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It's time to put marketing high on your priority list
Chris Dale • July 8, 2020
Running a small business is tough going. Most business owners wear many hats and often bite off more than they can chew. It’s not their fault, there is lots to do. Sales to manage, orders to process and bills to chase up. And after all that – they must market their business!
It’s not uncommon for marketing to come off second best in terms of priorities. But it's marketing that will deliver build awareness of the business and more consistent revenue from new and current customers.
Marketing shouldn’t be low on the priority list, but we find that when businesses are struggling to generate business – this is often the case.
The marketing challenges of small businesses
The most common marketing challenges we see in most small businesses are:
1. Understanding who their ideal customer is
2. Finding the time for marketing
3. Generating regular, high-quality leads
4. Knowing what marketing strategies and tactics to use
5. How to be visible online and produce content consistently
6. How to use social media and which platform to use.
Most of these challenges require the business owner to have some experience or skills in marketing. But not all business owners do. Surprisingly though, many will try to do it themselves and most will fail. Then they think marketing doesn’t work when it fact it was their execution that let them down.
I’ve never understood why so many small business owners try to do their own marketing. I often ask those that do – would you represent yourself in court? Would you try to build an extension on your house with no building skills? Of course you wouldn’t, you’d use a lawyer and a builder. The same rules apply for marketing. Either get some training on how to do it correctly, employ someone to do it or outsource it.
What are the first steps in marketing?
At MarketingHQ, when a new marketing consulting client comes on board, the process is always the same. We don’t just head off blindly, implementing marketing campaigns without a clear plan and analysis.
Our first step is to develop a buyer persona. A buyer persona is like the concept of the target market but aims to ‘humanise’ the ideal customer of our client. We give the person a name, identify some demographic information (age, sex, marital status etc) but also find out their pain points and motivations that will trigger the need to buy the products or service of our client.
Understanding the buyer persona allows us to craft better marketing messages. If we have a picture of who our customer is, we can create marketing messages and content that connects with them. You need to show you understand the customer and their issues – only then can you show them how you can help.
The next steps are often depending on the needs of the clients. Often, the buyer persona process highlights the need for a re-brand, or if that’s not required we move to the development of a unique selling proposition (USP) and marketing plan using a customer journey model.
Ultimately this process aims to implement a marketing system that delivers consistent, high quality leads through a well-structured, well thought out and well-implemented marketing plan.
Which social media platform to use if any
In this age of digital disruption and digital marketing, it is also important for business owners to keep up-to-date with what’s happening not only in marketing – but in technology.
Technology, and social media can influence to decision to buy a product of service. Customers use social media to ask for product recommendations, to check out reviews and of course to provide positive (and negative) feedback about a business. Social media is also a great marketing research tool.
Some business owners I’ve met don’t like to read what people say about their business – they are scared to read something negative. But sometimes a negative review can highlight something you can easily fix. You’ve got to take the good with the bad – but most importantly you have to listen to you customers and social media is an easy way to do that.
Where to from here?
The first thing we want small business owners to do is recognise that marketing must be a high priority. When done well it will drive revenue growth and ensure the success of the small business.
The decision to then make is, how will it be managed. The choices are either to keep doing it yourself (and do it poorly), employ someone (someone with experience will be expensive) or outsource to a business like ours who can give you the benefit of high level marketing expertise, without the high cost of employment.
Where is marketing on your priority list?
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Author: Chris Dale
Chris Dale is the lead marketing consultant and Managing Director of MarketingHQ. He is a Certified Practising Marketer with over 25 years marketing experience.
This one will be short and sweet... I'm always amazed how many businesses list great customer service as their unique selling proposition. Customers expect good customer service, and any business that doesn’t provide it will not be in business for much longer. If your business uses customer service as a USP, you need to do some market research to find out why your current customers prefer you over your competitors. The results may surprise you. A case study that has been documented and demonstrates this fact is the story of a small footwear manufacturer in the US called K Shoes. Some market research found that customers liked their product because their shoes don’t creak. Customers saw this as a sign of product quality. K Shoes used this information to develop an advertising campaign to promote this USP. The ad showed a wife sneaking up on her husband when he was out to dinner with another woman. The ad demonstrated the USP beautifully and led to a rapid increase in sales. You can check out the ad below:
This post is one of admiration.... No, I’m not thinking of giving away marketing and getting into real estate sales... But I’ve always admired the real estate industry, its marketing systems, and how it markets properties. I’ve always believed that other businesses can benefit from observing how real estate agents sell a property, and in this post, I’ve listed 7 key marketing lessons any business can learn from real estate marketing. Here they are: 1. To sell something, you need to market it. Imagine if you went to an agent and they said to you, " We’ll list your property, but we won’t do any marketing. “We won’t create a promotional flyer, we won’t take any photos, and we certainly won’t promote it in our shop front. “You would walk out the door. So why do other businesses believe they can sell products and services without marketing? Real estate agents include marketing as a cost of sale. To sell the product, an investment needs to be made. This is a good lesson for any business. 2. Good copy sells Agents use good copy and employ professional copywriters to develop the words to sell their properties. They use the copy to highlight the unique selling points and develop headlines that capture buyers' attention. It makes you wonder why so many small business websites begin with the words – “Welcome to Company X”. You don’t see too many “Welcome to my house” lines in real estate marketing, do you? 3. Good photography sells more houses. Real Estate Agents use good photography to showcase every property. A property that is poorly photographed really sticks out. This is an important lesson when creating marketing materials for your products. Invest in good photography and show your products in the best light. It will help customers choose you over your competition. 4. First impressions are everything In real estate, first impressions are everything. A buyer forms an opinion as soon as they walk into a property. The same goes for any business. Your first impression is the most important touchpoint for any business. In most cases, it will be the deciding factor if someone will do business with you. Always make a great first impression. 5. You need to know your target market When presenting a property for sale, agents know it needs to appeal to the local target market. They know the demographics of an area and how to make it appealing to the right buyers. This is fundamental to the successful marketing of any business. Know who you’re targeting and market your product to them. 6. Measure your success, track and follow up your leads. Have you ever noticed how when you view a property for sale, the agents ask for your details? By walking into a property, you have become a sales lead, and by taking down this information, the agent can put hard figures on how successful their lead generation activity has been. They also have figures to share with the property owner when they ask how many people viewed the property. Imagine the agent telling the owner, “I’m not sure exactly how many people came through; it seemed like a lot”. You would be shopping for another agent. By tracking leads, the agent can determine what leads are warm so they have sales to follow up on. 7. Marketing is a system Now I’ve saved the best lesson to last. Real Estate sees marketing as a system. When a new property is listed, agents systematically implement that system to attract the right buyers. This system includes: 1. Strategy : Identification of unique selling points and key messages. 2. Marketing Collateral: Posting for sale signs and designing flyers, all with good photography and good copy and using a consistent brand identity and format. 3. Lead Generation: Website promotion, advertising, direct selling to buyer databases and open house inspections. 4. Lead Conversion: Providing contracts of sale, contacting interested parties and taking properties to auction. 5. Measurement: Tracking sales leads, managing offers and determining the number of interested parties.
I heard a great quote the other day. It was “give me the freedom of a tight brief” from David Ogilvy, the man regarded as the “father of advertising”. In my years of marketing, I’ve written hundreds of briefs. Briefs for advertising campaigns, briefs for brand development and briefs for new websites amongst many others. And I’d like to think I do a reasonable job of them. I try to be very clear, provide lots of information and give a clear guide to what I want the brief to achieve. Unfortunately, I don’t often receive detailed briefs from clients, so I’ve come up with five things you must include in your brief to get the outcome you want. 1. Include everything you already know. This might seem obvious, but it’s important to share everything you know about your business, your market and your target market in a brief. Don’t make the recipient go and find this information, as it will cost you time and money. Tell them everything you know, and you will have a good foundation to build your brief. 2. Include things you want to know (but don’t) Nearly every business has knowledge gaps. It may be that you don’t have a clear idea of where your website traffic is coming from, the market perception of your brand, or even how you should price your product. If you can be clear about what you don't know, then we can go about finding the answers for you. 3. Tell me where you want to get to. The point of a brief is to provide a destination. If you don’t know where you want to be, an agency will find it difficult to give you the guidance to get there. 4. Tell them when you want to get there. Any brief needs timelines. There may be an event the brief relates to or a date the project must be completed. If you give a date, a project plan can be implemented to meet the deadline. Without it, you’ll just be a rudderless ship. 5. Tell me who I must talk to to complete the job. In brief, there are decision-makers and facilitators of decisions. Outline who makes the decisions and the process to reach a conclusion. It makes life a lot easier.
Creating a Buyer Persona is an important first step in marketing that helps you understand who your ideal customer is.
This week I sat down with Clayton Daniel from Ensombl to discuss all things marketing.
Too often we associate good salesmanship with having the “gift of the gab”. Discover the best sales advice I've ever received in this article.
Creating great taglines that stick in the mind of the consumer is not an easy task. Here are some helpful tips to make your job easier.
Testimonials are a key marketing tool for any business. Used effectively, they can increase your credibility and help improve sales conversion in your marketing campaigns. Find out how to get more for your business.
Are you a born salesman? No, neither am I. But there are simple ways to convert more leads into customers. Here are some tips.
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