How to Invest in the Growth of Your Business Despite An Uncertain Economy With the economy in flux, many entrepreneurs are restricting marketing dollars. This is the perfect time to allocate dollars and dominate your industry.
By Julie Lokun, JD Edited by Micah Zimmerman
Key Takeaways
- Invest in marketing when competitors retreat to grow brand authority fast.
- Define your ideal client clearly before choosing lead generation platforms.
- Use public relations and press releases to amplify credibility and reach.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The current state of the union is causing economic stress for entrepreneurs. The economy is proving to be wobbly and uncertain. A collective tightening of purse strings is leading many consumers to tighten their purse strings, which is triggering business owners to retract from marketing efforts. However, this is the perfect opportunity to rethink your strategies and take advantage of gaps in the marketplace.
My client base is echoing this sentiment, and their first go-to response is to clamp down on expenses and tighten their wallets. As we dive deeper into this mindset, the trickle effect of reducing expenditures will be a big mistake, as it will impact the longevity of this financial deviation. This trickle effect will seep down into every marketplace sector and will lead to the strangulation of many new and upcoming entrepreneurs.
This is the time to invest in your brand's authority. There is an opportunity right now to expand growth, reach, and capital by allocating resources with laser strategies. While your competition is constricting, you can expand. One of my clients, Deborah Griffiths, of Broken to Boldness, a coaching business that assists women, post-divorce, write their stories, initially was reluctant to put money into her business.
Griffiths said she was initially nervous to invest in her brand because she didn't believe there would be a return on investment. She didn't think spending money was necessary to make money, but after taking small steps to expand her reach through lead generation platforms and social media advertising, she said the results are now proving fruitful.
I support a proactive approach of allocating marketing dollars to lead generation platforms, like Thumbtack or social media platforms, to reinvigorate her client base. She saw the opportunity to carve out a powerful voice in her market while others were taking a step back. With precision, we aligned her brand by advertising on Facebook, investing in meetups, and purchasing media placements, which recognized her as an authority. This pay-to-play model is now paying off in dividends.
Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Thrive Through the 5 Stages of Business Growth
This is how you can build your client base today
First Tip: It is important to understand your client base before investing in various platforms. Understand what their pain points are and go deep into their psyche.
Let's dig into this and ask yourself:
- Who is your desired client?
- What keeps them up at night?
- How old are they?
- Are they male or female?
- Where do they shop?
- Do they have a family?
- What job do they have?
- Where do they live?
- What is their income?
Once you have a microscopic lens on who your ideal client is, write out a clear sentence or two to describe this person.
For example: My ideal client is a 40-50 year old woman, who is liberal in her views, enjoys assisting others post-divorce, has a strong sense of herself and who has gone through immense trauma. She is healed and wants to help other women share their stories of trauma to triumph, but does not know how to get clients.
Now that you understand who your audience is, ask yourself, "Where do they live"? Do they spend time on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and at Live Events? Do they attend Meetup? Do they follow iconic thought leaders like Gabby Bernstein or Tony Robbins?
Once you zero in on where they hang out, invest money in that platform. You can be hyper-targeted and can grow your niche when others are scarce with their resources. This is an opportunity for you to dominate an audience while others are taking a step back.
Related: Invest in Growth or Cut Costs? 3 Things Top Companies Do Well Despite Economic Uncertainty
Second Tip: While you are unilaterally investing in different platforms, do not forget the power of public relations. Grow your authority on a broader scale and leverage your expertise beyond social media. Public Relations grows your brand in the mass media.
You have the power to be your own PR pro and spread your wisdom on bigger platforms. The mass media need quotes from experts. Use tools like Qwoted or Featured to get featured in publications like USA Today, Inc., Psychology Today and more. You simply need to create a powerful profile and pitch journalists on these platforms.
Do not forget the power of the press release to build your authority. Writing a press release is a simple way to reach out to local news outlets. This release should be impactful and newsworthy. If you see an issue that is affecting people in your community, write about it and use your knowledge to provide a solution. The news release should be concise with a clear call to action.
Invest in a newswire that disseminates your press release to a wider region, like EIN Newswire. A newswire is a powerful tool to get your message out to massive media outlets instantly. You simply upload your article to the site, press a button and within hours, news outlets like NBC, FOX and similar digital outlets will pick up your story.
Investing in a press release increases your domain authority and can be used in perpetuity to prove that you are an expert in your field. A press release improves your SEO, allows indexing in Google News, gives third-party validation, and long-term discoverability.
Whether you are a service provider, a solopreneur, a content creator, or dabbling in a side hustle, investing in digital platforms and building out your authority is imperative. This is the time to strike while others are bootstrapping their business with no direction. The time to strike is now. After all, fortune favors the bold.
