Websites, blogs and search engine optimization yielded the best return on investment in 2023, according to 16 percent of marketers surveyed for Hubspot’s The State of Marketing 2024 report.
But wait. Another 16 percent said social media shopping tools had the best return.
And another 14 percent said paid social media content worked best. Another 14 percent sang the praises of email marketing. Yet another 14 percent said content marketing yielded the best ROI.
Confused?
It’s OK, but there is a lesson here for small businesses and solopreneurs with small marketing budgets. Any of these marketing methods can work for your business if you choose just one and focus on doing it well.
Start With What You Know
How do you know which to choose? Start with what you know. If you don’t have an email list, don’t start with email marketing (although start collecting addresses ASAP).
Do you know enough about SEO to be dangerous or have a trusted adviser / agency who can talk you through it? Focus on making sure your website is nice and shiny for the search bots.
Are you comfortable with social media? Find out which ones (Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, Pinterest, etc.) your customers use and focus there.
And after you choose, don’t give up. Pay attention to the metrics. Learn. Experiment. Fine-tune.
Whatever you do, don’t just "set it and forget it." That’s no investment, and it won’t yield any return.
One Person’s Jargon …
One person’s jargon is someone else’s vocabulary. The subject line of a recent edition of the Please Advise email newsletter was "25 words every marketer should know." It includes "engagement," "metrics," "conversion," "SEO," "analytics," and many other words that are on my jargon hit list.
Same words, different target audience. The folks that publish Please Advise (they’re in the Pittsburgh area, by the way) are writing for marketers and those who want to be marketers. I’m writing for small businesses that want to understand marketers.
And, yes. I’m stealing the list.
Another Way to Read This
I believe there are more small business owners and solopreneurs who would appreciate my newsletter, so I’ve started publishing it on LinkedIn. I’ve thought for at least a year about taking this step, but I didn’t pull the trigger until last week.
And I’m going to step up the pace on LinkedIn to publish every week. You’ll still receive the email-only version every other week.
When I started writing this newsletter I wanted to prove to myself that I could ship it every other week. This is newsletter No. 84, and now it’s time to see if anybody beyond my faithful band of email subscribers thinks it’s worth reading. Scary.
The next newsletter arrives May 21 – almost Memorial Day! Have you got any summer vacation plans? I expect to celebrate one of my favorite days – National Golf Lover’s Day – on May 10. Of course, Mother’s Day is coming up on May 12.
Until next time, be grateful. Be generous. Be patient. Love.
Thanks for spending some of your time with me, . I appreciate you.
Mark
P.S. - This newsletter was 100 percent created by me, a human.
P.P.S. - Some links in this email might be affiliate links, which could generate small commissions for me at no extra cost to you.
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