Prioritize your marketing with these Easy Marketing Tips

It's easy to say "Easy Marketing Tips," but here's the reality: marketing is challenging when you're the CEO, CFO, and CMO. There's so much to tackle, and there's so much competing advice out there, where should you start? Here are four tips that will help prioritize your business's marketing needs.

1. Does your website work? Even if your website is incredibly simple -- just a link to your CV or gallery -- it can provide a lot of insight and ideas on how to attract more customers. One client of mine saw a lot of traffic coming in from local newspaper sources rather than social media, so when we successfully pitched an article idea about him, a lot of traffic and new business came in! To be able to do this successfully, an analytics tool is essential and should be integrated into your website. The best part? You can get this tool for free: Google Analytics.
2. My motto is "just because you can, doesn't mean you should." Why? We feel compelled to have a presence in all of these social media platforms, but it doesn't mean that it's right for your business needs. How would you find the right kind of platform? If you already have an account in most of the major social media platforms, don't entertain the ones that your audience are not on. For designers and photographers, Instagram is a great way to show your work visually, and Facebook is a great way to encourage social sharing of your work. But YouTube and G+? That's just unnecessary.
3. Anything and everything related to your business that is external facing should have consistent branding. Consistency, especially visual consistency, helps make your products and services more memorable and it will attract a more consistent stream of followers. No, you don't need to watermark every photo you put out on Instagram -- what I mean is that you must use your logo as the profile picture on social media, and not a picture of your dog even though he or she is adorable. Little details add up, especially if your work and profiles are publicly visible.
4. Do you have business cards? Even if you're an introvert, you'll never know who you'll meet. From networking meetings to lines at the grocery store, every day is an opportunity to talk about your business and what you can bring. However, remember that "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" -- it's essential to read one's interest rather than aggressively and straightforwardly selling your business.

Do you have an essential marketing tip you'd like to share? Comment below!