Communication

When it comes to talking to our customers, consistency is key. We hear all too often when small business owners say “I’m too busy to write that newsletter” or “I don’t have time to call my members” or my favourite excuse “Marketing can wait, I need to do XXXX.”

We say they’re excuses, because they are. Imagine if business owners put as much time into their marketing as they put into looking at their sales. Marketing and sales go hand in hand; both drive profit, customer engagement and business objectives. Not to mention achieving WHY you set out to start a business in the first place!

Our marketing and advertising landscapes (note; they are not the same thing), are constantly changing. Algorithms, brand space, influencers, hashtags, etc. It was a lifetime ago where you just had to compete on print media and survey customers on paper for a campaign. 

Now, when we design a campaign, communication and HOW we communicate is the stem in which we create all the campaign mechanics. We’re competing in multiple spaces, speaking different languages for each platform / space and increasing our frequency of reach to beat our competitors. 

However, our thought is this; when you communicate consistently, like a monthly newsletter, a quarterly survey or a video each week, you engage with your customers on an intimate level. Your brand is top of mind and you take your customer on a journey, meeting their expectations to be heard, spoken to and sold to. This is marketing. 

With each communication piece, you’re ensuring each piece of collateral is bespoke to each of your audience pillars (assuming you have multiple) From design, to your call to action. Researching your analytics to invest your advertising dollars is vital … better known as “paying to play”. This is advertising. 

Communication isn’t simple anymore (in the land of marketing), but the fundamentals are. 

Genuine listening, asking the right questions, setting expectations on both sides to prevent disappointment and delivering needs. Now that we’ve had almost a year within the covid landscape, your communication to your customers, potential new customers and broader community is imperative. 

Engage, test + pivot. 

Engage with your customers; surveys, call members, ask for suggestions or team up with another small business or community service. 

Test it on your existing customer base; test your new service or changes made whilst we’re living in this land of the unknown. 

Pivot; if your testing goes well, launch it, if it doesn’t, make changes. 

Here’s hoping we’re not in the land of covid forever, so now is the time to make changes (or even price increases) We’ll say it again, communication is key here - you don’t want to lose customers. 

Make a plan, do your research and give it some love! And by love, we mean you need to do your marketing every day.