One of the mistakes small business owners often make is to hesitate before taking action on online marketing strategies.

Why do they hesitate?

Why Small Business Hesitate to Take Action

They want to develop a comprehensive online marketing strategy that will work for now and years to come.

Yes, there is a value to doing long-term planning. The challenge is that new business owners often plan in a vacuum. They do not have a basis of understanding what will work for them. They can come up with a grand plan, take years to implement it and still get zero to no results.

One simple way to get started is to identify one strategy to work on and then start it.

Confusion comes when you try to implement too many strategies at once.

Do It Yourself or Get Help

You will certainly fail if you attempt to launch a blog, publish videos on YouTube, begin email marketing and start a social media marketing campaign. Unless you have help from someone who has been there and done that, attempting too much will cause you to crash and burn.

And for someone with a limited budget, help is usually not an option.

So, what does that leave?

Let’s take a quick example. Let’s say that you decide you want to launch an email marketing promotion. What are the steps?

How to Get Started Now

First, before using email to promote a product, service or program, I would recommend making a commitment to email marketing that includes adding value by sending nurturing messages that also build trust and rapport.

Second, decide how many email messages to send out per week. I do recommend emailing your list consistently over time. That requires thought, planning and follow through.

Notice, by selecting one online marketing strategy, email marketing, things begin to fall in place. And notice the amount of time and effort that will be required to support that strategy.

When you make a commitment, be prepared to follow through over time. Each strategy adds a new layer of effort in your business.

Once you are writing and sending value added messages each week, now it’s time to plan an email marketing campaign.

Identify your goals, select a specific product, service or program to offer and then begin the process to write copy for the emails.

Are there any drawbacks to this method? I think the biggest downside is that marketing often works best when you are reaching people across multiple channels of communication.

In an ideal world, you would launch a marketing campaign and reach people through email, social media, direct mail, online advertising and even by phone. Plus, you could also add in a live event for good measure.

For many small business owners this would be very overwhelming. Even if they had a plan, it would be difficult to execute it.

So, I want to encourage you that it is important to simply do what you can. Don’t feel you have to create the best marketing campaign ever. Marketing planning and execution is a skillset.

You can learn as you go. Try something. Measure your results. And then try something else.

Give it a shot.

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer