Marketing 101 for small Businesses

[AbundantNick]

Most small business entrepreneurs have very limited sales or marketing experience. They will usually start a business, because they have either invented some product, discovered some need, or are capable of offering a unique service.

Experience says they tend to start with limited financial resources, skip logical market research, and rationalize themselves into believing that every one will want what they have to offer. They seek the advice of family or friends, who may or may not have their best interest at heart.

Recognizing their dilemma, they will usually resort to all kinds of business publications, or national business magazines. They get impressed with whatever the so called experts have to say, and try to do the same. After all if the key people on Madison Avenue, or at companies like UPS, IBM, GE, or hundreds of others do these state of the art sales and marketing programs, it must be good, and certainly should get the results. If the retired CEO of a major company promotes an idea through some recent publication or book, it must be something that needs to be followed.

Nothing could be further from reality. The fact is, the more you listen to the big fortune 500 CEO type, the more your business will become history. Turn off the TV, stop reading all those national business publications, and stop trying to act as if you are a Fortune 500 company with thousands of employees.

A small Business is in a totally different world, and be assured, if one of those big executives had the challenge of building a small business, most likely they would totally fail. They are accustomed to loosing millions of dollars of other people’s money, and not worry about it. As a small business owner, you can’t afford to loose a dollar.

Small business marketing starts with a basic premise, which assumes your labor and effort have to offset the lack of financial resources available to you. It also assumes that the growth of your business will take time, so be patient, it is one of your most valuable assets. Small Business Marketing 101, has a few basic rules and steps, which you must follow.

Despite of what you see on television or in print ad, you do not need to use shock methods to get attention. It seems that our advertising and media world, has a whole new generation of people involved in marketing, who feel that everything must have some shock value. Marketing and Advertising is nothing more then a means of communicating with people. People prefer to be communicated with, in a calm and clear manner, it seems to get the best results.

Marketing has to be specifically directed at your specific audience. One of the most important steps you can take, is to carefully study your audience, and talk to them through your marketing, as you would, if you had a chance to meet them face to face.

No matter how limited your resources are, or how much you need to get results, never, ever use any negative type of marketing. This for some reason seems to be the trend for a new generation of marketing guru’s, and quite frankly, sooner or later they will find out, it never worked and never will work. People want to hear positive results, they want to hear what will benefit them, or what will make them happy. Seeing violence, destructive behavior, even if it’s at the expense of others, is not a way to sell any product or service.

As part of your small business marketing, be careful with any type of advertising. Avoid placing large and costly one time advertising, hoping to get the attention of a lot of people. It has never worked, and will not work. Advertising is a repetitious process, communicating your message over and over again. So if you do not have the resources to advertise on a regular basis, don’t advertise at all. Do not use your resources, on a few radio, television, or internet ads, hoping to get sales, before you run out of resources.

If you are starting an internet business, do not waste your money on some quick automatic marketing program, which claims to let the world know about you, they simply do not work. The internet is no different from any other business. Yes you have millions of potential customers, but you also have millions of potential competitors. For your business to get traffic, it will require the same cautious and patient method, as required by any other business which starts with limited resources. Be careful with things like pay per click. Make sure you carefully select the best keywords, and not the one’s that get millions of hits. Be certain to set limits on your spending. Never use unsolicited e-mail or faxes, they will accelerate you getting out of business.

Avoid expensive four color packaging or promotion, unless your package is the actual sales tool. In most cases once a customer makes a purchase, your black and white or four color wrapping will make no difference, but could save you a fortune.

Avoid the temptation to satisfy your business ego, by spending money on expensive signs, or promotion material. Yes you should be professional, but you do not have to look like a 20 year old business, with a huge customer base.

Marketing 101 simply promotes using common sense, limiting financial exposure, being patient, a willingness to exert lots of labor, and building your business step by step.

Copyright 2007 Abundant Systems

[greenoak]

good points nick.....
any ideas on destination businesses? how to get retail buyers willing to drive an hour to see us....we are kind of an area store not just local...
we are over 20 yrs and have a great customer base..


i sure agree with repeat advertizing.....and how you understand that we are different than fortune 500 companies...not worse....another way we are different is we have to wear so many hats, sales,, purchasing, display, maintenence, hr...if that means finding workers and keeping that going right... etc etc....
also as a consumer of business services i sure dont want to feel like they are thinking darn i wish i was with donald trump...
. .

[Ad-vice_man]

Well Said.

[cwpass]

Great advice. Learned something new today- time to end it.

Just kidding. Great advice for anyone willing to learn though.

Brian

[RadioGirl]

I have to disagree with compubyte's advise on this one.

A free website reflects poorly on the business by giving the impression that you are not willing to invest in your business...and in turn makes your potential clients leery of spending their money and investing in you.

It does not cost very much to purchase your own domain name and hosting can be had for less than $10 a month. Not expensive enough to be looking for shortcuts that make a bad first impression.

[bill benson]

Originally Posted by RadioGirl

I have to disagree with compubyte's advise on this one.

A free website reflects poorly on the business by giving the impression that you are not willing to invest in your business...and in turn makes your potential clients leery of spending their money and investing in you.

It does not cost very much to purchase your own domain name and hosting can be had for less than $10 a month. Not expensive enough to be looking for shortcuts that make a bad first impression.

You will notice that Computbyte has two posts in a different thread, one under a different username promoting his program. SPAM!

[acumen_ice]

Good points. When it comes down right to it, marketing is plain old common sense in action. Its knowing your market and offering them an excellent product. No pretensions.

[greenoak]

offering an excellent product and no pretensions is so true....especially in the face to face world, where you need them to be glad they came and want to come back....and maybe even start some good buzz for you......

marketing is so needed to get them in there the first time..
.but getting them to come back isnt hype...its really about what you have for them...you cant really market them into thinking a pigs ear is a purse.......
i am so forced into doing business this way, not being on the web or at a show....mine is all about really satisfying a very finite group ....not getting a 1% return and having an new 1000 to work on the next week...like your google adwords might get you....or doing a fabulous retail show where you will probably not see the buyers again.......

all this also tells me not to go online to sell...because i know i dont have the right product....and to me its all about product...

[excelyourbiz]

Originally Posted by AbundantNick

Marketing 101 simply promotes using common sense, limiting financial exposure, being patient, a willingness to exert lots of labor, and building your business step by step.

Great quote Nick, patience and hard work are key to creating a successful business!

[MarketingMaven]

Originally Posted by greenoak

good points nick.....
any ideas on destination businesses? how to get retail buyers willing to drive an hour to see us....we are kind of an area store not just local...
we are over 20 yrs and have a great customer base..
. .

There's only two things you need to do to get customers to come to you.
1) Let them know that you are there
2) Have something they want/need

As a former (or is it reformed?) collector, I would drive ungodly distances for antique shows and to my favorite shops if I knew they carried what I wanted. I think with anything specialized, it would be a great thing to have a website with an online photo album. If customers can see that you have one or more items they want a closer look at, they will come!

Just make sure to focus the marketing of your website to the groups that will be willing to make the trip!

Hope that helps.

R