Marketing for Small Business Doesn’t have to be Difficult

Business Marketing requires a strategy that not only simplifies your effort but saves serious amounts of time and money.

There are many ways for you to begin promoting your small business online and offline: guest blogging, social media, networking, speaking, introduction letters, seminars, and workshops.  All fantastic and easy to leverage tools for you to get the word out about your business and to build a loyal following

You must understand why you use a selected channel. It is not okay to join to Twitter or LinkedIn because all the others has been doing it,  you’ll need to set goals that can then determine which marketing channels / activities can get ideal results.

Here are 4 steps to assist you in creating an online marketing strategy which produces results

The first step: Identify your low hanging fruit

You should know who your warm prospects are. Be absolutely clear on who is ready for your services NOW. There isn’t any point pitching to people who aren’t ready to be plucked. The result of not identifying an ideal prospect is a marketing and social network waste of time and will not CONVERT well into profits.

It is always easier to use a smaller list and network that converts than a large list and network that’s irrelevant.

To recognize your ideal prospects:

a. Be clear on who exactly it really is;  Who needs you and your service.  Are you targeting selling to businesses or are you a business to customer service? What is your ideal customer?  If a business, what size of business, what type of business, what revenue level should they have?  If a customer, what demography (age, gender, avg income).  Where are your customers located?

b. Next, be sure to find out where your ideal customers spend time.  If targeting new small businesses, check out Chamber of Commerce events, Small Business networking events, etc.  What events and seminars are your customers attending? What publications do they read?  Are your customers found on social network sites, if so, how can you engage them?

Step # 2: Start with that which you know already

Once you’re absolutely clear on who your ideal prospect is, what their needs/concerns are, and where they hangout, you need to start establishing conversations that matter. Before creating that new marketing plan, you may want to have a look at what you have done in past that worked.

It’s better to leverage what’s already working than to start out completely new. Check out your previous marketing activities, what’s been working, and what hasn’t? Ditch what hasn’t and initiate your marketing campaign by ramping up what’s been successful in the past.  Tweak your current successful efforts.

When you have done that, start adding new marketing activities which are centered around where your ideal prospects hang out.  If it’s Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, Google +, FourSquare, etc….that is where you need to be.  You need to be where your customers are interacting.  Get in there, add value, provide input but don’t try to sell.  Build those relationships.

If they read certain blogs and publications, attempt to include your articles in those publications. Whenever they attend certain events, then try to be there to have a presence.  Get noticed.

Step # 3:  Establish conversations with your customers and build relationships which matter

You should know what sort of conversations will build relationships that convert to sales. People do not purchase the first-time they go to a service, and just because you’re conversing with them, doesn’t imply that you’ve got a relationship.

You will need to gain rapport and build that relationship.  You’ll have to stay consistent throughout all of your different marketing channels you have selected. These varied interactions between you and your ideal prospect are what builds trust and credibility.

Imagine the path your prospect might take on the journey to converting to a client. They visit their favorite blogs and social media sites, they browse the articles you’ve written.  They start commenting with you responding quickly, building trust and growing that relationship.

If you know that your ideal customers are attending an event, offer to do a presentation for free to the event hosts.  You gain trust and build interest in your product or service.  CAUTION:  Be sure to not sell during your presentation.  You want to add value, not promote your products.  No one likes to be sold to, but people love to learn about things which can make them more successful and/or make their lives easier.  Add Value.

Each one of these activities is what builds trust and moves that prospect from just being a prospect to someone who trusts and reveres your service.

Step # 4:  Track Everything

You need to be able to track what is working / what isn’t in order to ensure you continue to improve your marketing tactics.  What works for one prospect may not work for another, to improve upon this you have to be able to track that tactic’s performance.  Determine what the life-time value is of your customers.    If you don’t understand what works and the way it’s working, how can you make the changes necessary to improve its value? You need to determine what strategies are working and in what realms they work best.  You do this by measuring everything.

Conclusion:

Marketing is what gets your clients with the door so its very important to continue to sharpen your marketing tools to ensure success.

If you’re not targeting your ideal customers with your online marketing strategy, then your wasting valuable time and money.

We would be happy to help you get new customers, get more revenue out of existing customers, and provide more visibility to your brand.  To get started, just give us a call at 864-735-5488 or email us.  Spark Local Marketing wants to partner with you and your success.