I know it’s a mouthful of a title, but raising brand awareness is an incredible and free movement to make that can generate more customer loyalty, turning a prospective audience into long-term customers. As a small business owner, it can be difficult to know exactly what to do to get your brand to your audience; we’ve all been there. There are, however, actions you can achieve every morning in the very first hour of the day that will help set your business into motion.
- Be Mindful of the Very First Thing You Do. It’s very tempting to wake up, roll over, and reach for your phone to check your social media and emails. It’s actually one of the worst things you can do. It takes a few minutes for your mind to really register that you’re awake and not back in dreamland, so trying to comprehend emails and social media can wreck your mindset for the rest of the day. Instead, start your day by brainstorming the 1-3 most important tasks to get done that day. If you can focus on the important stuff without worrying about whether yesterday’s Facebook post got any engagement, you’ll be setting yourself up for a productive rest of your day.
- Keep Learning. As a small business owner, you’re an entrepreneur and very aware that the work never stops. Being in charge of your own daily tasks can be a rewarding experience; however, those who are most successful at owning a business understand that it is important to continue learning. Whether you’re listening to a podcast while you get dressed (such as the legendary Tim Ferriss’ show) or catching a chapter or two of a supportive book while you eat your breakfast, your mornings can include a little learning too. If you’re always willing to learn and perfect your craft, then you’re more likely to keep your mind and business growing – which are both equally important to be successful.
- If you’ve had your morning sustenance (be it coffee or a nice glass of orange juice) and your mind is alert and ready to take on the day, now you can go back and check on your social media engagement and statistics. Before the day gets hectic and you find yourself too busy to think about your brand marketing, take 15 or 20 minutes and check out out the analytics on your social media, the click-rates and open-rates of your latest email campaign, and then take a moment to strategize on how you can make those numbers even better today! Have a few minutes before you need to start heading out the door? Check out your competitors’ social media presence quickly and take a look at their engagement. What ideas and call-to-actions are they using to get traction? Use them for inspiration and then be more amazing.
- On that note, always schedule your social posts in advance. You’ve probably heard that social media is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness, and it’s true. Waking up early to get your social media posts for the day out of the way, might not be the best choice to reach the most amount of people. Depending on the platforms you share, there are times of the day that posts have a higher chance of being engaged with. For Twitter and Facebook, during the workday, after 10 am, Instagram becomes more active after 5 pm, and as for Linkedin, there’s usually a short window between 10 am-12 pm. And, of course, depending on your unique audience, there are those factors as well. For example, if you sell insurance, you’re more likely to interact with your audience during the day, and if you sell sleeping aids, there’s a chance your audience could be more active late at night. If you wake up each morning, have a giant mug of coffee, and share your socials for the day, schedule them for the time that makes the most sense. Most platforms allow for scheduling, but if you find you need a little extra help, tools such as Buffer are also great for scheduling social media.
- Wake up early enough to get everything done before the craziness starts. We’ve all been there – we planned on getting up early enough to get a few things done before 6 am, but we stay up late working or watching Disney+ and suddenly is 8 am. We don’t even remember turning off the alarm on our phone. Everything you put off last night with a plan of today now needs to be pushed back even further. Don’t fall into that trap. We know staying up is sometimes the only time you get to yourself, but when your alarm goes off, get up. If you need to, put your phone across the room (but loud enough that it still wakes you up). If you can set yourself in the habit of waking up early to get work done, it’ll become a regular part of your day – and you’ll see the benefit getting up and working on yourself and your brand will offer you in the long-run.
And above all else, don’t get in the habit of telling yourself you’ll start working on raising brand awareness tomorrow or you’ll wake up early tomorrow. Work on it now! You may have customers and clients but just think about how far your brand can reach if you give just a little more effort!
What’s your morning routine for getting up and focused? Let me know in the comments.
Dshanya Reese, CIC 