In seconds, I can spot a small business that is being marketed without professional help.
That’s because there is a recipe, which all struggling small businesses follow, when it comes to marketing. Here are 3 of the most common examples from the recipe for small business marketing failure:
- Use a similar approach to marketing and make similar promises about service, as your competitors. This leaves your prospective clients with your price or fee as the only way to differentiate you from your competitors. Equally, by blending into the background, you attract fewer leads too. So, that’s fewer leads and they come from people who are fee sensitive. That makes this one a lose, lose.
- Insist on using amateur copy writing to market your services, rather than having your material written professionally. I’ve seen professional copy out perform copy written by an intelligent business owner, by thousands (THOUSANDS) of percent – Even though they were sent to the same database and had the exact same offer. By “saving” a few pennies, the small business owner is usually missing out on thousands or much, much more. It’s insane.
- Having a website that looks nice, but is little more than an online brochure; rather than a dynamic, lead generating machine. I’m totally lost why small business owners keep on getting this one wrong. Is it that hard to figure out that the Internet is where your customers are and the place where well over 95% of all customers research new suppliers? Get your site visible through effective Internet marketing and have it professionally copy written, so that it inspires or compels people to get in touch.
Of course, there is also a recipe for small business marketing success
The reason so few people follow the small business recipe for marketing success, is that unlike the recipe for failure (which is generic) the recipe for success is specific to that individual business, their unique resources and what they want to achieve. Any small business, using the recipe above will slowly go broke; regardless of their industry or how hard they work. However, for that same small business to succeed, they need a recipe for success (or marketing strategy), that’s based around their unique situation.
For example; how much time do they have available each week, purely for marketing? A business with lots of time available for marketing will need a very different strategy from one that has less time. Equally important, different people feel comfortable using different types of marketing. There’s no point giving someone a marketing technique to use in their marketing strategy, that they simply will not use. An effective marketing strategy, has to be one that’s built around the most effective ideas, that the business owner will use. That’s why when I start working with a new client, I do a fact-finder; to learn everything I need, in order to build them the right strategy for their unique situation.
The bottom line is to make sure that you are avoiding what doesn’t work; whilst embracing what works best for you and your unique; personality, situation, targets and resources.
What forms of marketing do you most enjoy?
Which do you enjoy the least?
What are the most common marketing errors you see?
Share your feedback!
Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!