Tee's 7 Golden Rules of Marketing (Every Entrepreneur MUST Know)

Although techniques differ for various types of businesses, basic marketing rules apply to everyone. Technologies may change often, but some fundamentals of marketing have withstood the test of time.

But, let's forget about following trends right now, and discuss the GOLDEN RULES to always keep your marketing relevant.

RULE #1: Realize that Marketing isn't an Expense, it's an Investment in your Company

New, amateur, and small business entrepreneurs sometimes have a warped perception of what "marketing" truly is. They want to increase sales in a no-cost way almost 100% of the time, but that's a unrealistic way of thinking as an entrepreneur. They're afraid to invest the money, or don’t want to throw away money after bad experiences. (many have experienced several past marketing failures). They want to be the best, and might even be the best, but not enough people know about them. They get hopelessly caught up in the expense of marketing and lose sight of the bigger picture.

Marketing is not an expense like rent or a utility bill. When you spend money on any marketing or advertising initiative, there will be a return on that investment (ROI). Ideally, the ROI will be a number greater than the original investment, (but not always). Marketing “investments” aren’t always going to pay off instantly. Yes, you must Test, Test, Test until you get the right results, but you'll eventually get a return.

For example, if you pay $1,000 a month for marketing services and you earn $1,500 in new revenue from those services, your ROI is $500.

Allow yourself to see marketing as a direct investment from which strong bottom lines flow.

Marketing is the science of investing in your business and your products/services for the long-term. Focus on thinking of marketing as an investment, but don’t focus obsessively on early ROI. Instead, establish key-performance-indicators whereby you know the plan is on track and things are progressing the way you had planned. The money might not be flowing yet, but the investment is paying off. Keep building the plan, much the way you’d build a house. If done correctly, the sum will end up greater than the parts.

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RULE #2: Start paying for some form of marketing RIGHT NOW!

It Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive.

It is possible to make a big difference with a small investment in marketing. This might not be the most popular suggestion amongst marketers, but when encountering businesses that are skeptical about marketing, why not let them start small?

Say there’s a business that only has a few dollars for marketing; okay, great, that’s better than nothing! The goal is to implement something reasonable and effective, like a $7 Gig on Fiverr, or $25 to post 5 ads on Craigslist. When it works, the marketing has sold itself.

RULE #3: Decide which social media platform is best for your business.

It's important to be seen on every social media site, but picking one as your main source of marketing and MASTERING it, will take your business to the next level!

LinkedIn is my particular favorite. I've been a member since May 28, 2009 and have connected with thousands of amazing entrepreneurs all over the world. How powerful is that?

Also, Linkedin allows me to easily connect with my target market and express myself as a writer.

  Here is a guide to choosing the best platform for your business, and how to make the most out of it.

• YouTube

Who should use it: Brands with video content and ads, anyone giving explanations or sharing expertise

What to share: Short (less than 1.5 minutes) video content

Post frequency: Once or twice a week

Google treats its own well, and YouTube is the prime example of this fact. YouTube videos feature prominently in Google search results.

Keep this in mind when naming and describing videos, and direct people looking for insight or explanations within your industry topics to your brand’s page.

• Facebook

Who should use it: Everyone and their grandmas (literally)

What to share: All types of online content, events, ads

Post frequency: Once or twice a day

Consider advertising or paying to promote your page on Facebook, but don’t make your brand’s Facebook page itself look like an advertisement. Inspire conversations and shares – and be sure to ask questions.

Of all social networks, Facebook is best equipped to linearly share responses to a post asking a question or sparking conversation. Answers then appear in friends of your respondents, spreading the conversation.

Facebook offers personal connection and an enjoyable distraction amidst the work day, but use typically peaks outside of work hours. There’s no shortage of options for analyzing Facebook data. Track the success of your content by date and time to hone in on the best times for engaging your audience.

Useful tool: URL shortener Bitly does more than just shrink down links. Each time you convert a link, Bitly offers stats on clicks generated from that specific link, making it helpful to see how much traffic is brought directly from sharing to Facebook.

Useful tool: A subscription widget or link to your website can help convert single views into long-term influence.

• Instagram

Who should use it: Lifestyle, food, fashion, personalities and luxury brands

What to share: Share visual content, including short videos (less than 15 seconds)

Post frequency: Once a day

Instagram invites brands with visual content into their customers’ zone-out time. Create and post content accordingly.

You’ll want to experiment with your own userbase and followers, but it’s likely that the best time to target your posts will be to get to your audience’s eyes during their commutes, nights, and weekends.

• LinkedIn

Who should use it: Businesses (especially B2B service providers), Recruiters and Job-Seekers

What to share: Job-postings, company descriptions, employer/employee research

Post frequency: Two to four times a week

LinkedIn is the online analog to old fashioned networking. People – and connections to people – are everything

Keep a company description and profile page mindful of keyword SEO, but your network of employees and contacts is your most valuable (and potentially damaging) content on LinkedIn. Make sure people in your organization are appropriate, professional and on-brand. There’s nowhere online where employers and employees are more intimately linked.

Company seeking clients and individuals seeking employment should grow their LinkedIn networks by adding as many real connections as possible. Use your second and third-degree connections to request personal introductions (when reasonable), and weed out the Internet’s infinity of companies and applications, focusing on opportunities where you have some real connection.

Top tip: LinkedIn shares more about your own electronic creeping than any other network. Paid users can see who’s viewing their profiles.

If you’re researching a competitor or doing some preliminary job-seeking you’d rather your boss didn’t know about, try a Google search specifically for the LinkedIn page you want to see.

• Pinterest

Who should use it: Fashion, food, design, travel and anything DIY; audience skews female by 4:1

What to share: Creative, visual content

Post frequency: Multiple times per day

Users pin and re-pin posts to Pinterest Boards, which naturally push the content on Pinterest into categories. This makes easily-categorized content most apt for sharing, and wisely-chosen keywords essential to successful post captions.

Pinterest differs from other popular search engines in heavily favoring recent content. Pinning and re-pinning frequently is necessary to appear within current results for a given search term, regardless of how popular your content is.

• Twitter

Who should use it: Everyone – from individuals to the largest multinational corporations

What to share: Start, join, and lead conversations; interact directly with brands and customers

Post frequency: Multiple times per day

Twitter is the dominant democracy of the social-sharing economy. Relevancy, personality and brevity are the keys to making your voice heard.

Useful tool: Buffer lets you stockpile and schedule content in advance. Tools like this allow for posting around-the-clock, increasing the likelihood of snagging followers beyond your country or time zone without being working 24/7.

It’s a guarantee by this point that a conversation relevant to your industry or business is occurring on Twitter. The only question: are you part of it?

• Yelp

Who should use it: B2C companies, brick-and-mortar outlets (especially stores, restaurants, and travel/tourism related), reviewers and bloggers

What to share: Location-based business search and reviews

Post frequency: Before your physical business opens and whenever information changes. Otherwise, at least weekly.

Share details about your business on an official company profile page. Monitor customer feedback related to your business, and respond to concerns raised in reviews. Consider it free promotion and advertisement (although paid promotions are also available).

Keep your information updated, and pay attention to keywords and SEO in crafting descriptions.

On the consumer side of these B2C networks, reviewers and bloggers can use Yelp to grow their following. You can’t post a link in a review (Yelp will flag those and potentially suspend your profile), but you can develop a reputation for reliable reviews.

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RULE #4: Pick one Content Marketing strategy then Master it!

Pick only one content marketing strategy first, become a master with it to where you're getting at least 5-10 leads per day, and then add more strategies to your content marketing arsenal over time. This will allow you to avoid "information overload," and you will stay focused, on track, and you will get results!

If you like the spotlight and are comfortable with a camera, it might be video marketing. If you like writing, you may want to choose blogging/writing articles or Post engagement.

Blogging/writing articles is my favorite. I have a passion for article writing and I like to share my business tips with others.

RULE #5: Market in a way that's unique (you'll stand out more)

Many marketers and business owners stick to "safe" marketing - either because they want to portray a professional image, or they're afraid of trying different things. What they're forgetting is that unless you take a risk with marketing and do something unique and different, you risk getting forgotten along with the thousands of ads we see each day.

Do marketing that defines who you are without holding anything back. Offend some people, even (as long as you don't do something stupid and burn down the house.) This can range from making all of your promotional videos in a hot tub, or daily posts with sarcastic quotes.

If you want to beat out your competitors and capture them, you need to do something different than either they, or the big guys are doing. It may seem like more work at first, but I guarantee it’s more fun too—especially when the business starts really rolling in.

The Power of Positioning: In a competitive market, you either differentiate or die.

Of the relatively few things you can actually control, positioning a unique strategy comes second only to the product or services itself. How you position yourself, your products/services, your company, is perhaps the most powerful and underutilized tool for differentiating anything.

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RULE #6: Realize that you'll ALWAYS Win with Brand Reputation. 

Brand reputation refers to how a particular brand (whether for an individual or a company) is viewed by others. A favorable brand reputation means consumers trust your company, and feel good about purchasing your goods or services.

Your business may be small, but your brand can be BIG.....

After being in business, and connecting with a lot of other entrepreneurs over the years, I realized that most of us are impulsive. We want to be successful overnight, we want that fast sale, and we want to BOMBARD people with our products and services.

Being impulsive has it's place in business, but we must learn to SLOW DOWN and build a foundation first.

I've failed many years, and never understood why. One day, a friend of mine told me to forget about selling. Just focus on building a reputation. I didn't quite get it at first, but I later had that 'ah ha' moment.

Once you understand the art of building a reputation, and focus on building it, you'll finally say to yourself, "Now I get it!"

Building a reputation definitely takes patience. My skin would cringe every time my friend advised me to build a reputation first. I constantly thought about the length of time it would take, but trust me, it's all worth it in the end.

Focus on building a strong brand reputation no matter the size of your company, and the time it may take. A strong brand reputation helps build repeat business and promote word-of-mouth advertising by satisfied clients. 

Simple Ways To Improve Your Brand Reputation

-Create Compelling and Quality Content

-Be responsive and do what you say you’ll do. 

-Ask for recommendations/testimonials

-Engage with your network/business community consistently

-Go out of your way to help others reach their goals

 And RULE #7: If you can't do it, JUST ASK FOR HELP! 

Hiring a marketing company to do your marketing right can save you from spending needless hours or dollars. (In fact, seeing so many businesses doing it wrong or not having enough time is what motivated me to start my marketing business!) A good marketing specialist will offer the right strategy for you, as well as a talented team of writers, designers, developers, publicists, and even film, event, or television production professionals to communicate your message.

Make a Choice. You're either going to pay for marketing or work your ass off everyday to get leads! To get your business noticed, you need to spread the word a lot more heavily than you would imagine. In the words of my grandmother, "Let loose on the money Betty!"

In Conclusion

While marketing channels will continue evolving, always remember to focus on the golden rules. By using these tried and tested principles of marketing, and also trying out the newest marketing techniques, your business will skyrocket.

Did you like this post? Which social media platform and marketing strategy will you most likely use? Please give a share, like, or comment! And please remember to share this post with all your connections.

About the author:

Tee Lynnae shows business owners simple, practical marketing strategies to help attract more customers, and maximize profits. If you’re ready to learn how to market your business effectively, then visit Skytop Marketing Today!

Resources: https://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2014/03/05/social-media-platform-best-business/

https://www.inc.com/samuel-edwards/how-to-see-marketing-as-an-investment-not-an-expense.html

https://baerpm.com/2017/03/13/marketing-not-expense-investment/