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Creating a Marketing Plan

‘Tis the season for pumpkin spice, falling leaves, and finalizing your marketing strategy for the following year. This can be a cumbersome task that can leave you wondering where to even start. I have managed six figure marketing budgets for companies and it always comes back to the basics no matter the size of your budget.

▫️Conduct Research – Research your competition and your customers. Get out there and take a look to see what your competition is doing and what your customers need/want. Conduct that SWOT analysis. One of the best places to conduct your research is a simple Google search. Another avenue that is always great are magazine/media subscriptions. This will give you a feel for what the competition is marketing and how much.

▫️Define Your Target Audience – Begin to define who you really want to target. Who will be most interested in your product and who it makes sense to spend time and resources targeting. The last thing you want is to spend the whole year targeting the wrong audience. Sometimes it can be tricky to define that audience, but once you spend the time and get it right you won’t be disappointed.

▫️Make Goals & Budget – Goal setting is extremely important in every yearly plan. This can start out as simple as getting out a pen and paper and making a list. Once you have this list of goals, you are then able to set your budget around those goals.

▫️ Prioritize – The most important step and sometimes the hardest. Once you have a set budget this will help you to prioritize what’s most important, and assure that you are spending your money in all the right places. You can’t tackle everything at once, and maybe you have goals on your list that don’t align throughout the entire company. This will be key in creating a solid marketing plan.

Work from Home Tips

We are in a world now where so many companies offer a work from home option. This has so many perks, and at first you’ll think ooh I get to work from home in my jammies all day.. where do I sign up?! A couple weeks go by and you’re still working in your jammies. Your husband is coming home asking when you’re going to get dressed again.. do I know this from personal experience? Possibly. Here are some tips to help get you out of that rut and motivated!

 Get up – Get yourself up in enough time to wake up. Make yourself a cup of coffee, let the dog out, browse your phone.. or whatever your morning routine is getting up in time to have some sort of routine is key at starting the work day fresh and awake! It is also so important to get up and begin work in a set space – free of distractions.

 Get dressed – Now do I still have some work days in my pjs, sure. I have found that getting dressed makes me feel better, some days I even throw on some makeup and do my hair. It may feel silly if you’re not leaving, but trust me it makes such a difference.

Get motivated – I personally feel much more creative in my work from home space, but found myself taking less mental breaks than I would in the office. You need these little breaks for both your mental and physical well being. Find whatever it is to keep you motivated throughout the day and don’t feel guilty about taking a 10 minute break, sometimes going back with fresh eyes can make you so much more productive! If I find myself loosing focus I will go for a walk around the house, flip some laundry, or even move my workspace outside to our patio table.

Marketing Your Business on a Limited Budget

You might often wonder how to grow your business without having to invest a lot in marketing. Let’s be honest – marketing can get expensive and while we would all love unlimited marketing budgets – that is not reality.

There are some simple tricks you can follow that require your time and sometimes little to no cost.

▫️ Create Consistent Branding – Being consistent with your branding is key. Choose a color palette that resonates well with your audience and stick to it. It takes time for people to make the connection of remembering your company just from your branding, so it is crucial that you stick to the branding that you have set. If you have a large organization we suggest creating branding guidelines for everyone in your company to follow.

▫️ Leverage Social Media – Creating a social media account is free. Select the platforms that make the most sense for your business, and spend time engaging on those platforms regularly. We don’t have time to do it all, so choosing which platforms make the most sense will be important. Again – remember to be consistent with your branding when using social media.

▫️ Develop Content – You are an expert in your field, so let’s show your customers that. Take the time to develop industry specific content. Creating content gives you some amazing things to post on your social media accounts, and will help boost your website SEO if you host this content on a blog on your website. We recognize that not everyone loves writing – that is where DigiLinq Marketing can come in to help you really craft your content!

▫️ Build on Connections – Building on prior connections can take your business far. You never know where a past connection with someone might take you. Build on those connections and reach out to grow those connections even more. Referral business can be a huge reason why companies grow and word of mouth costs absolutely nothing. – This is where having amazing customer service comes into play.