"I don’t need to do any Marketing I have enough work!"

As a Marketing Agency, this sentence makes us cringe and probably not for the reasons you may think.

What makes us cringe isn’t that the business owner isn’t interested in our services, it’s the fact that they say they are too busy to market themselves. they may be busy now but what about in a few weeks or months’ time, will they still be busy then? Possibly not.

You should always continue to market your business even if you are busy that way, you can help avoid the slow periods, which most businesses experience at certain times of the year, or when something unexpected happens.

We had a conversation with a client recently and he said he didn’t want to continue advertising in a magazine as he was too busy. The magazine had been a good source of referrals for him, with a high conversation rate of leads to sales. So, after a chat, he agreed to continue, extending a lead time is better than running short on work.

Even if you have always had a steady stream of new customers to your business, you don’t know what the unexpected could throw at you. The last few years have been a perfect example of that, although rather extreme. But we are now all facing the hike of energy prices, which affects not only your business but also your personal finances. This in turn may take a toll on your business leads.

If your business is busy and has plenty of work lined up, and you have been actively marketing then even a lull in leads may not affect your business as much.

But what happens when the leads dry up and you have not been marketing

Although we are not currently in a recession, it seems likely that this is inevitable. So many households are struggling to cover all the bills and feed their families, which means that there is less being spent with small businesses.

In Northampton alone we are seeing reputable and long-standing restaurants close their doors due to increased costs, and changes in their customer spending habits. Christmas is just around the corner and according to YouGov six in ten Britons say the rising cost of living means they will have to spend less on Christmas this year. That is a large percentage and if they are spending less on Christmas, it is fair to say they will be spending less on everything.

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/consumer/articles-reports/2022/10/20/60-britons-expect-spend-less-christmas-because-ris

Small businesses are going to feel the pinch. Even if your business is busy now, will it still be in a few months?

I don’t want to sound all doom and gloom, because that isn’t the case, but it is worth considering what marketing you can do to keep those leads coming in.

Use social media, whether you are a fan of it or not, your target audience will be on at least one platform. So chose the best platform for your business, if you’re a B2B business then LinkedIn is likely to be the best platform. If you’re B2C, then Facebook and Instagram would better for you. Diarise some time each week to create your posts and then schedule them. Facebook and Instagram can be scheduled with Facebook. For LinkedIn there are several scheduling platforms that you can have a free account, with limited social channels which you can use to schedule the posts. By diarising time, you are more likely to find the time.

Ask your customers for referrals, this may sound obvious but not everyone thinks to refer you to people they know.

Get more Google reviews, you can find the link within your Google My Business profile and then send it to your customers. You could add the link to the bottom of an email signature or include it in your emails when you send an invoice. Developing your Google profile can help you show within the map listings above organic rankings in Google.

If you take videos of the work that you have completed, then set up a YouTube channel and post your videos there as well. YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine, after Google and Google will also list videos in searches.

These are just a few things you can do to help market your business yourself, to help future proof it, but if you would like a coffee and a chat, then please get in touch. I do love a good coffee!

Tracy Jackson

01604 698 948