]If you are running a small business efficiently, you probably have routines and processes in place that ensure your customers are appropriately serviced.
Many of them may have grown organically or were handed to you when you purchased your business, but you only need to plan a small break and try to hand over your business when you realise how many things you have to do to keep the business running.
When it comes to online marketing many of us have an ad hoc, scattergun approach which doesn’t generally lead to the best results.
Online marketing like other aspects of your business is essential to keep things humming along and attracting more clients, to this end we recommend you create a content calendar and in this post we’ll explain a few reasons why.
Organisation
The first and probably the most important thing it does is forces you to be organised, it makes you to think about what you are going to post, to whom it is intended and how frequently you will do it. The aim is to build your brand and create trust which will eventually lead to a conversion.
Getting organised and thinking about who your audience is, is the first step. You can start creating your personas by jotting down the characteristics of your current customers, are they families, business clients, young couples etc?.
It enables you to share across platforms
If you create a great short video for your website, why not share it or an edited version on your Facebook business page or Instagram? Likewise for photographic images that you share on Instagram why not feature in a gallery on your website?
Create once, share across multiple platforms. This means that you can appear more active online and service more customers with the same or similar content.
It creates consistency
By having a content calendar and scheduling regular posts, it creates a constant stream of content that keeps your audience engaged and you on their radar. It also removes the “stop start” flow of content, 5 posts in one day about random things and then nothing for 3 months! Nothing says I don’t care more than an social media account left abandoned with only customers commenting. It also stops you waking in the dead of night, with OMG I haven’t posted for weeks, what on earth shall I say.
It builds your team
Yes, I can hear the roars of laughter, “I don’t have a marketing team, it’s just us and we’re too busy doing other things to do this” We’ll your team doesn’t just have to be you, it can be guests, clients, your local VIC etc.
Ask guests to #their holiday snaps, email clients after their visit and ask them to share on your platforms, use Google alerts to search for interesting things to add to your calendar.
It takes the stress and panic away
This is by far my personal favourite, the fact that I have control in terms of the content, where it will appear and when for a few weeks in advance at least. If something arises in the business that needs urgent attention I know that I have some flexibility in terms of content to automate the process and schedule posts so that I can attend to other issues.
Summary
Why not try and get organised, even if it’s very basic, have a think about your audience, what platform they are using and what content they might be interested in. Jot down your ideas and schedule some time to get started.
