Studies have shown that businesses collectively can lose up to $116 billion in revenue due to poor marketing choices, ignoring data, and letting their marketing fall off the radar. 

But as an SMB, how can you enhance your marketing campaigns and make your bucks work in your favor?

These days, consumers learn more about local businesses online than anywhere else, so they will know, but do you know them?

Not only do you need to know your target audience, but you need to be them, too. The more you know about who they are and what they need, the easier it will be for you to hone your marketing so it speaks directly to the person who needs to hear your message. 

What exactly do you know about your customers? Who are they? What do they need? How do you fit into the equation, and what are their expected results? If you don't know this, there is no way your marketing can hit the mark. 

Look at the customer journey with your business and break it down. Where do they first find out about you, why are they looking for what you sell, and what do they want from you? These details, along with their demographic, location, and browsing habits, can be easily identified using data left behind from their online activities using the analytics at your disposal.

Keep in mind that 60-80% of consumers ignore paid ads, so using this option as a lazy marketing means to find people can fall flat. You should be making an effort to find out what type of marketing they respond to and putting this into action for you.

Outsourcing, in a nutshell, allows you to lean on the skills and expertise of other companies to support what you. Outsourcing parts of the business that take up too much time or are beyond your skillset can help you push the boundaries of what you can. The same applies to integrating new software. Automation and using software to help you run the business in different ways will give you a boost and make things so much easier.

When it comes to marketing, data analytic software, or CRM software, can give you the information you need to craft your marketing campaign. At the same time, marketing agencies can work with you to use this information effectively to bring your marketing to the right people.

Take the energy sector; the community solar lmi platform allows you to quickly find low to middle-income families and help them discover the benefits of switching to solar energy. Using their tools and databases, you can reach out to people without spending time finding them and making connections. 

"On brand" seems to be a bit of a buzzword, but in the modern business world, consumers want to know the company or people behind whom they do business. They want an authentic experience and to spend money with people who believe the same as they do. However, avoid putting on an act; this won't work. As such, you need to ensure you have a clear company message and ethics, which are constant and displayed across all of your communications, be it your website, social media marketing tools, or face-to-face interactions.

Do you have goals for your marketing campaign? If the answer is no, then you shouldn't set up any marketing as there will likely be no clear results for you.

Goals for your marketing efforts can help you guide your decisions and measure your performance. If you need 100 extra sign-ups for a course you are running; this should be a key metric for your marketing campaign. If you need to increase sales by a certain percentage, this should guide how you market and the ferocity of your campaign. 

If retention is the name of the game again, your marketing needs to be heavily focused on existing customers and retaining their loyalty over bringing in new ones.