Even if your franchisor provides you with marketing materials and promotions, it’s still up to you to bolster support in your local community. That means you need to be using social media, advertising, and events to attract customers to your business.
But who has time for that when you’re already busy running your business? Rather than let marketing fall to the wayside, consider hiring a marketing professional to help.
Why You Need Help
It’s time to be brutally honest with yourself; you may have told yourself you can handle the marketing, but if you only update your business’ Facebook page once a month and write blog content twice a year, you’re not really marketing your business.
Marketing requires consistent effort, and if you don’t have the time or energy to devote to getting it done the right way, you’re doing your business harm. The best thing you can do is to hand it over to someone who’s adept at marketing and who knows how to drive customers to your business.
Your Options
Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean you need to hire a full-time marketing director. In fact, you probably don’t need that at all. Instead, you can hire a marketing firm or consultant for whatever projects you need help with. You can work with them one time for projects like web design, or on an ongoing basis, like for social media management. And it might surprise you: hiring on a per-project or hourly basis can be much more affordable than hiring an employee who you have to pay benefits for!
You can also look at hiring a freelancer if you need marketing material designed or blog content written.
What They Can Do
Whether you opt for a freelancer, a consultant, or a marketing firm, they can do more than you’d imagine. They can:
- Keep your business blog full of relevant content for your audience
- Manage your social media accounts
- Write press releases and pitch the media on your news
- Design promotional flyers
- Organize events to draw crowds
- Write and send marketing emails
- Develop a strategy to attract more customers
Investing Your Money Where it Makes Sense
Yes, hiring marketing help will cost you money, but it’s an investment you can’t afford to not make. Investing in marketing will net you more sales and more customers, so in the long run, it will pay off.
Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Communications, a marketing firm specializing in content writing and social media management. She’s written three business books, including How to Get More Customers With Press Releases, and frequently blogs about small business and marketing on sites including Forbes, AllBusiness, The Marketing Eggspert Blog, and Tweak Your Biz. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.