Employees who work on small teams may need to play multiple roles to ensure everything runs smoothly. That sometimes means, with such limited resources, that that same small company may not be able to have a dedicated full-time marketing person to help them reach their full potential as a brand. That’s why we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:
“When you have a small team, you may be limited in the amount of work you can put out. What’s one strategy you have for expanding marketing efforts with limited resources and a small number of employees?”
Marketing with Limited Resources
Here’s what YEC community members had to say:
1. Create a Culture That Encourages Referrals
“Create a culture worth talking about. The best referrals come from people you know. Who should know you better than your own employees? Ensure they love the work they do and they will become your biggest champions, sharing your story and your work through social, during business events and over dinner.” ~ Britt Fero, PB&
2. Strategically Consolidate Your Team Roles
“Many roles that would be divided up among several people at most agencies have been strategically consolidated, allowing us to maximize efficiency and workflow. With expert producers in project management positions, it increases efficiency and gives our clients a streamlined experience with a focus on the campaign. We can effectively compete and win business against agencies much larger than us.” ~ Justin Lefkovitch, Mirrored Media
3. Focus on One Channel at a Time
“Focus on one channel and double down until you hit a peak. Small teams overextend themselves with an omnichannel approach. Failing to maintain a dozen channels simultaneously harms the brand more than it helps. Instead, find the best channel your prospects rely on and ensure the whole team is laser-focused there. Once you scale enough, add a second one to the mix.” ~ Mario Peshev, DevriX
4. Create a Content Calendar
“Create a content calendar for your blog and social media presence. Though it’s a lot of work to create a year-long content calendar, the payoff in overall time saved, optimized content creation and the sharing it will result in makes it worth it. Creating the calendar will help you meet deadlines, take advantage of relevant dates and optimize your content sharing.” ~ Brian David Crane, Caller Smart Inc.
5. Develop and Optimize Standard Operating Procedures
“Create standard operating procedures and see where steps can be automated. Automating outreach and client acquisition is much easier with the heavy weaponry we have in the marketing SaaS space. Having a lead qualifier through an outsourced virtual assistant closes the loop and makes marketing effective, cheap and scalable.” ~ Richard Fong, Ready Green
6. Repurpose Your Content Pieces
“One of the best ways to expand your marketing efforts with limited resources is to recycle old content. Be aware of all of the formatting requirements in the beginning. For instance, you can turn a blog post into a newsletter, social media posts, a video series or even a webinar. Be smart and strategic with the resources you have.” ~ Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC
7. Add a Chatbot to Your Website
“If you want to improve your marketing efforts, consider adding chatbots to your website. Many business owners fall into a trap and hire a big support team, and other areas of the company suffer. You can use chatbots to handle simple customer requests, like password changes. You’ll also have the added benefit of the chatbot instantly contacting new users, which frees your team up for other tasks.” ~ John Turner, SeedProd LLC
8. Stay Focused on Daily Activities
“Business owners with small teams should focus on daily activities if they want to see their sales and conversions increase. Large teams can easily plan months in advance and work through the various marketing platforms at their disposal. You could benefit from looking at your campaigns and prioritizing your small team to handle various daily tasks that help you advance your marketing goals.” ~ Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights
9. Develop a Podcast
“Podcasts are still a very new space and many brands have yet to join the ranks. So if you can develop a great podcast for your niche and invite great guests, you can provide great content to your customer base and prospects, and also leverage the network of your guests as they promote you to their audience.” ~ Rishi Sharma, Mallama
10. Work With a Marketing Agency
“Work with an agency that can act as an extension of your team. My company works with plenty of companies that have two- to four-person marketing teams and utilize our agency as an extension of the team. It’s lower risk than hiring five new people, and an agency should bring additional expertise, technology and relationships to the team.” ~ Kelsey Raymond, Influence & Co.
11. Follow the Pareto Principle
“The good old Pareto principle says 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. If you have very limited resources, identify your 20% and direct your best efforts on this chunk. Later on, when you are able to afford more people on board, you will go back to all the things that you left behind and make them work as well.” ~ Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
12. Hire Freelancers to Fill in the Gaps
“An easy way to expand your marketing efforts on limited resources is to use a third-party platform like Upwork to hire and engage awesome freelancers. You’ll find well-reviewed contractors who can work with different budget constraints to achieve your goals. I grew my small business initially using virtual assistants until I could hire someone.” ~ Rachel Beider, PRESS Modern Massage
13. Leverage Influencer Marketing
“A useful strategy is influencer marketing, which is partnerships that are generated in exchange for products or services. This represents an opportunity to manage marketing without investing large amounts of resources.” ~ Kevin Leyes, Leyes Media & Team Leyes, by Leyes Enterprises
14. Automate Your Marketing Processes
“Marketing automation helps businesses automate their processes so they don’t have to perform those actions manually. It saves time and resources and makes customers happy because you get to them faster. Even with a small team, you can use automation to improve operations and grow little by little.” ~ Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
15. Invest in an Integrated Sales and Marketing Platform
“One strategy for expanding marketing efforts with limited resources is to invest in an integrated sales and marketing platform. If you have everything in one place, it will be easy for your team to automate processes such as email sequences, paid campaigns, assigning leads, reporting, etc. This will allow your team to cover more tasks. It’s all about working smarter and not harder.” ~ Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME
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This article, “Small Team? 15 Tips for Expanding Your Marketing Efforts With Limited Resources” was first published on Small Business Trends