We’re heading for the last quarter of the calendar year, and it’s a busy one. Holiday sales can make up a big chunk of your annual revenue as a small business owner! While you’re probably preparing for the holiday season right now, today I want to encourage you to think even further ahead. In the blink of an eye, 2022 will be gone, and 2023 will be in front of us. If you want your 2023 small business marketing to bring your business to new levels, you’ve got to start thinking about it now. That’s why I’m going to explore 7 ways you can jump-start your marketing for the new year starting TODAY.
7 Ways to Jump-start Your 2023 Small Business Marketing
If you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting the same result. So today, I want you to think about your 2023 small business marketing differently. Don’t rely on the same assumptions and expectations. Now is the time to reevaluate your plan, select your marketing channels, and try something different. What’s more, these are all things that you can start taking action on TODAY. Check out the list and get going!
1. Reevaluate Your Market and Target Customer
Chances are you’re operating on assumptions about these things.. You’ve got enough data from 2022 to evaluate those assumptions and determine if you’re targeting the right market and customer. How large is your market? What do the opportunities look like in 2023? What are the demographics of your ideal customer? Has your ideal customer changed this year? These are all the sort of questions you should ask yourself right now.
If you follow my blog, you know that I’m a big advocate for small business owners digging into their niche. If you haven’t done this, it should be part of your 2023 small business marketing plan. Need some help identifying your niche targe customer? This article will guide you.
2. Create a Content and SEO Plan
Do you have a blog on your business website? And if you do, are you just writing ‘whatever you feel like’? You can do better than that in 2023, so now is the time to start thinking about your content marketing and SEO plan.
If you’ve followed the above step, you’ve now defined your niche target customer. So, what do they want to read about? What questions do they have about your business or industry? What sort of topics will bring them to your website? As you think about content ideas, conduct SEO research so you choose keywords that will get your articles found in the right searches. HubSpot has an excellent beginner’s guide on the complex topic of SEO. By thinking about this in advance, you can plan your 2023 content calendar, so you know what you’ll write about and what keywords you’ll target.
3. Fine-Tune Your Social Media Marketing
Your 2023 small business marketing plan should also include social media. No matter your business or industry, you need to claim your social media presence! The big question is where, so as we sit here in Q4 of 2022, you have time to evaluate the best social media sites for your business.
When trying to figure out where to be, ask yourself—where are my niche target customers hanging out? Choose one or two of their favorite sites, and develop a plan for consistent posting in the new year.
However, remember that you should include social media in your 2023 small business marketing plan NOT just to add more noise to the internet! No, you’re doing it to build relationships and grow sales! So you’ll want to take the time NOW to educate yourself about social media selling. I have a two-part series to check out here and here. You also have time to take my 6-week Social Media Selling Course.
4. Gear Up Your Email Marketing Efforts
Email marketing should be a tool in every small business’s toolkit. “But I don’t have an email list.” Fair enough—but you can GROW one, starting today. It doesn’t take long to create a great lead magnet. All you need to do is figure out what you can offer that is so valuable that prospects are willing to give up their email address to have it.
For ideas on lead magnets you could make, how about grabbing my own lead magnet: Top 50 Lead Magnet Ideas? Since email marketing is more than just creating the lead magnet, you’ll also want to check out my course, The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, where I’ll teach you how to master the fundamentals of email marketing in just 6 weeks.
5. Think About Paid Advertising
I get it—paid advertising is complex. Creating a strategy and setting up an ad can be daunting to a small business owner who is already doing everything else. But there is a reason why online ads are still so popular. Maybe this is something you should add to your 2023 small business marketing plan?
Search ads will allow your site to be displayed in searches above the organic results. Social media ads will enable your business posts to pop up in feeds as prospects are scrolling. With retargeting ads, you can target users who previously checked out your website but didn’t convert. My How to Sell and Market Online course has one week devoted to advertising strategies, so if you need to educate yourself, that’s a great place to start.
6. Consider Working with Influencers
Maybe you are among the small business owners I’ve talked to who think that influencer marketing is only for the big companies. If so, I’d like to respectfully disagree with you on that. Micro-influencers are PERFECT for small businesses and can be a viable part of your 2023 small business marketing strategy.
A micro-influencer is someone with a following of between 1K and 100K people on a social media site. When you connect with an influencer who posts about a subject related to your business AND has a connection with your niche target customers, MAGIC can happen.
You’ve got time to think about it. This article is about using the few months we have left in 2022 to plan your 2023 small business marketing strategy. So check out my blog posts How to Work with Micro-Influencers and 10 Dos and Don’ts of Working with Micro-Influencers to decide if this is the right avenue for your small business.
7. Explore Opportunities with Mobile Marketing
A final thing to consider for your 2023 small business marketing strategy is upping the amount of mobile marketing you do. Research has found that 77 percent of Americans own a smartphone, and 79 percent have made a purchase using their mobile device. As a small business owner, these are numbers you can’t ignore! When your larger competitors are already engaging in mobile marketing, you’re missing out on a big opportunity.
Mobile marketing can take many forms. Perhaps 2023 is the year you come out with your own app? Or maybe you will explore text or instant messenger marketing? Or perhaps you’ll focus on customizing the mobile experience on your website? The possibilities are endless, so choose one and go after it.
Your 2023 Small Business Marketing
I’ve been coaching small business owners for over two decades, and one thing I stress is that you MUST plan ahead. If you want your 2023 small business marketing to be bigger and better, you must think about it and work on it before the new year arrives. I’m not suggesting that you try all the ideas in this article. That would be counterproductive. But I am pushing you to select one or two and start doing the work TODAY to prepare your business for the new year. Best of luck on your journey. I’m looking forward to hearing your success stories in 2023!
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