Whether you agree or not, if you run small business in 2020 you are a marketer.
Marketing is the lifeblood of any company and without clients, you have a hobby.
As a decision-maker, it is your business to build better relationships and satisfy customers.
Inspired by Neil Patel and Eric Siu, today I share 10 highly effective habits to make you a better marketer.
Here goes:
Habit #1: Keep Learning
To stay ahead of the curve and your competitors, it’s imperative you keep learning. If you aren’t, it’s likely you won’t grow or get better.
As everything is changing at lightning speed, what worked yesterday won’t necessarily work today.
- Algorithms are changing.
- Channels are evolving.
- Technology is obsolete as you blink.
- How your customers consume information is changing.
Here’s what I mean: Have you heard of BERT, like Ernie and Bert and in the Sesame Street cartoon? BUT it’s not.
BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers
It’s a MAJOR Google algorithmic update.
BERT will help Google understand natural language better, particularly in conversational search.
It’s expected to impact around 10% of queries, organic rankings and featured snippets.
This major change will affect all our websites.
If you aren’t learning about these crucial changes, how can you respond?
Stay ahead; keep learning and get experts with specialized knowledge to help.
Habit #2: Embrace Technology
Technology is not your enemy. It’s the way to make quantum leaps and win in 2020 and the years to come.
Embrace the disruption and leverage technology to your advantage. We can’t turn back the hands of time.
Why wouldn’t you want to be more relevant and more valuable?
Technology is your friend – embrace it!
Habit #3: Use Data to Make Better Decisions
Data is everywhere so use it to make better decisions.
When was the last time you tracked your website traffic source? Do you pay close attention to your Google analytics? How about your email marketing? Do you know your most engaged readers? Do you know at which point your website visitors bounce? Do you know which content gets most engagement?
How about your cash cow or loss leader?
When you understand your data, you gain critical insights into your customers’ taste, preference, behavior and habits. With these insights you can make informed changes and improvements.
Habit #4: Be Open Minded
Because you’ve ‘always done it this way’ doesn’t mean it’s the best way.
Or,
Because you’ve tried a strategy that didn’t work doesn’t mean it can’t. Perhaps it requires another way of looking at the problem and figuring out the solution.
To become a better marketer it’s important to welcome challenges and not run from then. Be open minded – test and refine new ways to solve problems and serve your customers better.
Isn’t that always the end goal – serving your customers BEST.
Habit #5: Make Patience your Friend
If you believe marketing is a ‘set-it and forget it’, one-time act, you are mistaken. If it were so, we’d be instant YouTube sensations or Instagram models.
Creating success requires time, patience and money.
The ‘overnight’ success stars we admire, started at the bottom and it took them a long time to get there.
They knew they were playing for the long game. Think the Raptors franchise.
24 long years before a championship win.
Yay for #WeTheNorth! Homie!!
When you play for the long game with patience and consistency, you’re very likely to succeed.
If you start. Never stop.
Be patient.
Habit #6: Build Strong Relationships
Strong businesses are made of strong relationships. Building relationships take work. They don’t just happen.
When was the last time you surveyed your customers to get feedback?
These days, you can’t assume you know what makes them tick. Your perception and the reality may be vastly different.
Listen to your customers. They know what brought them to you, how your products or services help and why they still buy from you.
Hearing directly from those you serve will greatly assist in building stronger relationships.
Make it a habit to learn as much about your prospects and customers.
When you have good information, you make better decisions.
Habit #7: Create Relevant Content
Content is air.
small business in 2020.
Content establishes you as a subject matter expert and helps a lot with your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
Ensure you create content that’s relevant and valuable to those who consume it. Avoid pushing out useless content because you have been advised this is a valuable strategy. If you do it, make it matter.
Be sure to consistently add new, fresh content across platforms and in multiple media.
Content takes many shapes and forms:
Blog posts, like this one. Audio clips. Videos. Infograhics. White paper. Articles and so.
Habit #8: Test and Improve
Every successful business owner or entrepreneur has had some history of failure small business in 2020.
I am the first to confess, I have launched online and offline campaigns that bombed!
Have I regretted it? Absolutely not!
They’ve only fueled me to keep testing to hit the sweet spot.
Today, more than ever, it’s important to test, test, test.
If you run email campaigns – A/B test. Test subject lines, time of day, content type and so on.
If you run digital ads – test platforms, test image vs image, image vs video, headline vs headline, copy vs copy and so on. Test every part of the funnel. Never assume one thing or another is likely to work. We are often surprised.
The goal here is to have a ‘test and improve’ mindset.
It’s almost impossible to grow unless you try new ideas, test and pivot.
Habit #9: Skate to where the puck is going
If you want to become a better marketer in 2020, you must stay one step ahead of the competition – especially as a small business owner. (Be smart and strategic, resources are limited) small business in 2020.
The great Canadian legendary hockey player, Wayne Gretzky put it best when asked by a reporter about his outstanding performance. He said he “skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”
What about you?
Are you where the puck is or are you skating to where the puck is going to be?
Habit #10: Keep an eye on the competition
Want to gain a competitive edge? Keep an eye on your competitors. With competitive intelligence you can gain insights and avoid costly mistakes.
These days technology provides a pretty easy way, with many free and paid tools to help.
small business in 2020.
Here are a few ideas to get started.
- Set-up Google Alerts to track mentions, keywords, links and so on.
- Track articles on the competitors by using tools like Instapaper
- Access information on keyword cost, link clicks, campaign success, organic ranking and more with tools like Spyfu
- Track social media mentions by using tools like Social Mention
By no means are these ideas extensive but a quick way to get you started.
There you have it: 10 highly effective habits to make you a better marketer.
Which habit do you obsess over?
