Marketing tips for senior entrepreneurs are vital for every business owner, especially when marketing trends are changing so quickly. Here are some simple tips to put you on the correct path. 

Thanks to the digital world evolving every single day, marketing techniques change as well. As an entrepreneur, you should be on-trend with everything that’s going on. Here are a few tips and tools you can use to market your small business marketing plan to flourish.   

The best quote I’ve heard for managing your business is …

Automation is to your time what compound interest is to your money

• Rary Vaden

Update your social media

Social media has become the epicenter of marketing, whether you are selling products, entertainment, or providing services to your clientele, social media is the way to go. You should also have a website design company that can fully integrate your website with your social media efforts. 

There are numerous ways in which you can improve your marketing strategies on social media. There are two components to successful social media management. Here are the basics:

1. Set up the social media pages where your customers and potential customers live. What may work for one may not work for the other. Facebook is king, but many of the younger audiences may be more prevalent on Snapchat or Tik Tok, for example, whereas executives may tend to frequent Linkedin or Twitter. So do some research.
2. Set up a time-effective management tool, such as Hootsuite, or Ecllncher.
3. Setup an email newsletter, such as MailChimp, Constant Contact, or Zoho Social.
4. Make sure you brand your pages and optimize keywords in the About section.
5. Embed the email newsletter signup on your website.

Once you’ve created them begins the hard part. You have to be prepared and schedule time to manage the pages, consistently, at least an hour a day. Secondly, you need to define what you’re going to say, and when. To best accomplish this, it is advised that you create a Brand Bible, something taught to me by David Ciancio (Rev) a food influencer in New York City. This consists of:

• • your short message capturing what your business is about,
  • who your target audience is,
  • what your UVP (unique value proposition) is,
  • problems your potential clients face, and your solutions, among other things.

For more on this, schedule a free consultation.

Once you identified your content and scheduled it,  you can create eye-catching Instagram posts with Adobe Spark Post, a handy Instagram post maker. This editing tool is easy to use, you just pick a template and then familiarize your post by choosing a suitable font, color, design, and editing the texts to your liking. You can also use Avatar Cropper to quickly take your square image and place it in a circle for social media profiles.

Using social media is a fast and cost-effective way to build community followers, enhance brand awareness, and most importantly increasing your sales. However, just like in real life, social media shouldn’t be used to simply blast sales messages. Engage with viewers just like if you met at a party or networking event. Talk to them find other areas of common interest. And most importantly, educate by posting information that your community would like to see, which in turn will raise your profile as an industry thought-leader. 

Reviews and testimonials

Today, everyone looks at reviews before committing to buying anything. Great reviews are like referrals, customer reviews are very vital. Even bad ones can be used to your advantage, by responding clarifications, and/or steps you’re taking to avoid client dissatisfaction. 

To score positive reviews from your customers, make sure that the product or service that you offer is worth every dollar a customer pays. A smile on a single client’s face might result in five or ten more regular customers. And if you get a negative review, turn it around by quickly responding to acknowledge their grievance and explaining how you’re making changes to ensure better service, perhaps even giving them a discount to try you again. 

Marketing tips for senior entrepreneurs

Get out of the store/ office

Whether you are a home-based business or have rented a local shop, it’s crucial that you get to know your customers outside work. Being social and creating relationships with your clientele builds a sense of community around your product or service. 

Attend local seminars, go to flea markets (depending on your product), attend local events and fairs to spread the word about your business. Sharing flyers and posters are also a great way of getting the word out. And, simply going to your local after-hours bar gives you the opportunity to meet new people and build relationships; either as a potential customer or building industry network collaborators. 

Study your competitors

When researching ways of how to improve your marketing strategy, look into what your competitors are doing to attract more customers. Is what they’re doing working, or not? You needn’t reinvent the wheels; take what’s there and simply aim to make it better. See if your listed in the more than 70 location-based directories and if all your info is consistent. Get free scan here.)

If they run ads on Facebook, or other platforms, look into their strategies and start cloning winning techniques. With the clients you already have, you might end up being in the front line of similar businesses in the locals.

Create an online store

Be open-minded to new ideas, this might be confusing or strange in the beginning but might end up being the best decisions you make for your business. 

Think about hiring someone to create an online store for you. Online stores have become so popular that platforms like Facebook and Instagram have created pages where entrepreneurs can open shops. Think of them as an expansion to your own website store. 

Alternatively, you can opt for shop-exclusive platforms like Amazon, and eBay, or Esty.

Lastly, and Most Important 

Create a plan

Yes, creating a plan should be part of your marketing strategy. Actually, the first step, in fact. The marketing process is crucial to your business. Without a plan, it’ll be like being lost in the middle of nowhere without GPS. 

When creating a plan, you should have these questions in mind; 

• What is your UVP (unique value proposition?
• What’s your financial goal and at what amount of time do you want to achieve it?
• At what price are you launching your product or service?
• What’s your target audience and do you have existing customers? 
• What are your biggest challenges?

With this in mind, you’ll have the necessary measures in place of how to introduce your product into the market. 

With the above tips in place, you are now ready to launch your product or service into the world. It might sound overwhelming, but it’ll all be worth it in the future. However, if you need a little help, contact our consulting team, view the consulting page (don’t see what you need, just ask! we’ve been profiled in many magazines). Or schedule a free consultation. and we’d be happy to help. If you’re an existing customer, you can always create a ticket. 

This article was contributed to by seniorfriendly.info; offering Tips, Tricks, and Advice to Stay Active and Engaged as You Age