When a company has few employees who are all multi-tasking and already working very hard to build the business, marketing can be seen as a secondary activity that someone may do once a month if they have time. This is why small businesses need to prioritise marketing.
What is considered to be ‘marketing’ by many – a brochure, a website and promotional flyer – is really only about 10% of what marketing really means. These examples are also the FINAL 10% worth of activity. The other 90% of marketing activity involves business analysis, competitor comparisons, market trend analysis and customer communication.
Small businesses, more than any other, need to focus their attention in the areas which will reap the biggest rewards. This means understanding the business, the market and the customers inside out. The better you get to know these elements, the more targeted and effective marketing will be, because you know exactly what is needed.
People are bombarded on a daily basis by marketing messages from hundreds of companies. You need your marketing activity to stand out to them. You can do this by understanding what they are looking for and what appeals to them. A scatter-gun approach of doing a little bit of everything will usually mean most of it is wasted.
You should be able to answer these questions before you decide what marketing you will be doing:
- What do you want to get out of the marketing? Have a specific goal.
- Which group of your customers is the most valuable to you? Can you give them a profile?
- Why are you better than your competitors?
- How much time/ money/ resources do you have for the marketing? Small, regular activity is better than one burst every few months.
- Could you sell your company in 10 words?
- Which are your strongest products/services and your weakest? Why? Do some need to be altered or replaced?
If you can’t answer these questions, then perhaps one of the Marketing ABC courses would be useful for you or at least you need to speak to someone who can help you analyse your business in this way.
Once you have the answers (amongst a few others!), then a marketing plan will start to fall into place. By this stage the plan should be relevant, targeted and will help you get that final 90% activity absolutely right for your audience.
If you’d like to discuss marketing courses or any other aspect of marketing in more detail then please contact us: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
