Marketing Your Small Business

Marketing is just a fancy word for getting the word out about your business. In its simplest form, it just about getting your name and product (or service) known to people who may want to buy it. In its more sophisticated forms, it’s about a highly targeted message that is continually focused on getting a predictable response (a purchase, a call back, a referral, whatever).

If you think marketing doesn’t work, ask yourself why the biggest and most successful companies in the world spend millions of dollars each and every year on it. They spend that money because it does work. And it works well.

The problem is that not every advertising strategy or approach works. And a strategy that may be successful for one business may not work so well for another. The challenge is finding the strategy that will work best for you.

Before I get into what does work, let’s spend a moment on the top marketing mistakes made by small business owners:

1. One shot ads. Doing something once (and only once) is usually not effective. One newspaper ad, one direct mail piece, one television ad, or one radio spot will not make a big difference in your bottom line and it will probably cost you more than you gain in new business. Most of the experts agree that your efforts need to be repeated, consistent, and targeted.

2. Non-targeted efforts. If your target customers are small businesses, don’t you think it would be a good idea to use strategies that will reach small businesses? Handing out fliers in front of a grocery store is probably not going to get your message to many small business owners, and you’ll annoy a bunch of people who are not your target audience. Think you don’t care if you annoy your non-target audience? Well, you never know when someone who wasn’t your target (in this example, a small business owner) becomes one.

3. Inconsistent efforts. Small business owners are notorious for trying something for a little while, and then stopping – usually because of money. Then they’ll try something else for a while, and stop that. Then they’ll go back to the first strategy because someone suggested that they try is again. They hop all over trying this strategy and then that, without ever knowing what rally works. And then they wonder why their marketing has not worked.

4. Un-tested strategies. Small business owners are usually short on both money and time. They typically lack patience for testing strategies, but most of the experts agree that you should try a new strategy out on a smaller scale first and track its success before spending large amounts of money on a huge advertising effort.

5. Overlooking free-to-cheap strategies. Not all strategies are expensive. Some of the best ones are very inexpensive, but they tend to get overlooked by the sexier, splashier ones – like expensive T.V. ads.

So, what should you do? Obviously, avoid the pitfalls I just described. Do that by focusing on the basics.

First, and most importantly, develop a plan. I know you keep seeing those words throughout this site, but they are very important words. Unless you are a multi-millionaire with an unlimited budget, you need to have a plan for spending your limited resources in as effective a way as possible. You can hire a consultant to help you develop a plan, or you can use some online resources. However you approach it, planning is critical. Here are some questions to answer as you develop your plan:

• Who is your target audience?
• What is your marketing budget? Monthly? Annually?
• What do you want your target audience to do as a primary result of your marketing? As a secondary result?
• What strategies have been effective for others?
• What do your competitors do?
• What long term strategies will you employ?
• What short term strategies will you employ?
• How will you know if one of your marketing strategies is working? How will you know if it is not working?
• What is your back up plan if you run out of resources unexpectedly?

Second, implement your plan with consistency. Don’t be like all of those other folks who run one ad in a local newspaper and then say that newspaper advertising doesn’t work.

Third, maximize low-cost and no-cost marketing strategies. There are so many strategies that don’t cost very much that are overlooked because business owners are focusing on the high cost alternatives. Many strategies that used to be out of the price range of most small business owners are now available to us because of technology.

This also means that you should absolutely have a web presence. Whether you're selling online or you want more information about your business to be available to your customers, you need to have a website. If your business is a network marketing venture, realize that I am talking about your website, not just the replicated site your company has provided for you.

Fourth, test your strategies. Build tracking measures into your strategies so you have some way of knowing what works and what doesn’t.

Learn as much as you can about different marketing techniques and strategies. One of the most effective marketing strategies is know as relationship marketing. Unlike many other marketing strategies that give the advantage to larger companies that have lots of money to spend, relationship marketing actually favors small business owners, like you and me.

Click here to learn more about Relationship Marketing.

Click here to learn more about how to use Twitter as a marketing tool!

Check out my BLOG for day-to-day marketing tips.

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