December 7, 2021
Are you a DIY-marketer? Do you manage all your own social media accounts and advertising efforts? Taking on the marketing role in your business while you wear a few other hats can often be a difficult thing to juggle. Marketing is often the first ball to drop when things get too busy, but it’s also one of the most important efforts that keep the customers flowing in.
Making marketing a non-negotiable part of your daily routine is essential for success. Since time is so valuable, it’s important to be strategic about how you spend your marketing hours. Sometimes what works for someone else, may not work for you too. So here are some general rules before we dive into our suggestions on how to spend your marketing efforts:
If you’re new and you have zero social media followers and email subscribers, don’t allocate 100% of your time to creating really great content. You’ll need to allocate a portion of your time between growing your audience. If you’ve been in business for a long time and have a following but low engagement, the opposite advice applies to you. Focus on creating really stand-out content that has the potential to spur word of mouth!
When you’re contemplating where to spend your time and energy, of course you want to focus on what has worked in the past. But just because you don’t see instantaneous results, doesn’t mean it isn’t working. Think of marketing as planting seeds. All things take time to bloom, and sometimes there are things we can’t control that prevent them from growing. For example, if you truly enjoy writing blog articles for your website but you’re seeing low traffic and conversion, it doesn’t mean stop writing. It just means you need to re-evaluate your strategy.
And on the note above, if you hate writing blog articles, then stop putting your energy towards it. Especially if you’re not seeing results. For any marketing tactic that really drives you mad, consider outsourcing. There is always someone out there who can help you, and their expertise will save you time and a lot of headaches.
So, with these caveats, lets dive into a simple 1-hour a day marketing plan that you can customize based on where you’re at in business, what works for you, and what you enjoy doing! Every week you’ll want to repeat these efforts to see the best results. Consistency is one of the most important ingredients for a successful marketing campaign!
Batching content means to sit down and get it all created for the week, so you don’t have to think about it again! How nice is that? In one hour you should be able to get 3-4 social media posts created depending on their length. An ideal post length is short (under 50 characters) or no more than 300 characters. This is good for those short on time – you don’t have to write a novel. The quality of your posts will depend on the quality of your imagery, which you can capture during the week during your tours. Better yet, get your customers to tag you and reshare their photos. User generated content will help you cut down on time, resources, and typically results in really terrific engagement.
Now you can take the content you’ve created for social media and repurpose it! Your social media content makes for great email newsletter content. Start with what you have and see what else you can add to it to make it valuable to your readers. Here are a few email campaign ideas for your tour and activity you can work from to start! And of course, whatever you end up creating for your email could then turn into a blog article. This is a strategy of building upon your previous efforts, which also helps keep your messaging consistent across all marketing platforms.
Once your covered for content, it’s time to focus on growth! Building an audience through online and offline channels is a very important marketing task. Without these efforts, you will often feel like you’re shouting into the void or speaking to a wall. Getting your message in front of the right people is what marketing is all about. On days 3 & 4, you’ll want to spend time where your audience hangs out.
Are they on Instagram? Facebook? Pinterest? Twitter? Who do they follow there? What publications and blogs do they read? Divide these two days between online and offline relationship building. Have conversations with people in your local community and beyond. The more visible you become, the more people will talk! This is how you spark word of mouth. Don’t be a stranger, you are your business’s greatest advocate.
When you don’t leave space in your business for creativity and imagination, your marketing efforts become stale and predictable. Leave an hour in your week to follow your creative whims! Perhaps there’s a video you’ve been wanting to create, or a magazine you’ve been wanting to pitch your story to. Even just going out to the local happy hour for a cocktail could land you some connections that support your business. Leave space for serendipity and see how your business begins to flourish.
One hour a day, five days a week, and you’ll be on your way to success. Most importantly, before you spend even a minute on marketing, make sure your booking process is smooth and easy for guests. The last thing you want to do is spend time trying to procure a booking only to have it fall apart because of book-ability issues. With Junglebee’s software, guests can book your tour & activity in just a few minutes. Click here to get started!
