important, as a home business, that you start with organic marketing. This includes using the free content options on social media platforms and directories, and working on your search engine optimization (SEO) on your website. Organic marketing means you do not need to spend a budget on advertisements and means you build long-term, sustainable growth for your business.
Marketing plays a vital role in any business. Make sure you figure out which are the best marketing platforms for you to utilize your time and budget.