Do You Have a Plan For Your Business for Next Year?
At Front Porch Marketing, we live and breathe small business marketing success. We love to see our clients grow and thrive, so we’re always sharing our small business marketing tips and tricks! Every week on our blog this year (and past years) we’ve shared some of our insider knowledge on websites, PR, design, content, social media, email marketing and all things marketing to help our readers build their business through marketing done right.
Rock Your Business With These Marketing Tips
Having worked with so many small and medium-sized businesses, in just about every industry, we’ve got quite a bit of knowledge to share. Maybe it might help you set your business up for success in 2023 too! Since it’s the year-end, we’ve gathered up the best marketing tips and tricks for you in the list below. So bookmark this page, and you’ll be building your marketing practice in no time. Need help implementing any of these marketing strategies or tactics? We’ve got you covered, just ask!
As we close out the year, we want to thank each and every one of you for reading our weekly blog, and newsletter. Let us know what you’d like to know more about, and we’ll try answering your questions in a blog post in 2023. We wish your business endeavors much success next year.
Reminder: its almost Gratitude Week — or as most people call it, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is one of our favorite times of the year. Why? Because there is much to be grateful for and so many blessings to celebrate. So here’s your gratitude reminder!
Gratitude for Those Around Us
On the Porch, we are thankful for our team, supportive families and friends, clients and advocates. We are always looking for ways to show our gratitude to our village. In doing so, we often have opportunities to create new, authentic connections as well.
Five Ways You Can Share Your Gratitude to Clients and Customers:
Share experiences. Host an event or invite them to attend events with the team. The time spent together is invaluable in building relationships and expressing gratitude toward one another.
Share socially. Acknowledge loyalty on your company’s social networks. Follow, like and comment on others’ posts.
Share financially. Donating to a cause they care about signals your attentiveness to what is important to them.
Share milestones. Commemorate birthdays, business founding dates, anniversaries together. Celebrating success is motivating and boosts confidence. We can all afford to celebrate more in life!
Share simply. Thank them at each touchpoint and in every interaction. A simple “thank you” goes a long way. Gratitude is a gift you can share any time of the year!
A Big Thanks from The Front Porch
Your clients and customers play huge roles in your success and should be reminded of your gratitude at every opportunity. So from all of us on the Porch, thank you to our own clients, customers, and readers of this blog. We appreciate you and wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!
Are you ready to tackle your company’s marketing must-have plans for next year? You’re in luck! We’ve simplified that list for you, to get you started. Your business success can be mapped out ahead of time with these five guideposts put in place to execute against.
Having a plan means you know what to do to build your business according to seasons, holidays, business cycles, trends and more. And, if you need help formulating any of these must-haves — or executing them, please ask us!
The Marketing Must-Haves:
1. Marketing Plan
What are your 2023 business and marketing goals? Define them now. Make a marketing plan. Then add in audiences, competition, SWOT, strategies and tactics. Know who you are and what you’re doing. Know what makes your company unique, and what your brand’s biggest benefit is.
2. Content Calendar
This important calendar includes social media and blogging as marketing initiatives. Know what you’re going to talk about every month and every week using this calendar. Take advantage of social media trends. Every content strategy needs a roadmap with dates, and this calendar is super helpful for engaging your consumer on a regular basis.
3. Marketing Timeline
Calendarize key events pertinent to your business, down to the day. Know what events to capitalize on for business success. Plan out when you will carry out campaigns for advertising, digital or print, as well as event pushes, PR and media relations, holiday and event marketing and more.
4. Marketing operations — including people, technology and analytics
Do you have the right team in place? Do you have enough team to get the job done next year? What tech and analytics tools do you need to execute and then evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies against your goals?
5. Marketing Budget
Once the four above have been defined, put numbers to each of them. Create a marketing budget that maximizes your impact. Plan for this budget quarterly, and then, manage to it monthly. Staying on track will pay off.
No matter the size of your business, start on your marketing must-haves now.
Take the guesswork out of what to do next week, next month, or just next with these five marketing must-haves for planning your next business year! We’ve seen our clients grow year over year when we help them set these must-have marketing goals in place. Then, we work together diligently all year to execute against them for business growth and success. It can work for you too.
Here we are. End of a season and that means a sports blog is imminent. I am a sports mom of two boy athletes. This fall season was extra special because we got a double dose of football with one on varsity and one on middle school. Here’s what we learned.
Our freshman is a football enthusiast, works hard and leaves it all on the field. However, we had little expectations for varsity field time because he’s a freshman. At the beginning an upperclassman parent asked: what position does your son play? Stumbling a bit, “we don’t really know yet” the response (in jest) was: “C’mon sports mom, you don’t know what position your kid plays?”
Well, yes, we knew what he wanted to play, but we didn’t know where he was going to fit in the team. He was a newcomer, learning a new system and building relationships. The first game on special teams he got a five-yard penalty on the FIRST play because of a major rookie mistake. He got his first sack in game four. His first strip and recovery in game eight.
He has had equal moments of failure and success on the field, he learned a lot about being a teammate, work ethic, leadership and most important to us — he had a TON of fun.
Sports Mom Takeaway: Be open to new roles and positions. Adopt the “put me in coach” mentality and learn as much as you can as quickly as you can to make a positive impact on your team.
Our middle schooler does dual sports in the fall. Watching him balance two sports with ease and grace brings us joy. In baseball he is a catcher, pitcher, and infielder. He didn’t pitch the first two tournaments. When he inquired with his new coach, he didn’t even know he was a pitcher, because our kid never told him! Faceplant moment here, friends.
At the next tournament we had two game injuries that took the other two catchers out for the season. We thought our kid would be behind the plate the rest of the season, because that was where he was needed. The next tournament he pitched two games. How? His coach knew it was important to him and found a catcher to help us so he could have his shot. He did well.
Takeaway: Respectfully communicate how you want to contribute and back it up with performance.
The dichotomy of having a freshman (who is watching the upperclassman) and an upperclassman – the 8th grader has been fascinating! Both are leading in their own ways. We have noticed student athletes (peers and opponents, underclassman and upperclassman) get wrapped up in titles, positions, and stats. A kid that is so wrapped up in their performance can became unrecognizable by his friends and family.
So, as a sports mom, tap the breaks if the stats are the drive. It’s a game. A game that can teach valuable life lessons, but it is still just a game. Here on The Porch we don’t take our titles too seriously; I have never sung or played an instrument in front of crowd but do try to deliver rockstar results on every project.
Final Sports Mom Takeaway: Don’t let titles (positions) and stats be your drive. Instead focus on learning and improving your craft.
Modern marketing is inherently a team sport. No one can win the game (or grow their business) alone. Different “players” with different skills must work together to produce results. So on to the next season. In the winter we play basketball, so the sports mom in me will no doubt discover more life lessons to share in the spring. Let’s play ball!
Sustainability is top of mind with consumers. They have more choice than ever on where to spend their money. So more than ever, companies are focusing on sharing their sustainability efforts with their customers. Does sustainability affect consumer buying? The data says yes.
ESG (Environmental, social and Governance) are the criteria used by companies to build value. They organize business objectives around sustainability-focused risks and opportunities. Initiatives can include customers, supply chain, and even employees of a company. So get started! Basically, start by tracking your company’s impact on the environment. Then, measure your sustainability. Finally, share the results. This process can influence consumer interest in your company, your products, and your services.
Sustainability: What is ESG?
The environmental, social, and corporate governance framework highlights three areas where companies can track their sustainability. This can illustrate their impact on the environment.
Environmental: Does your company strive to preserve the natural world? Chiefly, talk to your consumers about how you are addressing climate change, pollution, water management or greenhouse gas emissions. This information could take the form of a Sustainability Report at the end of the year. We do this for our client Acme Brick every year. You might apply content marketing on your website. Or use social media posts to highlight specific places where your company has excelled.
Social: Does your company focus on including and supporting a diverse community? Referred to as DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), this set of actions enhances employee engagement and retention. Firstly, this could look like employee spotlight blog posts. Or you can engage the public with PR. Additionally, you might establish and promote programs to broaden your talent pool. Or you could support employees by offering training programs, like our client Diamond Brand Gear does.
Governance: This aspect of ESG covers topics like cybersecurity practices, corruption prevention and management structure. Indeed, talking about your company’s efforts in these areas reassures clients that your company is solid. It can highlight innovation. Generally, you can share posts on LinkedIn touting an advance your company has made in one of these areas, as an example.
Consumers Want to Buy From Companies That Support Sustainability
Sustainability as a business goal is not a trend. Certainly, it is key to creating meaningful relationships with your customers and your employees. First, make sustainability your company’s business goal. Next, set up programs that support sustainability. Then, track and talk about your success. Therefore, this process is a fountain of content that you can share with your customers. Grow meaningful relationships with them centered on sustainability. And in turn, grow your sales based on your customers’ desire to make financial decisions tied to the social good your company is doing.
Is your brand looking dated or tired? Is it still representing your business the way it needs to? One of our new clients came to us for a social strategy and execution. That is what they thought they needed. But, upon initial discovery, we altogether realized that would be shooting money into the wind. What they needed was really a brand refresh.
How Do You Know When You Need a Brand Refresh?
Examine your brand! This is what we did as a team with this new client. First, we did a deep dive discovery process that included several steps:
A brand audit laid out all the brand’s existing materials like their website, collateral and social, to see if their branding is still relevant and representative of their current business.
Internal and external stakeholder interviews uncovered brand insights and allowed everyone to see the business through other’s eyes
A competitive analysis was conducted of the industry that the brand operates in, and who their competitors are.
The Conclusion? The Brand Needed a Refresh.
There are specific and necessary steps to take in a brand refresh to be thorough. We like to follow this tried-and-true plan when we undertake a company’s very important branding!
Project timeline – Stick to it and hold each other accountable. This will keep moving things forward with all eyes on the prize.
Brand pillars – Define your vision plus three other very important things. Want to know what those things are? We are happy to share them with you! And our process as well. Just call us!
Solicit feedback beyond the leadership team – The more internal buy-in throughout the entire process the more successful an initiative and brand your company will become. Your greatest ambassadors are your employees, so make them part of your branding process.
Testing of concepts – Your refreshed brand should connect with both internal and external audiences. So testing the concepts is important to find the clear choice.
Roll out plan – A disciplined execution of the branding roll-out plan will make your new brand refresh a success. Whether it’s a new logo, tagline, website, collateral or PR, timing is everything and having a plan is key to making the big splash you want to make.
We look forward to sharing the results of three brand refreshes we are currently working on. Coming to you this fall, y’all.
Successful email marketing can be a cost-effective way to market your business. When done right, you’ll be keeping your brand top-of-mind and become a trusted resource for your customers. They’ll look forward to your emails because you’ll be sharing your knowledge and solving their challenges.
Keeping your audience engaged with email marketing, as a part of your overall marketing strategy, is an excellent way to introduce new products, solve an on-going pain-point for customers, give a tutorial, keep your customers up-to-date about the industry, and more.
How Do You Do Successful Email Marketing?
There is a lot to designing an effective and efficient email campaign to be successful. The most important question to ask yourself: Are you leading with the audience in mind? Everything you do should be from THEIR perspective. It’s for them. Help them. Guide them. Solve their problems.
Then ask yourself: Are you overselling? Your brand and your products do not always need to be the hero in email marketing. Afterall, this is an on-going dialogue you’re having with your customers. Establishing a relationship is a longer-term proposition. Don’t oversell. Again, be helpful. Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself: What do I need? What will make my life easier or better?
Getting Started With Email Marketing: Do This Not That
Your email marketing is a fail if it doesn’t contain these four elements. Set yourself up for success by making sure these four things are included thoughtfully in each email you send:
Look professional — Make sure the email platform template is set for your brand fonts and colors. Design is key to successful email marketing as well — design a nice header and footer. Link to your social channels in your footer. Stay consistent from month to month with this template and your customers will start to recognize your email and your brand, and look forward to your next email.
Have a call to action — What can readers do to learn more? Use a button in your email that links back to your website where the reader will read more, download something, watch a video, contact you for more information or order a product. For instance, if you are linking to a blog post, tease them in the email, but don’t reveal the real scoop…ask them to “Read More” and click the button to go to your website for the rest of the insight.
Date and time — When do users want to engage and not unsubscribe? Many email programs like Mailchimp will tell you when the best time is to send emails to be successful. Statistically, Tuesday mornings are the day most people open their emails.
Don’t try too hard to sell — Engage your audience and don’t make the email be all your company. Again, be helpful: share hints, tips, tricks. Give away your knowledge and they’ll see you as the industry leader and come to you to solve their problems (with your products or your service.
Most Importantly: Be consistent.
Successful email marketing campaigns provide content to make readers’ lives better. They are informative, not sales-y. Email marketing campaigns provide value, real value, to customers’ lives consistently. Create a schedule using Google Sheets and plan each month’s topic, date, and assign responsibilities. After a while, it becomes easier and easier to stick to your schedule and create smart, thoughtful, nicely designed emails that make your brand the one that customers turn to again and again.
The definition of remote work (also known as work from home or telecommuting) is a type of flexible working arrangement that allows an employee to work from a remote location outside of a company office.
If you’re a Gen Xer like me, working remotely wasn’t in the realm of possibilities when you entered the workforce. You commuted Monday through Friday to your office. If you were lucky, you might have had a laptop and the ability to work from home one day a week. Video conferencing? What’s that? You sat in a conference room face to face with your colleagues. Jeans at work? Only on Fridays.
The Workforce Has Changed Tremendously
Fast forward to 2022, and the pandemic made many companies realize that employees don’t need to be located in the same building to be productive. And, because of this, more and more remote jobs are emerging worldwide every day. Here at Front Porch Marketing, we’ve always been remote, and it rocks!
For many people, gone are the days of worrying if you are going to be late to a meeting because you were stuck in traffic. Business casual and casual Fridays are a thing of the past. It’s business on the top, sweatpants on the bottom. Want to work in a different location? Just change your virtual background on Zoom. Work lakeside. Work from the beach. The options are endless.
Overcoming the Pitfalls of Remote Work
Working remotely definitely has benefits that can range from eliminating a long commute to more control over your work hours to spending more time with family. On the other hand, it can also have drawbacks. Whether you’re a long-time pro of telecommuting, or new to the game, let’s talk through three of the pitfalls people make working from home and what you can do to avoid them.
1. Not having a dedicated workspace.
While not everyone has an extra room in their home for a dedicated home office, it’s important to find a space that is free of distractions. Setting up camp from your couch or bed is ok from time to time, but is not advisable for the long term because it lessens your productivity and blurs the lines between work and home.
Think of your work space as your home cubicle. Maybe it means rearranging your bedroom to make room for a desk and chair. Or, do you have a breakfast nook or dining room that no one uses? If so, make it your own with a fun lamp and a picture or two, but most importantly, keep it simple and organized and solely focused on work. This home office environment allows you to set firm boundaries between work and home.
2. Household distractions.
Having the ability to do a load of laundry, being home for a repairman, or putting dinner in the crockpot are all benefits of working from home. But, if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself wasting a good chunk of your day working on household responsibilities instead of your work task at hand.
Utilize your work calendar by scheduling breaks and a dedicated lunch hour. Use short breaks time to take out the trash, fold a load of laundry or prep kids’ lunches for the next day. Your lunch hour is also a great time to run a quick errand, or get your blood flowing and go for a walk around the neighborhood. If you plan out your time, you’ll find at the end of the work day you have accomplished your work responsibilities and freed up some time in the evening by checking off a few nightly chores from your to-do list too.
3. Work-life balance.
If you are accustomed to being in an office, you more than likely are used to a set start and end time. Sometimes you might go in early or stay late, but typically when you leave the parking garage your work day is over. This isn’t the case when you work remotely.
While flexible hours are a benefit of working from home, it’s important to set boundaries. For some that might mean a set start and end time. Log in at 8. Log out at 5. For others, it might mean working chunks of hours to accommodate kids’ schedules. Whatever your work hours are, when you aren’t working log off your computer and turn off email notifications on your phone. Let your colleagues know this time is dedicated for family or personal time. When you have a balance, and time to disconnect, you will find you are happier and more productive while you’re working.
Remote Work is Here to Stay
It may take time to get used to a remote work environment, and find the schedule and tools and resources you need to be successful. Just know that more than likely you are not alone. Reach out to your colleagues and friends and family. They might have some tips and tricks to help too!
I get asked what it’s like to work with my mom, the boss of Front Porch Marketing, Chief Rocker Julie Porter. Well, let me tell you. It’s a lot harder than you would expect. Why? Because she expects so much more out of me and she knows that I’m capable of doing almost anything and everything.
Is work easier when your mom is the boss?
A lot of people usually say “oh she definitely lets you slack off” or “oh I bet it’s so easy”, but they couldn’t be more wrong. It adds a lot of pressure on me when I do work for my mom’s company, because I want to do my absolute best in order to impress my mom. I want to live up to her expectations of me. But, it is also very comforting to know that my mom is the boss and CEO.
The boss always has your back
While she is always challenging and expecting the most out of me I know that she will always have my back and be the most understanding when it comes to work. No matter what, there will always be someone in my corner. She also tends to have a great support system.
She surrounds herself with the very best team members which makes my situation a lot more comforting. Seeing her support all of her employees, and create a successful remote working environment makes it a lot easier and more fun for me to do work for her, and the other Front Porch Marketing team members. I don’t say it a lot but when it comes to working with and for her sometimes, I can be a little excited. While she has taught me a lot about marketing, she’s also taught me about running a business. Because she is good at this.
Takeaways from a summer internship with a parent
All in all, this summer has been great so far and it has been a pleasure to heighten my business relationship with my mother. I’ve learned so much from my mom the boss, that I can apply to college and my future job endeavors. I owe it all to her and I love her so much. Thanks mom!
Marketing items to high schoolers is very different than other age groups. High school means freedom. This includes the ability to get a job, drive, and buy things without asking parents.
Social Media
As the first generation born into technology, Gen Z has grown up with the internet. For high school students in particular, social media surrounds our daily lives, making it easy to access new products and reviews faster. When targeting a high school audience, the first thing you will want to do is create a social media presence, especially on Instagram and Tik Tok.
Marketing to High Schoolers with Trends
For products such as clothing or make up, it is important to follow trends. Stay up to date on the latest styles and aesthetics. In typical high school manner, everyone wants to fit in, this means providing products similar to the current high school style. In regard to social media, creating content that follows popular trends will increase the chances of your product being seen. For Tik Tok, use popular sounds with a unique idea, making the Tik Tok more likely to get on the for you page.
Accessibility and Inclusivity
High schoolers are cheap! Most income comes from a minimum wage job or allowance from parents. The price of a product can immediately deter consumers, especially if is not a well-known name brand. Make sure the price is reasonable for the product. It is also important to make products inclusive to all ethnicities, body types, and genders. Exclusion can create bad reviews and overall dislike for a company.
Visuals
Once the consumer has clicked on the website, visual organization is a key part of reliability and user attention span. As someone who frequently purchases products from Instagram or Tik Tok, the first thing I notice is the website’s aesthetic. If a website looks low quality, chances are the product is also low quality. By using attention grabbing visuals and colors, while also maintaining the clean look, users will trust the product more. Secondly, in a world of 15 second Tik Toks, the average attention span is much shorter. When websites are difficult to navigate, most users will simply give up. By making products easy to find through a search bar or navigation tabs, people are more likely to stay on the site.
When Marketing to High Schoolers, Think Like One
Overall, when marketing to a younger audience, it is important to think like a high schooler. What you may like or dislike, could be completely different because high school is its own world. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I see a product that would be amazing if one little thing was changed, such as a childish image or an older print. Step outside of your world and think like you are 17 again!
