Here’s a question I get asked a lot as a result of the SuccessBug launch.
“What is the best small business marketing strategy I can use to boost mt business?”
I understand the question because the average small business owner just doesn’t have time to implement too many marketing ideas.
If you were to ask experts in the field of small business marketing, they would come up with many different answers.
Some would tell you to focus on social media, others with article marketing. Some would suggest online marketing while others would stress offline direct response marketing.
So whose right?
Here’s the answer many small business consultants wouldn’t tell you…
They are all wrong.
The correct answer is…it depends on you, your strengths and your market.
This is the reason why.
It depends on you because…
- you must utilize your strengths. You simply wont follow through otherwise.
- You will only be effective when you look professional. If you are a bad writer, ignore what the article marketers are telling you!
It depends on your market because…
- Not all small business marketing strategies will work in YOUR niche.
- You need to find where your market can be found. For example, if you are marketing to old age pensioners, a social media campaign would probably be a waste of time, irrespective if you are good at it.
- You need to relate to your market in a way that is appropriate for them. Direct response strategies for young college students may not work as well as social media.
One of the biggest reasons why we brought marketing legends together for SuccessBug is in order to enable regular small business owners to find THEIR way in marketing.
To allow them to use their time and energies most efficiently, to save money buying marketing programs and products that wont help THEM and to offer direction to help them implement the strategies they will learn about.
If you haven’t yet joined the club, you can do so by signing up below.
To your success,
Barry Plaskow
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Barry;
Excellent advice – the only sad part about it is that your statement about the advice an expert would give you, would often be right! But not always. I believe that the foundation for any successful marketing strategy is to create a strategy in the first place. To think of your own strengths and weaknesses, your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses, and then to use the Process Mantra of: Think, Plan, Do, Measure and Repeat. If you do this, no matter how badly you do with your initial take, you will by definition get better and better over time. And notice that I did not even mention which elements to combine into your strategy – as you said, this is entirely dependent on the business and its practitioners.
For us though, the answer is always that the best form of strategy is Inbound Marketing and Inbound Marketing Automation. We just don’t do the old Outbound stuff much anymore and so our clients will be guided towards this approach instead of the more traditional, marketing 1.0 techniques. But again, I stress that we work only with B2B clients in SMB companies, and that the actual mix of online techniques (and a few older ones such as tradeshows or print ads), is designed to suit the company and its products and markets. Telling some one what to do and how to do it without understanding their needs, environment and resources sounds like a really bad idea.
May I say it is easy, catchy & bold to denounce all existing marketing strategies & focus on strengths & market.
Isn’t it true that that is exactly what each is doing?
Here is a quote from The New York Times “…No other form of online advertising or offline advertising, for that matter – has come close to matching the effectiveness of search ads”.
The small business owner has been left behind as far as having a web presence and capturing their share of business being conducted online. 82% of people search online for local products/services yet 44% of small businesses don’t have a website. Participating in online ad campaigns allows them to join the largest advertising platform in the world .
‘
In 2006 there were 2.7 billion searches done per month – that jumped to 61 billion searches per month in 2009. (continues to grow exponentially)
As a internet marketing specialist, I research keyword tools for an individual business to determine how many people are searching for their product/service. If there are a significant amount of searches, then we customize an ad campaign to match their needs and budget and reconnect them to their local markets.
Our services offer an efficient and economical solution for small business owners, even if they don’t have a website. (44% of small businesses do not have a website) Our professional copywriters create an optimized and relevant landing page for their business to guarantee 1st page placement on top search engines.
This has proven to be an extremely effective marketing solution that is designed to put more money in their pockets due to getting noticed on GPS systems, smart phones, social networking and top search engines.
Knowing what your customers want and meeting their needs on time and with appreciation for their custom – please and thank you, go a long way.
I’m going to respectfully disagree with Cherie’s assessment regarding the value of PPC…while I agree most prospects are searching for products/services online, while PPC is a useful investment keyword optimization from an organic perspective can be much more effective. Cost aside Google has come out recently and sort of let the cat out of the bag and mentioned over 70% of click throughs go to the organic results and skip right over the paid ads.
Plus, your statement that you can guarantee 1st page Google placement is extremely misleading and I would be careful about setting unrealistic expectations. Google’s algorithm is somewhat understood, but that doesn’t mean you can beat it…certainly not without black-hat tactics that can run the risk of black-listing the site with Google. If you can “guarantee” this 1st page placement through PPC I’d be interested to see what type of suggestions you have in terms of PPC budget allocation for your clients….
I’ve been a successful designer and producer of visual trade show displays and graphics for over 30 years. I know the trade show marketing business and it has always been a very cost-effective way to generate leads and business via face-to-face contacts. Create a display that slows traffic and it will drive targeted show attendees to your booth and generate leads and sales. Still somewhat true in today’s world, but, there is a declining return on investment.
What I see is that there is a paradigm shift as to the way business is developed in this new economy: the web is continually changing the dynamics of small business marketing. Companies – especially smaller businesses – have fewer resources today to gamble on what works and what doesn’t. Direct marketing is still very important, but email blasts and print are not very effective.
The other shift I see is from regional to global selling. Rather than market to a city or a state, you are now marketing to the world. How effective can you be? There is always a basic need to create and deliver your message to your customers and prospects. Today, you have to use the tools that are available to you and build on relationships, networking, and social media.
The game-changer for this is now V-I-D-E-O! Video launched from a web site, video in email marketing, video responders, and video posts to social media sites. Thanks to You Tube, video has created this “paradigm shift”- the changing social circumstances – of having the capacity to instantly put your business in front of thousands of customers all at one time – and it is having a profound effect on traditional business. Small businesses could not afford to run a 30-second TV commercial.
Now with web and video, you can become a “microstudio”, marketing your message through video in email and on websites. It’s now cost-effective to produce video content in studios or, for as little as $100, with a digital FLIP camera with basic editing software.
With video, create a buzz, promote your story, build on your success, and leverage social media. I have found that video email has been a very successful and emerging strategy in delivering a message to a large audience because it is compelling- people will watch video today. Younger generations today would rather watch than read. Video is and will be the driving force. In email marketing, video creates a call to action and elicits a high percentage a views, forwards, and clicks to web.
Jeff Abramson
MaxYourImage.com