Feeling stuck with your marketing? Start here
If you've been putting off your marketing because you don't know where to begin, you're not alone. I speak to local Cambridge- and Suffolk-based small business owners regularly - they care deeply about their business but freeze when it comes to promoting it. Not because they don't have ideas, but because there are too many and no clear place to start.
I had exactly this conversation with a business owner recently. She'd been meaning to sort her marketing for months, but whenever she sat down to plan it, the sheer number of options left her stuck before she'd even begun. We talked it through, wrote a simple plan together and within a day she'd taken her first steps. Nothing complicated, just a clear next step and the confidence to take it.
This is the approach that helped her, and I recommend it to anyone in a similar situation.
Get clear on who you're actually talking to
Before anything else, know who your marketing is for. Not "everyone who might buy from me" but the actual people you want to reach. Where do they spend their time? What do they need to hear from you before they'll get in touch?
Skipping this step is why so many activities fall flat. A post can be well written and still miss the mark if it doesn't reach the right people.
Write down what you're actually trying to achieve
Once you know who you're talking to, get clear on what you want marketing to do for you. More enquiries? More local footfall? A stronger reputation in your area? It sounds obvious, but this step gets skipped more often than you'd think. You don't need a formal document. A page in a notebook works fine. Just be specific.
Pick two or three activities and commit to them
Trying to do everything at once is exhausting, and it rarely works. Choose a small number of activities that suit your audience, your business and your time, then stick with those for a few weeks before adding anything new.
A few options worth considering, depending on your business:
Boosting a social post to a specifically targeted audience
Getting out and talking to people face to face, if that's where your customers are
Sending a simple email update to existing customers
None of these needs a big budget. They need consistency and the right targeting more than money.
Build in a bit of structure
Uncertainty is often what stops people taking action, not lack of ideas. My client said it herself: having a proper plan meant she could focus her efforts, rather than everything staying vague in her head. A simple weekly or monthly schedule, even a rough one, takes away that "what should I do today" feeling and replaces it with something you can just follow.
Meet your customers where they actually are
For the lady at the end of my phone, that meant heading out to local businesses to talk to people directly, since hers is a community-facing business built on local relationships.
For another business, it might mean an active LinkedIn presence, a strong email list, or consistently appearing in search results. There's no universal right answer here, only the right answer for your audience.
Review against something specific
Once you've been at this for a few weeks, check it against something concrete rather than a general feeling. Are enquiries up? Are people mentioning where they heard about you? Is one activity clearly outperforming the others?
Small business marketing works best when it's an ongoing conversation you keep adjusting, not a one-off task to tick off.
Know when to bring someone else in
You can get a long way with a clear plan and consistent effort. But there's a point where an outside perspective helps, whether that's someone to sense-check your plan, take a task off your plate or spot something you're too close to see. There's no shame in that. It's often the difference between staying stuck and properly gaining momentum.
Getting stuck isn't a sign you're doing something wrong. It usually just means you need a clearer plan, the right focus and a bit of momentum. My client went from feeling paralysed to taking action within a day, and that's often all it takes.
"Thank you so much for your time and advice. It was incredibly useful and just the push I needed to get out there and make more progress. Having a proper plan helps me focus and takes away the uncertainty."
If you'd like a simple starting point, download my free, simple marketing strategy template to help you map out your next steps.
If you'd like some help putting a plan together for your own business, book a free 30-minute chat at bluelizardmarketing.com, no obligation, just a conversation.
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