Remember all those long-term projects and yearly goals you set for yourself back in January? Time for a mid-year reality check. How’s it going?
Summer can be a time to relax, and coast for a few months as seemingly everyone you know goes on holiday, your weekends fill up with BBQs, concerts and pool parties, and the kids are home from school and needing constant attention. But don’t let June, July and August get away from you as a small business owner.
There’s no better time to work on your marketing, sales and innovation goals than right now. This blog will help you push through the dog days of summer, make rewarding headway on your long-term goals and keep your business thriving.
Do a Mid-Year Check-in Instead of Checking Out for the Summer
I’m a photographer by trade, and have built several photography-based brands as my small business has grown. You might be in charge of a construction company, or a consulting firm, or a bakery. But the chances are somewhere in the goals you and your team set at the beginning of the year is a goal or two about marketing.
Did you plan to establish your brand’s authority? Are you aiming to make your website more approachable and user friendly? How about strengthening your social media presence to draw in more potential customers through helpful answers to common questions? If these goals sound familiar, keep reading.
The summertime is a great time to revisit your goals and double down on completing them before the end of the year. This is especially true if you own a seasonal business and summer is your slow time of year.
Common Goals and the Solutions You Need to Achieve Them
I’ve got solutions to many common long-term marketing goals for your small business. Let’s tackle common marketing goals and the solutions I can offer with services from Taylored Photo. I’m always aiming to provide solutions that can help you successfully conquer your goals.
GOAL: Establish Brand Authority
WHAT IS IT?
Brand authority is the trust your brand has earned among customers and the degree to which they view your brand as an industry expert.
SOLUTION:
Build out your blog, your website, your podcast and any social media accounts you use for your business with high-quality educational content that gives potential customers answers to the questions they are asking. You’ll build your reputation by being consistent.
By attending a Content Day s from Taylored Photo you’ll get eye-catching visual assets you can post quickly, easily and repeatedly that tell your story and show your expertise. If you don’t have a gallery of your own professional photographs then you’re relying on stock photography (which can be generic AND expensive), or worse yet, iPhone photos you’ve taken yourself – which makes you look like an amateur. You’re not an amateur brick layer, but you probably are an amateur photographer. Hire a pro to show you’re a pro.
GOAL: Update Marketing Materials to Better Reflect the Business
WHAT IS IT?
Your marketing materials may include business cards, headshots, direct mailers, print advertisements or any number of other pieces in your marketing arsenal. If yours are looking outdated or tired, you need to commit to redoing your marketing materials as your business grows.
SOLUTION:
Taylored Photo can help bring your marketing materials back to life with new or refreshed photography that reflects updates, upgrades and improvements at your business..
For example, if you’re like me, your mailbox is bombarded with mass marketing fliers, envelopes and magazines from companies like ValPak and The Home Mag. The same companies advertise in those things every month and many of them send out the same ad over and over. I’m sure they get results, or they wouldn’t keep advertising in them. But if you take time to analyze the ads from a design standpoint you’ll see that they’re filled with advertisements using poor photos. I frequently ask myself, “Who’s spending the money to advertise in these glorified coupon books but not spending the money on professional photos?”
Whether you’re considering a print piece or are going all-in on digital advertising, making use of good photography is always important. Stand out amongst the crowded messaging and advertising landscape your customers face on a daily basis by using personalized, professional photographs that reflect the level of service, and the quality products your small business offers. Spend some time this summer on the marketing materials that make better first impressions. Book a session, now so you can send fresh images to your ad designer. They’ll thank you and your customers will recognize the difference between the old you and the new you, or you and your competition.
GOAL: Make Website More Approachable
WHAT IS IT?
Like it or not, Google is your friend and your customers are more than likely finding you through the giant search engine. Once potential customers are on your website, they need to like what they see. If not, they’ll click back to the results and click on the next listing. Don’t lose them because your website isn’t approachable.
SOLUTION:
In order to immediately infuse people with confidence that they’ve found the right company to reach out to, and the professional that they need to solve their problems, your website needs to look the part. Broken links, “Coming soon” banners and unflattering photography & design elements are like poison. But it’s easy to correct this with brand photography, lifestyle photography, and product photography from Taylored Photo.
Start by clearly defining what you want your images to say, then choose some of your brand photos to match that message.
Make sure your brand photos fit onto your website and help to push customers to purchase, instead of distracting them.
Ensure your photos don’t make it hard for your site visitors to navigate it, especially when it comes to the digital shopping cart feature.
Brand photography on your website can help make difficult subjects clear, give more background to a process or system or add context to abstract topics.
GOAL: Strengthen Social Media Presence
WHAT IS IT?
While all the influencers of the world are busy trying to go viral, you should be using your social media pages to meet customers where they are. You’ll still want to tell your brand story and communicate why your company is worthy of someone’s business. This is more about putting your content in a format that matches the platform, than it is trying to keep up with the latest trend.
SOLUTION:
I suggest you sign up for one of my monthly Content Days with one of my professional photographers and like-minded small business owners and entrepreneurs. In these sessions you’ll get guidance and collaboration so that you can create a gallery of images you can dip into 3 or 4 times a week to create social media posts that are relevant to your business.
Attendance at one Content Day qualifies you to sign up for a 3-month membership which provides three Private 1-on-1 Content Days so you can really boost your collection of digital assets, and give your audience the content they crave.
Each session will get you enough incredible images to last at least a month, and just when it’s starting to feel like your posts are getting too repetitive, we’ll hold another 1-on-1 Content Day for you!
Make Hay While The Sun Shines
The long days of summer mean that you can spend all day behind the desk working on your business and still have daylight hours at quittin’ time to enjoy the outdoors. Get in touch with my team and I to join one of our summer Content Days. It’s a good way to get out of the office and do something different while still being productive. It’s time to make your summer plans include your business plans!
