The 6 Most Essential Marketing Activities

You're a small or medium business, and your marketing team's really small (or you don't have one). You see so much advice around, so many things you need to do: SEO, email marketing, PR . . . where do you even start?

Believe me, I feel your pain. Always having worked in small marketing teams with a very limited budget, I know you're expected to do a lot with next to nothing. How do you prioritize?

Below are the six most essential marketing activities that I believe every business should work on, in order of priority. So if you're just starting out, you can start with #1 and work your way down.

1. Website Design

The first thing I'm gonna do if I hear about a new business that seems interesting (maybe I heard a customer rave about you or I met one of your employees at a conference) is to look up your website. And if it's not designed well, your website isn't going to impress anyone. Don't pretend people don't try to look you up online: you need a website, and you need it professionally designed. If you only spend on one marketing activity this year, make it this one.

And that doesn't mean spend your money on having fancy Flash dances and rocking music. (Seriously, kill the music.) It means having a site that looks professional while conforming to your brand personality, and allows users to easily find what they are looking for.

2. Search Engine Optimization

Ideally, SEO shouldn't come after website design, but with it. At the least, read a few books or some good SEO blogs and take care of the basics: writing useful content with keywords in the title and heading tags, copy and URL, and basic link-building. If you're new to SEO, don't go it alone: hire a consultant.