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Small business owners who stem from GenX often find themselves dealing with a lot, even before it comes to marketing. On the one hand they have to run the business effectively and profitably, but on the other side they have to cope with the breakneck speed of technological advancements.
In most cases, however, just getting the basic right, and simplifying where you can, will get the job done.
Here are five marketing tips for GenX small business owners.
1. Upgrade your skill set.
You don’t have to be an expert at everything, but it helps to at least understand the basics of how everything works. If you will be handling or managing your own marketing, it stands to reason that you will need to understand the tools and marketing channels you work with.
However, even if you plan to outsource your marketing, it is still crucial to understand the very basics of marketing, especially when it comes to digital marketing.
We have dealt with clients in the past who had zero knowledge of marketing online, and found they usually fell into one of two categories:
a. They believe anything that anyone tells them, and have no idea which metrics to look out for. This makes them easy targets for “marketing agency owners” who have no idea what they are doing.
b. On the flip side, not understanding how marketing online works can lead to unrealistic expectations. We have had our share of instructions like “just use AI”, or “just put a video up on Facebook – where the owner had zero grasp of how much work was involved in actually delivering on their expectations.
You don’t need to be an expert or spend a fortune – a few well chosen books or short courses can make the world of difference.
2. Get your website sorted.
In today’s world, in most cases, you absolutely need to have a website. Having a website adds a layer of credibility to your business.
However, many small business owners, both seniors and younger, make one critical mistake when it comes to their websites:
Their main concern is how it looks.
Fair enough, depending on the market you serve, looks may very well be important. You cannot offer high ticket services (think lawyers and real estate) while having a website that seems to stem from the 2000’s.
However, in their quest for a great-looking website, many web designers tend to ignore the other things that have to be in place…
Things like simple, easy-to-understand navigation – which, if you get it wrong, can cost you up to 60% of your visitors. If your visitor cannot find what they are looking for, they are gone. Period.
Things like not overloading the home page with calls to action for different things. Keep it focused. The more choices you give someone, the less likely they become to take any action. Sad fact.
Illogical layout – people have come to expect to find certain pieces of information in certain places. If you reinvent the wheel, you are likely to leave some of your visitors confused.
Of course, things like making it as easy as possible to do business with you, and getting the wording right for Google, are non-negotiable.
3. Keep your costs low by avoiding expensive tools.
There are many fancy tools on the web. Many of them come with fancy prices too. However, as long as your turnover is low, there are plenty of cheap – and often free – alternatives you can use.
For instance:
Instead of using MOZ for keyword research, use Ubersuggest – it costs 10% of the price, and it will also help you find problems on your website.
Instead of spending $30 or more on software for a newsletter, use Mailchimp, or even Aweber’s free version. Both are relatively simple to work with, and both can be upgraded if you need more features later on.
Unable to post to social media at the right time? Use a scheduling tool. Using Buffer, you can schedule posts to three social networks for free.
4. Don’t splurge on high ticket marketing services.
Many senior small business owners are drawn to Google ads. They love the idea of (as it is promoted by many agencies) “being at the top of Google”.
The fact of the matter is that, in most cases, it is prohibitively expensive, especially if you add the fees of the agency doing it for you.
On the whole, working with a marketing agency can easily cost you several thousand dollars per month. While it may be money well spent if they get it right, what happens if they don’t?
Then you have no way of recuperating that money.
That’s why – at Lisech – we put our money where our mouth is: A low monthly fee, combined with a percentage of the growth in profit over a one year period.
That reduces the financial pressures of running marketing campaigns, while also freeing up your time – because we take care of all organic marketing.
Click Here to see how you can benefit from this approach.
5. Use social media – but don’t try to be everywhere at once.
Unless you are willing to spend loads of money on paid advertising, you will have to build an audience on social media. However, many small business owners want to “be on social media” (everywhere) instead of narrowing their focus.
If you fail to narrow your focus, three things happen:
a. It requires a lot more work, either in terms of your own time, or the time of the person you delegate or outsource to. Either way, it will cost you.
For instance – you cannot always use the same content everywhere. On Youtube shorts you cannot add your website address to the end of your video, while on Tiktok you cannot add a phone number. On Facebook reels you can add a clickable link in the description, but on Instagram, Tiktok and Youtube shorts, you can’t.
Add to that the time it consumes to not only upload to every platform, but to also be active on each one (most social networks reward you with more exposure if you are actively using the platform), and the hours add up very quickly.
b. Unless you have very deep pockets, the amount of time spent on each platform will be limited, resulting in slower audience growth for each platform.
c. Depending on who you want to reach, you may be pushing your content on a network that has very few of your ideal customers. For instance, Tiktok is mostly made up of younger people. Facebook is the exact opposite. Pinterest is mostly women.
Determine who you want to market to before deciding on which networks to focus on.
Ideally, we recommend that you pick ONE, and focus on it until you have it performing well. Then you can move on to the next, and grow it alongside the first one. How many you will eventually use, will depend on your target audience and your available time/money to spend on social media marketing.
In conclusion:
Marketing online can feel overwhelming for many seniors. And yes, if you choose to, there are loads you can learn.
However, if you stick to the basics, educate yourself on the basics, and avoid chasing shiny objects, you can build an audience that will increase in monetary value as time goes on.