Effective Marketing In the Small Business Environment
Marketing is the red headed step child in the family of a small business. Whatever money may be available is usually spent on advertising. Some owners confuse Marketing with Advertising, as if they are the same thing. The truth is, they are not the same thing at all. Advertising is a function of Sales. Sometimes the Ad department is actually a sub-division of the overall Sales department within a company. At other times they are separate departments. But in both cases, the Marketing Department stands alone from both of them and usually remains vastly underfunded.
In spite of this, there is at least one thing Marketing and Advertising share in common. They both must be long term committments in a company’s annual budget. An on again-off again strategy based upon whenever there is extra money available is an extremely ineffective marketing or advertising strategy.
Having said all of that, let’s narrow our focus on the actual marketing process. Robert Moment is the founder and President of the Moment Group which is a consulting firm for small businesses. If you go to his website, you will find he introduces himself with these words,
“My name is Robert Moment. I’m a Leading Small Business Coach, Inspirational Speaker and Author. I coach Consultants, Service Professionals, Home Based Businesses, and Small Professional Firms to achieve success in their small business goals. I will show you exactly how to start a small business the right way and avoid critical mistakes that almost every new business owner makes. One size doesn’t fit all and trial and error is tremendously expensive. My small business advice is a unique, powerful combination of passion, inspiration and creativity that effectively teaches you how to start a small business, develop your business ideas, and easily create small business marketing plans.
Robert has lots of fine materials for Small Business. Among them is an article he wrote called, “7 Steps To Creating A Successful Small Business Marketing Plan.” I realize, as soon as you read that title, some of the walls in your mind came up because, for some reason, there is always a fair amount of resistance to marketing in many small companies. The resistance comes primarily from a misunderstanding as to what marketing is and its unique function in any small busiiness. But in this article, Mr Moment does an outstanding job of laying it all out for us. My hope in sharing a portion of what he said is you will begin to get fired up about the wide open field of opportunities available for small businesses which practice solid marketing strategies in the market place. Here is some of what Mr. Moment shares in his article:
How to Start a Small Business Marketing Plan: 7 Steps
Begin the process by answering these questions:
1) Who – Who specifically is your target market? Who is your ideal client? What research can you do to find out more about your target market?
2) What – What products and services do your ideal clients want and need? What does your product and service do for your ideal client? What problems does your product solve for your customer? What are the solutions that your ideal client is looking for? What is your area of specialty that will differentiate you in the marketplace? What are the industry trends? What type of message will your ideal client likely respond to? What are you ultimately selling? For example: Are you selling eye glasses or are you selling vision? What is your unique mix of products and services? What is your pricing strategy?
3) Where – Where is your ideal client? Where is your customer located geographically? Where will you position yourself so they can easily find you? Where are the best places to get your marketing message to them? Will you speak to groups, hold seminars, or write a blog, newsletters or articles?
4) When – How frequently does your target market need to hear your marketing message? When are they most likely to buy your products and services?
5) Why - Why are you in business? Why do customers or clients buy from you? Why should they choose your product or service over your competition?
6) How - How does your customer buy your product or service? How are you going to reach potential buyers for your services and products? How will you communicate your marketing message? How will you provide customers or clients with the information they need to make their buying decision?
7) Marketing Mindset – Practice mastering a Marketing Mindset and you will be on the path to a profitable small business.
With these 7 steps, you can take action towards starting a marketing plan that targets new customers. “Marketing is about testing and evaluating your return on investment. But it’s primarily about helping people get what they want.” Master these small business marketing steps, and you will be on the path to more profit and success as a business owner.
This kind of consistent strategy in marketing will eliminate the red headed step child atmoshphere around the idea. But it must be approached as a river which is spring fed from the mountains up stream. That is, it must be an ongoing and constant flow into the surrounding community. Too often business owners approach their marketing strategy more like a one-time flash in a pan–here today, but tomorrow we can’t afford to do it again. Only one of those strategies will move a company on to the next level, and I’m going to let you guess which one it is.
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