So it’s not surprising many small business owners feel completely overwhelmed about what to do and how to improve their marketing understanding. What typically ends up happening is that they do something, anything, just to feel that they aren’t remaining stagnant, to garner a sense of progress.
However, shotgun actions are often more damaging in marketing than doing nothing. Not that I’m suggesting that you ‘do nothing’. Taking action when it comes to marketing is important but, here’s the rub, for it to be effective and to maximise any gains, it needs to be part of a coordinated and deliberate approach.
This is where things start to get hazy and the headaches begin for many small business owners. With so many possibilities, and often a vague understanding of many of them, creating a cohesive approach is usually not possible without calling in specific marketing understanding and expertise.
While marketers are good at, well, marketing what that can mean is they are great at pitching to small business owners what they are offering but it’s not necessarily what the small business needs. Small business owners then find themselves in the position of trying to select the best provider of a service. But they may not really understand what they are getting and what it will mean for the direction their business is heading in the longer term. No wonder many are confused and vow to avoid dealing with ‘marketing types’.
Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation
Peter Drucker
Marketing is an inescapable aspect of running a business today. Whether it’s digital marketing or offline marketing, few businesses can grow and prosper without some marketing understanding. For your marketing to work well for a small business all the parts need to flow and operate as a seamless system that takes into account your target market.
For example, setting up a Twitter account and putting resources into that for three months and then switching your effort to Instagram, because ‘everyone’ says that is the hot new place to be, is a waste of resources and effort and can be confusing for your customers.
A better approach would be to:
If its not working like you hoped you can then decide what action to take to improve your results. This could be posting different types of content, including more curated content, changing the times of day you post, responding differently to comments from your audience, using tools to help find more like-minded customers or automating the process.
Having a coordinated approach to marketing based on business needs and capabilities is the best strategy for building market awareness and growing sales.
Do you need help to better connect with your audience?
Check out this free storytelling training.
5 Reasons Why You Need to Stop Outsourcing Your Marketing
How to Improve Marketing & Learn From Your Past Mistakes
Marketing Concept: How to Test Your Way to Success
Progress Beats Perfect
Marketing Internships – How to Make it a Success
Wasting Time and Effort on Marketing?
Do You Really Need the Next Best Thing in Social Media?
Content is Not King, Engagement Is
Session expired
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.