Marketing is critical to small business success these days. But, planning and implementing an effective marketing strategy is a full-time job in itself, and small business owners don’t typically have a lot of free time in their schedules.

In this blog, we’ll talk about 12 things you can do to save time while marketing your business.

#1. Have a specific goal in mind

Before you start planning your marketing strategy, you need to have a goal in mind. This will help guide your strategy and future marketing decisions, which will save you time down the road.

Do you want to drive more foot traffic to your physical location, or are you interested in getting leads to fill out a contact form on your website?

Once you know what your goal is, you can start to create a plan to achieve it.

If you don’t have a specific goal in mind, your marketing efforts will likely be scattered and won’t produce the results you’re looking for. Take the time to sit down and think about what you want to achieve with your marketing before you get started.

#2. Identify your audience

Another important element of your marketing strategy is understanding who your target audience is. This will help you determine where to focus your efforts and what messaging will resonate with them.

There’s no point in spending time creating content or ads that nobody will see or care about. By taking the time to understand who you’re trying to reach, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort down the road.

If you’re not sure who your target audience is, take some time to do some research. Start by looking at your customer base and identifying common characteristics among them. Once you have a good understanding of who you’re trying to reach, you can begin creating content that appeals to them.

Plus, different groups of people spend their time online in different places. For example, younger people tend to spend their time on TikTok and Instagram; whereas, older people tend to spend their time on Facebook.

Knowing who your audience is and where they spend their time will help you avoid wasting time on the marketing channels.

#3. Create brand guidelines

If you want your marketing efforts to be consistent, it’s important to have brand guidelines in place. This will ensure that everyone on your team knows how to correctly represent your brand.

Creating brand guidelines can seem like a time-consuming task, but it will save you time in the long run. Having specific guidelines for things like logo usage, color schemes and tone of voice will help your team produce high-quality content more quickly.

And, if you ever need to outsource your marketing, having brand guidelines in place will make it easier for the agency or freelancer to understand your vision and produce work that meets your standards.

Once you have your brand guidelines in place, make sure everyone on your team is familiar with them. This will save you time down the road when it comes to producing marketing materials.

#4. Do your research

In 2022, there are a plethora of marketing channels to choose from, not all of which are the right option for every business.

The last thing you want to do is waste your time on a marketing channel or strategy that won’t work for businesses like yours. That’s why it’s important to do a little research before you start planning your small business marketing strategy.

Take some time to read articles, listen to podcasts and talk to other small business owners about their experiences. This will help you identify which channels are worth your time and which ones you should avoid.

Keep in mind that trial and error is often an unavoidable part of small business marketing, especially if you’re doing it yourself. However, doing research will help you get started on the right foot.

Doing research will take some time, but it will save you a lot more time down the road.

#5. Build your own small business website

When you add a new service, change your hours or make any other changes in your business that your customers need to be aware of, the first place you should make those updates is your website.

If you have a custom website developed by a third-party, most of the time, you have to rely on them to make those kinds of updates for you. That’s an incredibly inefficient way to manage your website.

Instead, build your own small business website using a DIY website builder, like Marketing 360 Websites. Not only will this give you the ability to make changes yourself, but it will also save you money in the long run.

Building your own website may seem like a daunting task, but with the right website builder, it’s a lot easier than you may think.

With the Marketing 360® Websites app, for example, you don’t even have to know a single line of code to build a beautiful website. Simply choose from a library of website design templates, customize with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor and publish. It’s as easy as that.

#6. Use small business CRM software

If you want to save time on your marketing, it’s important to have a system in place to manage your customer data. Small business CRM software can help you keep track of your customers’ contact information, purchase history and other important data.

Having this information readily available will make it easier for you to segment your audience, personalize your marketing messages and create targeted campaigns.

In short, CRM software will help you save time by making it easier to manage and access your customer data. Plus, you can take advantage of email marketing automations that allow you to send the right message to the right person at the right time.

There are a lot of different CRM software options on the market, so take some time to research the best option for your business.

The Marketing 360® CRM app is a good choice because it’s customizable — so you can manage your business your way — and made to scale with your business as it grows. Plus, it integrates seamlessly with the rest of the Marketing 360 platform.

#7. Manage all of your listings from one place

From Yelp and Top Rated Local® to Google and Facebook, there are dozens of places modern consumers go to look for local businesses these days. In order to get found, you need to have a listing on any local directory, site or app relevant to your business.

It’s imperative that the business information on those listings is up to date with your current information. After all, it’ll do you no good if someone calls your old phone number or visits your old location. In fact, it can actually harm your overall reputation.

Managing all of those listings one by one takes a lot of time and energy, especially if you’re doing it all manually. Luckily, listings management software, like the Marketing 360 Listings app, allows you to manage them all from one place.

Not only does this save you time, but it also ensures that your business information is accurate and consistent across all of your listings. This means that prospective customers can always reach you and, as a bonus, more organic visibility.

That’s because Google and other search engines prioritize businesses with consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) information across listings.

#8. Schedule out your social media posts

Social media is a great way to connect with your customers and promote your business. But it’s important to build an active presence on social media, and if you’re not careful, it can become a huge time suck.

The key to using social media efficiently is to schedule out your posts in advance. This way, you can batch create content and have it ready to go without having to spend hours every week creating new posts.

There are a number of social media management tools, like the Marketing 360 Social app, that allow you to schedule out your social posts on multiple profiles from one place.

The great thing about the social app is that it allows you to preview posts before you publish them, so you can see exactly what they’ll look like on Facebook or Instagram ahead of time.

You can also use the social app to monitor your progress on social media. Social Insight Reports help you keep track of your social impressions, engagements and clicks, so you can see what’s working and what’s not.

#9. Take advantage of reputation management software

In today’s digital world, reviews and ratings are more important than ever before. That’s because they provide valuable insights into the quality of your business.

More and more, prospective customers are turning to online reviews to find out whether or not a business is worth their time and money. In fact, 84% of consumers say that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

That’s why it’s so important to actively manage your business’s online reputation. Reputation management software makes it easy to do just that.

The Marketing 360 Reputation app allows you to monitor your business’s online reviews and ratings from one place. Plus, you can send out review requests, get notifications about new reviews and respond to your reviews.

Responding to reviews is crucial, as it shows that you’re engaged with your customers and care about their experience. In fact, businesses that respond to reviews see a higher average star rating.

Not only that, but responding to reviews can also help demonstrate your customer service skills and win over prospective customers.

#10. Stay top of mind with email marketing software

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to keep your business top of mind with your customers. It allows you to stay in touch with your customers and build relationships with them over time.

With email marketing, you can send out automated messages, like welcome emails or appointment reminders, as well as targeted campaigns based on customer behavior.

Plus, email marketing is a great way to promote your business’s products and services. You can send out special offers, coupons and other promotional materials to your email list to encourage them to buy from you.

The Marketing 360 Nurture app makes it easy to create and send out beautiful emails that get results. Plus, the app integrates with the Marketing 360 CRM, so you can easily add new contacts to your email list and take advantage of time-saving automation.

You can also measure the success of your email marketing campaigns directly from the app, saving you time and helping you fine-tune your efforts.

#11. Monitor your performance with marketing analytics

One of the most important things you can do for your business is to monitor your performance with marketing analytics. Marketing analytics allows you to see how well your marketing efforts are working and where you need to make improvements.

This is important because it shows you exactly what’s working for you and what’s not. This way, you’ll know exactly what strategies and channels are worth investing time and money into and what strategies and channels aren’t.

The Marketing 360 Intelligence app makes it easy to track your marketing progress across all channels from one place.

Easy-to-read reports give you the information you need to make data-driven about your marketing strategy and budget, helping you save time and maximize your ROI.

#12. Work with a dedicated marketing team

If you want to save time and grow your business, it’s important to work with a dedicated marketing team. A dedicated marketing team can help you develop and execute a comprehensive marketing strategy that gets results.

At Marketing 360, we have a team of experts who can help you with every aspect of your marketing, from developing your brand to driving traffic and sales.

We’ll work with you to create a custom marketing plan that fits your unique business needs and goals. And, we’ll be there to support you every step of the way, so you can focus on running your business.

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Marketing 360 is a singular platform that offers everything you need to build a modern, professional website, launch ads on popular channels, manage all of your contacts, projects and deals, schedule out social media posts, monitor your SEO performance and so much more, plus the marketing team you need to grow your business.

Save time and grow your business with Marketing 360. Learn more and see our plans and pricing.