Why do so many small businesses fail to get their marketing right?
Many small businesses are started from a passion. The business owner isn't a trained marketer and they certainly don't have the budget needed to hire an in-house expert. Because of this, their marketing fails to achieve what they want - sales.
What kind of marketer are you?
If you surveyed 100 businesses, you'd probably get a three way split regarding marketing methods:1. The 'I'm going to do what he's doing' type - they just mimic everyone else's strategy rarther than come up with their own. The result is poor. This method doesn't work because it simply results in a market place flooded with the same message. Without something distinguishing you from every other Tom, Dick and Harry out there why would anyone pick you?
2. The 'I've always done it this way, why should I change?' approach - these are the guys that stick with the same old method regardless of technology or market conditions. With today's increasing internet usage by consumers searching for products and services, these are the guys that keep throwing money at adverts in the Yellow Pages. The result is a huge marketing spend for little return.
3. The 'why should I market? My product is so damned good customers will come to me' blind fools. Oh boy, do these people really exist? These are the guys who think that what they provide is so great they don't have to advertise because they'll have a steady stream of customers banging at their door.
What is marketing anyway?
Marketing is all about doing the things you need to do to make people find you, like your product/service and grow to trust you. Would you buy from someone you didn't like or trust?
The stages of devising your marketing campaign are very simple:
Identify your cutomer - where do they hang out? what problems do they have that need solving? what kind of businesses are they? are they individual consumers?...
What is your offer? - what is it they want that you can supply? The best example of this is a headline from Dominoes Pizza - "Hot Pizza Delivered to Your Door in 30 Minutes or Less or It's Free" - fabulous, they knew precisely what their customers wanted and provided them with an irresistable offer.
Sell with a strong call to action - get your message out there on the web. Give them testimonials and real life stories of people who've benefited from your product/service to build trust and credibility. Make your call to action strong - tell them to get in touch, order or email you.
Be the guy or girl they all applaud
It takes real guts in today's competitive market place to be a marketer. Your neck is on the line if you don't perform and get those illusive sales. When you run a small business, your marketing strategy is the 'do or die' of your business.
Without professional back up you've got to do it on your own so get internet savvy and go where the smart marketers go - online.
90% of marketing budgets are wasted every year because small business fail to follow up leads. They grab the money from the small percentage of people they contact who are ready to buy there and then but walk away from everyone else. Perhaps they were interested in your product but just weren't ready to buy. By failing to follow them up you've paved the way for your competitiors to walk in and steal the sale. You've done the hard part by convincing them your product/service is for them but if you don't constantly follow them up again and again, the sale will be lost forever.
Now's the time to get smart, get online and get automated. Once the exclusive realm of the "big boys", automated online marketing is now available to any business regardless of its size.
What are you waiting for? Get online, get automated and watch your sales soar.
Stand up and take a bow - now all eyes are on you.
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