There’s no denying that marketing a small business can be a challenge during any time of the year. There are certain times, however, when that challenge seems almost insurmountable. The holidays are a notoriously busy time for businesses and marketers, and it’s so easy for your message to be lost in all the noise. Another crazy time for marketing happens to be right around the corner: back to school season.
Here are some tips that will help you carry your business (and your message) through the busy back-to-school season:
Have a plan! If you’re like the majority of business owners and managers today, you probably already have a plan in place for your business marketing efforts. Unfortunately, countless businesses spend endless time and energy creating these marketing plans each year, only to have them stuffed into the back of a desk drawer or forgotten on the shelf. If you want to succeed in marketing, either take the time to create a plan (if you don’t have one) or dust off the one you already have.
Go against the grain. Sure, there are times when “going against the grain” is not always the best thing. With the exception of a few specific industries, you don’t want to seem over the top or send outrageous messages that have the potential to put off your target market. However, when traditional marketing channels are saturated with countless promotions from competing businesses, it pays to shake things up and give yourself the chance to stand out from the crowd.
Learn from your mistakes. The marketing industry, as a whole, is largely based on trial and error. Sometimes, you need to watch your campaigns fail in order to learn what makes your audience tick (and what kind of campaign will work better next time around). In this case, if your marketing initiatives fail during back-to-school season, use that as a guide for planning your next big move: holiday marketing.
Marketing your business takes a great deal of perseverance and the ability to adapt to the ever-changing demands of your clients or customers. Think outside of the box and be willing to admit when something has not turned out as well as you planned. Over time, you’ll start to see that the successes happen far more often than the failures.
To learn more, check out Top 10 Tips for Creating a Marketing Strategy That Rocks!
