If you have read any of my previous content, then you know that at the core of Beacon Marketing?s values is effective and efficient marketing. We know from personal experience that as a small business you need to make the best use of the marketing resources at your disposal. 

One way you can do this is to find the best marketing mix for your business. What is a marketing mix? It?s the marketing channels you choose to use to promote your business as well as how you choose to use them. 

Although there are best practices for each marketing channel, exactly how a business decides to use their website, social media, email marketing, etc. will vary because each business?and their goals?is unique. Thus, each business will have a unique marketing mix.

Finding the correct marketing mix is essential to promoting your business is an effective and efficient manner. Let?s examine the various marketing channels you may use and how you can think about them so you leverage them for your success.

WEBSITE

Services like Wix and Squarespace have made publishing a website much easier than it once was, and websites often serve as the center of many small businesses marketing mixes. This is good, but only if you find a way to use it effectively. 

There are two ways you can do this. The first is through search engine optimization or SEO. SEO uses algorithms of search engines like Google to your benefit so that your website appears high in search results for key terms and phrases relating to your business and industry. SEO can be highly effective, but it is something you have to be truly committed to. It is time intensive, and unless you have expertise in the practice, you will most likely have to hire a professional, which can be very costly. 

The next way is to use your website to convert leads. By that I mean using your other marketing channels to funnel leads to certain pages that will move them to make a purchase or schedule a sales appointment. The pages you funnel leads to are dependant on your operations, but you generally want to send potential customers to pages where they are likely to make a purchase, schedule an appointment, or contact you. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is a large category because of the sheer number of social media platforms. Rather than go into specific platforms, I would like to discuss how you should approach your efforts on social media. 

Social media is great for communicating and interacting with your target audience, but you have to be able to reach them. So, before you automatically jump on social media, first take a moment to understand your target audience. They will tell you where they get their information and therefore where you should spend your time on social media. 

Whatever social media platform(s) you choose to utilize, the goal should not be to sell but to engage your audience with content they like or find useful. If you do that with enough consistency, you will see leads develop naturally over time. 

EMAIL MARKETING

In my opinion, email marketing should be part of EVERY marketing strategy. Email marketing allows you to communicate with people on your email list on a regular basis. You can share valuable information about your business as well as learn more about your target audience by way of surveys and polls. 

The key with email marketing is to make sure you don?t spam your audience with too many emails or emails that provide little to no use to your audience. This is where knowing your target audience really comes in handy. If you can identify their pain points, you can create regular marketing content that addresses those pain points. 

TRADITIONAL METHODS

Traditional methods are any marketing channels that are not considered digital marketing. This can be networking, print material, or television or radio advertising. Choose the marketing methods that best fit in with what you are trying to accomplish as a business. 

For instance, at the time of writing this blog, I am trying to schedule more public speaking events to help myself and Beacon Marketing. To help me do this I am attending local networking events to build connections. I have developed a networking strategy that helps me identify which events I should attend, who I need to connect with, and how I should follow up. 

Whatever you choose to do, make it easier on yourself by developing a plan of action and regular review to determine if you need to make any changes to your actions. 

PAID ADS

You can use paid ads to grow and email list, promote a specific service or product, or build general awareness for your brand. Paid advertising can be a great way to jump-start your marketing efforts or they can represent a marketing strategy in and of itself. They key to making paid ads work for you is to define both your budget and your goals. You want to make sure you understand exactly what you want to accomplish and what you have to spend to accomplish. 

In the end, the right marketing mix allows you to effectively and efficiently promote your business because you have identified which marketing channels you should be using and exactly how to use them. You can use this information to help craft a marketing strategy designed to meet the unique needs of your business.