Chasing Two Rabbits

Small businesses want to enhance their marketing efforts and attract more customers without requiring a substantial financial investment. It can be done! Here are ten topics about advertising, marketing, and acquiring more customers without breaking the bank. We’ll discuss each of them in greater detail in the coming weeks one at a time. Maintain Visual Brand Consistency: Resources and tools for creating professional-looking graphics, logos, and visual content to maintain a dependable brand image across various marketing channels. Leverage Outreach Efforts: Local targeting and customer outreach are vital for businesses looking to attract customers within their geographic area. Many low-cost, high-reward options are available. Optimize Your Website: Ensuring excellent user experience (UX) on a website is crucial for businesses, especially in this age where consumers expect seamless, responsive, and intuitive online interactions. Develop Excellent Marketing Material: Strategies to build an email list, craft compelling newsletters, and update your sales literature and processes to nurture leads and convert them into customers. Execute Social Media Marketing Strategies: Guidance on leveraging platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, etc., effectively to reach a wider audience and engage potential customers. Implement Content Marketing on a Budget: Tips on creating valuable and engaging content such as blogs, videos, or podcasts that resonate with the target audience without requiring a huge investment. Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Techniques to improve website visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) organically, driving more traffic without spending on ads. Employ SEM: Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a crucial aspect of digital marketing for businesses, particularly for increasing online visibility, driving website traffic, and generating leads or sales. Engage the Targeted Community: Ideas for promoting the business within the local community through events, sponsorships, collaborations, and grassroots or ‘influencer’ marketing efforts. Track Analytics and Performance: Use free or affordable analytics tools for your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to monitor marketing efforts, measure ROI, and optimize strategies for better results over time.

No, they didn’t win the lottery! No, they weren’t the beneficiaries of a donor’s large estate. No, they weren’t a college or university – they seem to be the only organizations to net those big numbers these days. It was a library located in a town of about 10,000 people. Who was it? The Waverly Public Library, Waverly Iowa. You could say they were fortunate, or lucky, or blessed. They would agree with you, but, as the fundraising consultant chosen to help them, 1Vision Communications would add a few more “secrets” to their success. They were… Prepared At least two years prior, they had conducted a user and community study. They knew what the “hot” (fundable, in our language) areas of their expansion would be. Their Foundation led the way by getting all other volunteers, staff, and leadership involved. Organized This group understood the need for an oversight committee and then let us help them structure the remaining committees to accomplish the work. The top leaders were excellent at gathering volunteers to step into roles, both larger and smaller. Humble They listened. It’s an often-overlooked attribute, but they knew they needed counsel, they sought it out, and they followed advice. While these people were seasoned professionals in their own categories, they hired a us to supplement – knowing any consultant fee would be made up quickly in more and larger grants and donations. Hard-working Maybe this could be said of all Midwesterners, but the WPL team was exceptional at being persistent, committed, industrious, and creative – especially as it had to do with major donor calls, grant-writing, and communications . These are things that could describe your nonprofit, too, as it considers a capital or endowment campaign. Let us help you succeed.