Ben Duchesney — December 12, 2019 
When you’re the one doing everything for your business, it’s easy for marketing to fall by the wayside. We get it — you’re busy worrying about the day-to-day and putting out fires, but to stay in business, you need more customers. That’s where your website comes in.
While you’re busy running around managing your business, your website can be working just as hard by bringing in new customers, making sales, engaging current customers and answering questions.
To keep your marketing strategy (and your website) working, you should try to send an email, write and/or update content on your website, and tell the world about your business on social media — with a link to your website.
Take a look below at an example plan to promote your website — and keep up your online marketing efforts — in just 45 minutes per week.
The first 15 minutes – send an email
Your email list is a great place to start when trying to get attention to your website. After all, your subscribers signed up and specifically opted in to receive news and updates from you!
Before you start checking your inbox and getting caught up in the day, spend a few minutes creating an email and schedule it to go — either on the same day, or later that week.
The type of emails you send is up to you! Whether your email is content or promotional depends on your marketing strategy, but an 80:20 split (80% content and 20% promotional messages) is recommended for optimal customer engagement.
After you’ve thought through your online marketing strategy, you’ll likely have a list of email ideas ready that just need to be set up (If not, check out these email campaign ideas!).
When it comes to scheduling your emails, experiment with different days of the week and send times until you learn which times work best with your audience.
The next 15 minutes – write (or update) content
Next up, you’ll want to consider taking 15 minutes to update the content on your website.
When is the last time you updated your photo gallery, added an announcement, or optimized your email signup forms to keep growing your email list?
Keeping your website as fresh as possible will keep your customer engagement high, meaning they’re likely to visit your website more often, be happier interacting with your brand, and more motivated to purchase your products or services.
The last 15 minutes – be social
All of the work you just put in updating your site and making it as customer-friendly as possible is great! But you still need to tell your audience about it so they know there’s something new to check out.
If you’re not sure what to say on social media, talking about your new site changes or content updates is an easy place to start. Don’t just send out one tweet or Facebook post though — schedule a series of social posts to send out throughout the week.
You’re devoting time to social media marketing for two main reasons. On the one hand, you want to get past customers to return to your website to purchase from you again. At the same time, you want to introduce new customers to your business and give them an experience so good that they will go tell their friends about it.
Give customers — both old and new — a good enough reason to head to your website. Tell them how you can solve their problem or offer some value that keeps them going to your business online, instead of to your competitors.
Don’t even have 45 minutes? Start with 15.
You might have your hair on fire and be running around trying to get things done, with not even 45 minutes to spare, but you don’t need to do it all at once. Take one of these 15-minute chunks and break it up until you get it done. Start a project when you have a little spare time, such as updating your site content, and slowly chip away at it until you’re finished. The important thing is to take that first step.
Remember — making time to promote your website is worth it to your business. Not only does a fresh and up-to-date website help with customer engagement, but it also helps you to get found in search engines. Google and other search engines take note of how often a page has been updated and present the most up-to-date information on a search results page.
If your site hasn’t been updated or promoted in years, you’re less likely to reach the top of the search engine results page (SERP). Putting in the time every week to update your site will make sure more of your potential customers are reaching your business, both on social media and in search.
Keep your business growing online
Consider this a baseline for what you need to maintain a fresh website and keep users engaged with your business. There’s plenty more you can do to increase visits to your website, improve customer engagement, and increase your revenue, but if all you have is a few minutes each day, sending an email, writing and/or updating content, and getting involved in social media will help to keep your business growing.
A website can be one of your most valuable assets to your business, but it will only be effective if you put in a little time behind the scenes and update it as often as you can.
While the day-to-day happenings of your business are always important, planning new ways to attract and keep customers is what keeps your business viable. Look at your typical workday and try to find a 45-minute time block (or if you can’t do that, a 15-minute time block) that you can squeeze some website updating time into. We promise — Your business will be stronger for it.
Digital & Social Articles on Business 2 Community
(52)
