For the small business owner, marketing was at one time something you just decided to do. In the noisy business climate of today, this should never be the case. Marketing should never be considered a task that you occasionally check off your to do list. Distributing catalogs, flyers or a free sample, is not considered a marketing campaign! Instead it must be viewed as a continuous and ever evolving process.
It doesn't matter if you sell high end hand bags or office products to office managers, if the business is not actively pursuing unique methodologies by which to market to would be buyers, the business will simply dry up. Unlimited businesses are aggressively attempting to steal your potential customers. Without a consistent plan and an interesting way to differentiate your company, you can hope for long term viability.
Perhaps you are in an extremely competitive market where margins are razor thin. Let's suppose you sell discount office supplies and must compete against Office Depot and Staples. If the company were to attempt to match these retail giants, it would be a guaranteed losing proposition. However, if the company decided that instead of attempting to their message, they would construct their own niche and present their offering in a way unlike that of the competition, that is the formula and the road that must be taken.
Make no mistake, marketing is an art form. The psychology of who buys what and from whom is both interesting and ever elusive. Attempting to be all things to all people is unacceptable. The key is to understand your particular buyer (not all possible buyers) and appeal to him or her directly and uniquely.
One bit of advice is to embrace technology; Facebook, Google, and Twitter are all great tools. The use of YouTube and Pintrest are two powerful web based marketing giants. Article submission and social bookmarking will make your marketing campaign explode in a positive way. These are just a few tools used today when promoting in cheap office supplies an extremely competitive environment.
Boring marketing equals wasted time and money. Your audience demands to be engaged in a compelling way. Humor properly employed has a definite place in the small business marketing plan. We live in a world of instant information and entertainment. Your message should be reflexive of this. Too much copy is only a minus when you have no story to tell. Your audience will read your material as long as it remains interesting and instructive.
Finally, small business must almost always include a deadline to respond by and an offer.. Besides giving your prospect a call to action, it gives you the business owner a means to gauge its effectiveness.
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