A while ago, someone asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks: “What are the key ingredients for successful small business marketing?”
I advise clients on how to successfully market their small business on a daily basis. Distilling it down to the basics is a regular occurrence! But this was such an interesting way of framing it, I knew it was something I needed to cover here on my blog. Because the reality is, there are lots of paths you can go down when marketing – but all of them require the following!
So if you’re a small business owner often wearing the marketing hat, read on and check out my key ingredients for successful small business marketing!
Your recipe for success
Regardless of background or experience, I wanted to define the basic attributes required to be a successful marketer. The building blocks that will help create a solid foundation for any strategy.
Here are the 5 essential areas important to your small business marketing success:
1. Focus
As a small business owner, it’s very tempting to offer as many different products or services as possible to your customers. After all, if you have something for everyone you can make a lot of people happy and build up a huge customer base. Right?
But how to market yourself to these different target groups? How do you communicate with all of them while targeting their specific requirements? Reaching many audiences at once requires extensive (and expensive) marketing.
And it’s often not what people want. For many products and services, they want an expert, not a generalist. So one of the main ingredients for successful small business marketing is to be focused and to take one step at a time.
Check out this post to learn more about defining what it is you are actually selling.
2. Goals
Not having goals in place for your small business is like kicking a penalty blindfolded. (And no, “I want more customers” does not count.) Define what you want and always keep an eye on your goals.
When it comes to the key ingredients for successful small business marketing, the saying “If you don’t go forward, you go backwards” definitely rings true. Goals offer the direction you need in order to move your small business forward.
But make sure to define realistic targets and measure your marketing success. This way you can tweak and change things if necessary or amplify a very successful campaign to attract even more customers.
Read more about how to set goals for your small business success.
3. Insight
Knowing your market is vital for developing a product or service that your audience actually needs and wants. It’ll also ensure that you’re ahead of your competition and your pricing strategy is fit for purpose.
You need to know what moves your customers and what triggers their need for your services. But it’s equally important to know what your competition is up to. And to keep an eye on influences on the marketplace that could potentially disrupt or boost your small business.
And this is not a one-off task. Markets change all the time, as do your audience’s requirements and interests. Make sure to be always up-to-date on what’s going on and make clever use of that knowledge.
4. Consistency
When it comes to small business marketing success, consistency is necessary to build both a reputation and trust among your target audience. Or would you buy a product again without knowing if it’s as good as the last?
Be reliable and show that you are taking your business, and your customers, seriously. Be being visible in the marketplace, deliver on time and stick to your opening hours. People standing in front of a closed shop will not return.
And be authentic in your marketing. Customers can always tell if you’re just telling them what they want to hear. Particularly in the modern world of social media and online customer reviews, you should practice what you preach.
Struggling to get consistent? Here’s how setting up a content plan can change that!
5. Tenacity
This ingredient is not just key for your marketing but also for the success of your small business as a whole. Nothing is more important than standing up for your beliefs, taking risks, trying new things and keeping going, no matter what.
Running your own small business is not easy. It takes time for your first paying customer to come through the door and for people to start noticing you. You have to constantly market yourself, check you’re on track, make sure your cash flow is steady and your staff get paid.
There will be setbacks, obstacles and lessons to be learned. And sometimes we really just need to get away from it all. So make sure to look after yourself but, above all, keep going – it will pay off.
KEEP READING
To read more about this topic, have a look at these:
A Checklist for Your Successful Marketing Campaign Launch
What Does Success Mean to You and Your Small Business?
7 Steps to Help you Start Marketing your Small Business
Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses: Why You Need One & How to Define it
