Small Business Marketing, Does This Sound Familiar?

Growing your small business doesn’t have to be as hard as you make it.

I love working with small business owners. Rarely is there much beating around the bush in the conversation. Time is such a precious resource that it’s critical we cut right to the chase to understand their frustrations in building, operating and growing their business. Several of my recent conversations have included:

•  Discussing “mobilegeddon” and it’s impacts on their website traffic and search engine rankings with a local veterinary clinic
  • By the way, if your site hasn’t been noticeably affected and you still do not have a mobile-responsive website, you’re still falling behind
• Working with a local landscape company looking to make their online marketing more effective to compete against what is often a race to the lowest price in their business
• Encouraging a local sign company owner to build on the excellent service record she has to proactively go out and attract new customers with that record versus a continued pursuit of an “anyone with a pulse” targeting strategy

While each of these situations has unique aspects there are some common themes:

• Time is perhaps the most precious resource these companies have and installing a system for marketing and growth is crucial to growth that can be repeated
• Focusing on core strengths and what your business does best is crucial
• Without a plan for sales and marketing you are gradually falling behind to your competition

What I recommend for every small business owner I talk to (and many times BEFORE I work with them) includes:

• Get somewhere out of the madness, even if it’s just for an hour and write down
  • Who your target client is
  • What you believe your unique value proposition is
  • What are the 3 words you want your ideal client to associate with you and your company
• Then call at least 3 of your best customers this week and ask why they do business with you
• Then do a 30 minute assessment of your marketing, what are you doing today that is working and what is not and how does it match with what your best customers just told you?
• Based on all of this, what is the next thing you should do?

Small business owners are smart, creative and resourceful. It does not take long once those questions are answered to achieve much greater clarity about how the business should proceed. But the Tyranny Of The Urgent often keeps small business owners from doing the necessary work on their business to get out of the doom-loop of crisis management.

And while some of this may sound too high-level to have any meaningful impact on your business, then couple that work with effective, focused lead generation marketing and you’ll be well on your way to making your sales and marketing life easier. This can be done – in fact, I’ve co-authored a book about it. You can sign up to know when the book is coming out and get some fantastic pre-order bonuses.

In a couple of weeks (May 19, 1:00 Central) I have the pleasure of presenting a FREE webinar on the 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success for the Arkansas Tech University Small Business Training & Development Center. I’d love to you see you there.