1) Check Your Local Listing
“Always be consistent.” – Casey Kasem
Are you listed online? Is your name, address, and phone number appearing correctly on each site it’s being listed on? Just like you wouldn’t want an incorrect phone book listing, you also don’t want ANY errors in your local listings. Take some time to check the major citation sources and make sure they have accurate and up to date information on your business. If possible, verify the listing with the citation source, in order to prevent someone from tampering with your listing later on.
2) Know What Your Competition Is Doing
“If you know your enemy and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles” – Sun Tzu
Take a peek at what the competition is doing – Are they on social media? Do they send out email blasts weekly? Do they advertise in small local papers, or just big city papers? By knowing what your competition is doing, you can better assess your own weaknesses, and strategize as to the best way to increase your own visibility. Good businesses leave a good footprint – Learn everything you can about your competition and make the most of that insider information!
3) Update Your Email Lists
“The odds of hitting your target go up dramatically when you aim at it.” – Mal Pancoast
Email has traditionally been one of the biggest drivers of conversions for small business. Social media should play a big role in this year’s marketing, but your email list is still one of your biggest and best assets for bringing in new business. Make sure you look through your bounce back emails, and prune your list to remove uninterested or unavailable people. This way, you’re only targeting interested people and don’t accidentally get flagged as spam.
4) Create Content Worth Sharing
“Good marketing tells a story.” – Seth Godin
We’ve all heard it hundreds of times – “Content is King.” Making great content, such as how-to guides, infographics, and FAQ’s not only helps your visitors learn more about your business, it also helps them make better decisions. If you can educate and inform your visitors, who do you think they’ll trust to make financial decisions for them?
5) Get Social
“Opportunities multiply as quickly they are seized.” – Sun Tzu
Great messages want to be shared. And what better place to share your insights and knowledge than with an audience who wants to hear what you have to say! By using social media channels, like Google+ and LinkedIn, you can spread the word further, provide great client service, and drive new sales and referrals. Work on slowly building up a following, and with a little time, your opportunities will multiply like your followers!
Jorge Villar is a sought-after keynote speaker and founder of Response Marketing Excellence, a financial marketing firm in Tampa, FL
