As a small business, you’re probably looking to grow your business on the cheap. Especially now, during the recession, it’s important to launch an effective marketing campaign for your customers and prospects that bring value to them. I’ll go over three tips to building a great campaign for your small business that you can start implementing today.
It’s sometimes challenging getting past the first hurdle of building great campaigns — or follow-up sequences as we call them — in Infusionsoft. It’s challenging because as a marketer, you’re thinking of all the small details with the end in mind. We know that and lately, I’ll be sharing tips to build awesome campaigns with Infusionsoft so you’re poised to grow.
In an effort to help spark the great ideas for launching a great campaign with Infusionsoft, I’ll share three solid tips that should ignite the entrepreneur and marketer within.
1. Map Your Processes, Now and Later
The best piece of advice I can share with you before you use Infusionsoft is to have a plan. Marketing requires a plan, a strategy and a goal in mind. As you jump into Infusionsoft have a few goals that you intend to accomplish. It may be to create new efficiencies in your business, to attract and follow-up with leads, it could also be to build more customer loyalty and engagement.
You can map your processes with mind-mapping software and other document-sharing apps. Marianne Franco previously blogged about process mapping with flowcharts, it’s a hit on the blog and worth a good read to help you build good, logical marketing plans. (Also, check out DIY Free Small Business Software Kit for apps to help you be productive in your business free.)
2. Look Around You and DON’T Do it
I’m partially kidding. Look around you and see what types of marketing works. The operative word here is “works,” meaning what makes you think, makes you click, makes you Google a brand. Those are almost, more than anything, marketing campaigns at work. Equally as important, see what competitors are doing and don’t do those, do something unique, creative and even unheard of. Try something unique — capture leads without a ‘free report’ and qualify leads on a more specific nature.
Google around for different industries and goals and sign up for their marketing promos and see what they do. Look at the marketing you get, the direct mail and even the emails in your inbox. Why do you get them and could you implement similar successful campaigns for your business?
3. Use all Your Resources, Learn & Share
In the past year or two, we’ve improved dramatically at making the software more intuitive to use. However, like any powerful suite of marketing tools, it takes time, practice and comfort to be able to fly through the app like we do. Here’s a secret — we’ve published a bunch of tips, tutorials and guides that help you be successful with the app and answering questions. If you haven’t accessed these, I recommend you use them, browse them and search them so you can master Infusionsoft, not let it master you.
- Fusebox – The complete help and support center for Infusionsoft users. (If you’re logged in to your app and go through the Help menu, you can ask questions and stuff.)
- The Launchpad — The launchpad is the place to explore the best ways and guide you through building campaigns step-by-step with Infusionsoft. (Of course, nothing holds you back from using your existing marketing software.)
- Community — The Infusionsoft community at large is an understandably diverse one; as entrepreneurs, a lot of your businesses are unique but could experience similar questions. On there, you can connect and post questions among other small businesses and get advice on how to go about marketing or building a campaign within Infusionsoft. (Sidenote: I got big plans to revise and update the community so it’s more user-friendly and better experience.)
Better marketing campaigns start with a strategy in mind. Some of the best marketing campaigns have been total accidents, and sometimes the most well-thought campaigns fall flat. It’s about creativity and empowerment of your customers for things to fly. With any marketing app, it’s about the time you invest in learning and applying your marketing knowledge. Getting the time do that is tough, we know; we also offer additional services to help you with that.
This is just the beginning of a few more posts on making impressive, effective and fun campaigns with Infusionsoft. Of course, if you have a suggestions, you’re totally invited to chime in. As we begin lining up how to make great campaigns in Infusionsoft, what challenges do you have in building your follow-up sequences?
[Photo by jurvetson on Flickr]
Posted In: Marketing Automation
