At Wingman, our unique selling proposition (USP) states, “You don’t have to fly solo!” We mean this in every way possible. It is your objective. Wingman is here to help you achieve it.
How can a small business do it all?
Last week I was speaking with a fellow marketing agency owner and mentioned, “I have no idea how a single person at a small business can do all their own marketing effectively and efficiently these days.” Even with all the DIY tools and even with the onset of AI tools, out there, there is simply too many things to know and things to do. It is clear you need marketing “stuff’ done. That leads to the next hurdle—do you hire in-house professionals or contract out your “stuff” to an agency? Being a marketing agency ourselves, we are likely biased. But, at Wingman, we think the answer is easy.
Almost half of small businesses struggle with their marketing
According to a survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, 41% of Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggle with marketing and advertising. You do what you do better than anyone else. Agencies do marketing as the thing they do best.
The conversation above occurred as, even at our own agency, we were running into problems with a particular WordPress theme we were trying to import into a site. It got us thinking: Over the years, we’ve become extremely knowledgeable about WordPress and building out websites, but if we couldn’t do this one ourselves, how could a small business with little or no experience in WordPress expect to do it well on their own?
(See also, 11 Common-Sense Reasons to Outsource Your Marketing “Stuff” to an Agency)
Website must haves
And then we thought about other areas of building out a website. You probably should know:
- How will the site get found (SEO)?
- What messaging and copy to put on the page to search visits and interest?
- What images you should add, where to add them, what dimensions and file sizes?
- How to create a logo and a favicon for your website?
- How to format columns, spacing and the look and feel?
- How to choose website colors and fonts and make sure it’s all consistent with your brand?
- How to set up a contact form and connect to your email marketing automation platform
- How to set up thank-you pages?
- What to put in the navigation and footers so customers can easily get around?
- How to make sure your website loads quickly?
- And the list goes on…
Why in your business, you don’t have to fly solo
Then, we got to thinking about all the other things you probably want to do to market your small business:
- Build out a marketing strategy first plan aimed at building your brand among specific target audiences
- Set up your email marketing automation platform and send out frequent and triggered emails
- Purchase ads in search, display, social or video platforms and develop the creative necessary to implement those ads
- Create original content (articles, video, audio) you need to boost the brand
- Manage your social media channels with frequent posts
- Maximize your e-commerce or lead generation funnel (if you’re B2B or B2C)
Each of those areas above also requires specialized knowledge if you’re going to do it well.
It’s OK to Get the Help You Need
As we say, you don’t have to fly solo. Can a single person do all the above alone? In all the years I’ve been working in the field, I’ve never met one individual who could or one who could take on even many of those areas listed and do them even adequately. And even if someone could, he or she wouldn’t have time to do everything needed.
(Truth be told, it would be hard for a small team of people to do all the above well, much less one person.)
That’s why when it comes to marketing for your small business, you’re not alone. So, one way or another, if you’re going to grow, it’s going to be important for you to hire experts who do these things already for many companies. You can hire a full-time employee or employees or go with an agency. The one advantage of an agency like ours is that you can certainly save money over a full-time employee while still getting experience in that specialty.
How to Balance DIY vs DIFY vs DIWY
At Wingman, we work with many small businesses and everyone of them are worried about additional spending on marketing. So how do you balance the need for help with what you can reasonably do yourself/on your own? First, ask yourself a few questions:
- What are you good at? Do you do social or content development well? Are you good in front of a camera? Do you like writing emails etc.?
- What do you want to learn? We’re big proponents of small businesses taking a growth mindset when it comes to their marketing. Take an approach that allows people to value what they’re doing regardless of the outcome, as long as it’s in the name of learning. If you really want to learn something, keep trying different things and seeing the outcome. Do more of what was successful. Do less of that which is not. If you have a growth mindset and you’re willing to make mistakes along the way, you could become a perfectly fine <fill in the blank> if you stick with it.
- What don’t you want to do? Equally as important as knowing what you want to learn and what you’re good at is knowing what you don’t like doing. Maybe you can’t stand doing social media and you just want someone else to help.
- How much time do you have to spend on marketing? When you’re running a business, especially a small business, you must do everything – product development, accounting, sales, marketing, and customer service. Every hour you spend doing your own bookkeeping or your own marketing is an hour you are not doing what you are best at. How much time do you really have for marketing alone?
Conclusion
Answers to these questions will help you narrow down your list and keep costs low. But the main point remains. Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help. No one does activities like marketing alone. You don’t have to fly solo. Your marketing efforts should always be successful, but it should be clear you can’t fly solo. You don’t have to. We can help. Figuratively and literally, we are our clients’ Wingman.
Book a Wingman today
Want to find out how? Book a Wingman today for a needs assessment and initial consultation. In 30 minutes, we will show you how we have been able to say, “We got your six” and how we back that statement up.