Marketing success can be elusive for many small business owners. Most rely on word of mouth (which is the best form of marketing) because they haven’t had much success doing anything else. Even if your business is doing well from word of mouth, there are some steps you can do to improve that.

There is also so much noise out there about what form of marketing is best for you. In my experience, the best form of marketing is the one that best suits you. In other words, there is no cookie-cutter marketing that works for every business. You have to evaluate what works for you. This episode will delve into the fundamentals of marketing that will help you craft the perfect marketing strategy.

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Key Takeaways:

• Consistent, persistence

• Time and money.

• Budget 5-20% of revenue toward marketing

• It’s all about forming relationships. That leads to trust and sales.

• Cycle- building relationship leads to trust that leads to sales. Strengthening the relationship after the sale leads to loyalty and customer retention.

• Customer retention builds the foundation of your business.

• If DIY, what do you enjoy? Public speaking, networking, video, audio, social media, writing

• Short term (outbound marketing) - Ads, flyers, other promotions, public speaking

• Pros - Reach a lot of people quickly

• Cons - It only works when you’re spending money, spending money for trial and error

• Long term (inbound marketing) - Organic social media, website SEO, blogs, VLOGS, podcasts, YouTube, public speaking, email/customer retention

• Pros - “Free,” results can be long-lasting, searchable in a variety of ways, audience gets to know, like, and trust you, demonstrate your expertise, emails/customer retention keep your customers engaged and returning

• Cons - Takes a while, trial and error

• Start out using both outbound and inbound marketing

• Over time, limit the outbound and focus on the inbound marketing