Marketing is to business as a hammer is to a nail. It is a tool, a necessary function to make the other functions work. Just as a nail won’t go anywhere without a hammer to drive it, so a small business won’t progress without small business marketing to drive it.
Marketing cannot be ignored. More specifically, EFFECTIVE marketing cannot be ignored. Some businesses market regularly but they market incorrectly, and not only is it ineffective, it is a big waste of money. Knowing how to market effectively will be a integral part of the success of your business.
For any product that the creator or owner intends to sell, there is marketing to be done. Of course small business marketing can be much more than the traditional “marketing” we normally think of, i.e., phone book ads or classified ads or the Internet. Marketing can be anything from a conversation on a commuter bus to a prime time television commercial. The key is knowing exactly what marketing is and how it is going to produce revenue for your business.
So what are you selling? You are selling two things: yourself and your product. You will sell these two together, as if they were linked inseparably, because in a sense, they are. When you market, you are also marketing these together, so treat them as if they always go hand in hand.
Every conversation, every agreement, and every work performed will portray, or market, an image of you to business associates and to potential buyers. That image should be of utmost importance to you, because it will dictate how people perceive you. Other’s perception of you will affect your profitability, either positively or negatively.
You cannot have one appearance in person and another in media. Well you can, but it won’t last very long if you do. You must be the same person in every situation. When first building your business, think of your relation to workers, subcontractors, investors, suppliers and buyers and everyone else as a platform that is establishing your reputation. Your reputation will be manifest in your marketing efforts and I can guarantee you that IT WILL AFFECT YOUR BUSINESS DOWN THE ROAD. What you do on day one will surely have an influence on day three hundred and sixty five. And so on throughout your career.
As people learn of your generous personality and honest business transacting they will remember the person they met and dealt with when later they see or hear the marketing of your product. For someone who is always straight forward and goes out of his or her way to help put deals together and make everyone feel like they got a fair shake, there will be people who will always seek doing business with that person.
And it works both ways, good and bad. For someone who cheats and takes every chance to shortchange the competitor or supplier or intermediary, there will be people who will always avoid doing business with that person.
Through focused and powerful small business marketing, you can have a positive influence by concerted effort and it will bring results back to you.
Small Business Marketing – Three Tips For An Effective Strategy
Small business marketing is just like any other type of marketing, despite what many people (including so-called marketing consultants) will tell you. There’s no big secret to marketing a small business, except you need to remember marketing is a process and not an event. To market a small business effectively, you need to stop thinking of marketing as something you do once every now and again, and begin to think of it as something you need to do constantly. Many business will market themselves only when they realise the phone has stopped ringing, or the shop is empty. But this is the worst strategy to follow, and once you realise marketing is a process, your business will be much better for it, so so will your bank balance.
Three strategies for an effective small business marketing process
- Create a marketing plan. If you really want to have a marketing process, you need a plan to follow. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should detail what you need to do every month, week, and sometimes every day. In effect, you are creating a marketing calendar, and then a plan to follow for the stuff that needs to be done regularly. This can be anything from a plan to send out a piece of direct mail or to run an ad in a magazine. Make the plan and stick to it.
- Stick to your marketing plan. As mentioned above, you need a plan, and sometimes this can mean doing some marketing every single day. In fact, having a daily routine for your marketing is extremely effective, because it means you’re doing something constantly. One daily habit to get into is to send out an email to your customer list, since this can have a massive return on investment (ROI). Even better it’s quick to do, and cheap (almost free).
- Keep going. You have to remember the effects of marketing don’t show themselves immediately, and the longer you do it, the more chance you have of success. You also need to remember the effects will increase over time, until each bit of marketing you do stands on the stuff you’ve already done, and that almost always makes for some very healthy profits.
This may seem a simple strategy to follow, but you may well be astounded at the results you get if you put it into practice and keep going. Just doing a few hours a week can make a big difference to your business, and within a year or so the effects can be incredible. The overall lesson is: don’t leave it until things get bad. Do it at all times (even in the good times) and watch your business thrive.
Moreover, with the help of small business email marketing, you can easily reach a wider range of clients. This saves money and time and provides a go-to database you can tap into when you have a special promotion or product announcement. It can be said that there is no guarantee that your message will reach 100% of your targeted audience, but then again no online marketing can guarantee that.
