Your marketing plan is working, and results are happening with a strong ROI. Owning a small business is wonderful! Then it quits working without any warning, it just isn’t working anymore. There are two questions that run through your mind:
- Why?
- How do I get it jump-started again?
To answer the first question, your marketing plan hit a speed bump. It got to a flat spot and got stuck. To answer the second question, it is time to find a new marketing plan.
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And now that you have realized that your marketing plan has hit a speed bump, you need to determine what steps are needed to jump-start it and get your business to start climbing again.
Map Out How to Get Over the Speed Bump
You know that business has stopped growing, so now, you must determine a way to get over the speed bump and get moving again. There are a few ways that businesses hit that speed bump. Determine which areas your business has gone stale:
- Engaging your audience
- Driving web traffic
- Acquiring new customers
- Generating leads
- Converting leads into customers
Your Overall Marketing
Maybe you are already tracking the marketing results and you know where it is failing. If you haven’t been tracking, you need to start. You should consider a marketing platform to track your path traveled. Or, utilize the tools that Google offers.
Analytics with a little bit of social tracking will allow you to evaluate the marketing efforts you’re currently using. Use these tools to pinpoint the results and you’ll be able to zero in on the problem area.
If there is a strong track of website traffic, but your social engagement has slowed down, turn your focus towards your social engagement and make the improvements needed.
Engaging your audience
If the blog comments, social media sharing, and phone calls have dropped, this is an indication that you need to boost your efforts of engaging with your audience. A couple of ways to do that are:
- Utilize your email list. Send newsletters out each month, a new focus with each one, sharing information and tips that will identify your company as an authority.
- Share content on social media on a regular basis, like blog posts, and articles of relevance to the industry, including special offers for those that follow you on social media sites.
- A call to action and relevant hashtags encourage the participation of your audience because it is giving your followers instructions on what they need to do.
Increasing audience engagement can be done with regular posting on social media. Social media is here to stay, don’t ignore it as a passing phase. Encourage your followers to read, click, comment, and most importantly, share.
Driving web traffic
Your marketing evaluation is telling you that your website traffic is coming to a screeching halt. So, what can you do to get traffic flowing again?
1. Identify the areas that need improvement with a complete audit of your website. Refresh the SEO steps on each page by optimizing one keyword.
2. Make sure the keywords are in the titles of each page, in the headlines, and in the subheadings. Image tags should have those keywords, too.
3. Increase the frequency of your blogs and promote them on your social media platforms.
4. Check the accuracy and relevancy of all your information.
The flow of traffic can be increased to your website again, but you have to keep it updated periodically to keep its horizon visible.
Acquiring new customers
If acquiring new customers is what you have identified to be the speed bump slowing your business growth down, a few things you can try are:
1. Make sure your online listings are identical. If your listings aren’t standardized, it is diluting the business’ online profile.
2. Make sure your location is on your Facebook profile so customers can find you.
3. Creates a customer referral program that will give your current customer base an incentive to share the pleasure of doing business with their co-workers, family, friends, and neighbors.
4. Team up with other local businesses and host local events. Creating a unique local hashtag that for social media is a great promotion tool for that event.
Each of the things we just listed will help potential customers find your website and your social media pages and bring them to your store.
Generating leads
If your business relies on qualified leads coming in a steady stream, then the problem may be that lead generation has hit a speed bump, and that can be a big problem. A few things to move over that speed bump is:
1. Entice new leads with an irresistible lead magnet that makes them want to share their email addresses. You can use a short eBook as a giveaway to new leads that share their email address for example or create a cheat sheet or a template. Create a landing page that is dedicated to the offer you’ve chosen!
2. Engage with your social media audience by personally interacting and creating targeted campaigns. The more you target your social media marketing to your specific audience, the more leads you’ll generate.
3. Don’t forget to establish a call to action on every web page, not just the web pages that are promoting your offers. If you don’t ask your visitors to complete the contact form or register their email, they are more likely not going to.
The focus is to attract more leads of people that are interested in your offers. Once you have them on your mailing list, you can do your magic for converting them into paying customers.
Converting leads into customers
Maybe there are plenty of leads and clicks, but the conversion rate hit the speed bump. A few steps that can fix that are:
1. Add video or written testimonials of your customers to your website.
2. Encourage your customers to leave reviews on your Facebook page, Google, and Yelp, whether they are positive or negative.
3. Update your ads and landing page images, wording, and your CTA.
4. Creating a special landing page for each offer you put out there.
You can increase the conversion rate by using the suggestions we just listed to overcome potential objections.
Don’t Get Stuck On That Speed Bump!
Even the best of professional marketing will get it wrong, it is expected. Don’t let that speed bump be discouraging, use it as a motivator. Evaluating the results and taking the steps we’ve suggested will get your business over the speed bump.
