I’m a big fan of the Pareto principle, more commonly known as the 80/20 rule.
It was named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who realised that approximately 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of its population.
For many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes, the ‘vital few’.
This 80/20 observation applies to a great many things. For example, you might have already seen that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers, or (less happily) 80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers.
As we step into the New Year and get back to business, the Pareto principle should be front of mind for small business owners who want to get better results with less marketing effort.
In this blog post, how to get better business results in 2022 with less marketing activity. Is it possible? Let’s find out.
1 – Have a clear strategy
What would you like your marketing to achieve in 2022?
Documenting your marketing strategy for the year ahead can be as simple as setting your headline goals, identifying your ideal customer, and drawing up a content calendar.
It’s also a reasonable time of the year to review your marketing activity from last year before deciding what to keep and what to scrap.
In setting your marketing strategy for the year ahead, put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer. Why should they care about what you do?
Now more than ever, it’s essential to stand out from the crowded marketplace with genuinely creative content that speaks to your desired audience.
2 – Tell the same stories
Consistency is critical when it comes to your marketing in 2022.
It takes anywhere from 15 to 20 brand touchpoints for a typical audience before your brand becomes front of mind.
We often see businesses make the mistake of reinventing the wheel, changing their marketing message on too frequent a basis.
Keep your brand story the same for as long as you can, and find creative ways to reimagine that story before sharing it with your target audience wherever they hang out.
3 – Batch content production
Work smarter, not harder, when creating content for your audience in 2022.
One approach we love is batching content production, getting our clients in front of a video camera to answer 20+ questions in a single sitting.
A few hours of filming can readily lead to 20 separate pieces of content, ready to share with your audience over the next month or so.
The hard work in filming content is setting up the camera, lighting, audio and space. Once you’re ready to press record, it makes sense to capture as much content as humanly possible during that session.
You can batch all sorts of content production, such as writing and scheduling social media posts for the week ahead or dictating the rough draft of several blog posts to send to your editor.
4- Repurpose your pillar content
I’ve written before about why content is king, but repurposing is queen.
If you’re creating digital content, make sure you squeeze every drop of value out of it through the repurposing process.
Create micro-content from longer-form content. An excellent example of this is the 60-second audiograms we make from longer podcast episodes and the 60-second videograms we make from YouTube videos.
Turn written content (blogs and articles) into podcasts and videos, and turn videos and podcasts into articles.
Bring together related content to produce a series in an e-book or online course.
There are so many opportunities for content repurposing in 2022, creating ways to inject a new lease of life into your existing library of digital content.
5 – Outsource to a marketing professional
As a small business owner, you wear a lot of hats.
Central to business success in 2022 is recognising which of your roles deliver the highest value to your business.
Outsource everything else.
Working with a third-party professional to create your content for marketing this year frees up valuable time for your highest value activities. It is likely to be the most effective way of getting your marketing done to a very high standard.
Bear Content creates compelling content that will engage your audience, build trust, drive traffic and generate leads – all while you focus on growing your business.
We save you time so you can do what matters most – running your practice or growing your business!
I would love to chat. You can schedule a no-obligation Zoom call in my calendar so we can share ideas for creating compelling content that will bring you closer to your business goals in 2022.
