Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Want Great Small Marketing Ideas That Work? Start With This Article.
By Eric Henderson
While we'll be publishing a series of content on small business marketing ideas, I want to start by talking about some things that really need to change in the industry - and some mistakes a lot of business owners make in the meantime.
This may sound funny, but the first thing is that you need to do exactly the opposite of what you've traditionally been told to do for your market. If you are a traditional marketer, or you work with a traditional marketer, they're going to argue with you - because they've been taught to do what "works" which turns out to be the status quo.
I'm here to tell you that when you set yourself apart by doing exactly the opposite of what everyone else is doing, you immediately have a better effect, because people are now paying attention. It's not the same old, same old - it doesn't look the same, it doesn't sound the same, it doesn't read the same, it doesn't feel the same as everything else out there.
In the past, clients of ours have resisted doing anything that wasn't the norm for their industry. They were so set in "This is how you do things" in their industries that they had a really hard time doing anything different. But when they took a chance and made a radical change, they saw awesome results. It'll take some serious thinking to come up with a creative and unique strategy, but it will really be worth it.
The second thing I want to talk about is that you don't pay for advertising if it doesn't pay you back. Now I might get a lot of flack for saying this, but if you're going to networking meetings and you find that there is no give-and-take that everybody is out for themselves, and it's always about what can you do for them and not how you can work together, than quit. Get out of there. It's not quitting, it's saying this is what's best for me, it is not what's in my best interest. And vice versa - if you're feeling that you can't contribute, than you shouldn't be there either.
But also, if you're advertising in newspapers, on the radio, in the Yellow Pages, or magazines, and you're not getting any business out of it, just stop! If more money is going out in ads than is coming in from them you are taking a loss - and that's not what being in business is all about. Don't wait for something to change, because it never will. Just put an end to it.
The last thing I want to talk about when it comes to small business marketing ideas, is that you want to keep things simple, but you also want to make them complicated. Here's what I mean, if that doesn't make any sense to you (which I'm sure it doesn't). You want to keep it simple because people don't want to have to think about what they need to do, where they need to go, or what steps they need to take. So when it comes to your call to action, the information on your website, or your marketing materials, it should be very simple. It should be, "Are you interested in what I have to offer? If so, do this."
Make sure you have a compelling message, and be clear about the action that you want people to take. If you don't tell them, they won't do it. Brochure-style bios and booklets don't work anymore - people decide almost instantly if they are interested, and you have to capitalize on that. If you don't, you'll lose them.
But when it comes to following up, you want that process to be complicated. Your follow up strategy should include multiple channels of communication, which will allow you to continually build the relationship and sell to them whether they are a client or not.
We're going to get into email marketing and mobile marketing in the next article, but think about your current advertising and your current marketing - Are you over complicating it in your messages, but under-complicating it in your follow through? Because it's really important that it actually should be the exact opposite. You want to keep it simple in your messages and you want to make a complicated on the back-end.
In just a couple days, we'll be posting the next article in this series. In the meantime, let all this sink in, and start to think about how to apply it to your business. In the next article, we'll talk about synergizing your online and offline marketing, how to create a powerful email follow up system, and how to use mobile marketing.
This may sound funny, but the first thing is that you need to do exactly the opposite of what you've traditionally been told to do for your market. If you are a traditional marketer, or you work with a traditional marketer, they're going to argue with you - because they've been taught to do what "works" which turns out to be the status quo.
I'm here to tell you that when you set yourself apart by doing exactly the opposite of what everyone else is doing, you immediately have a better effect, because people are now paying attention. It's not the same old, same old - it doesn't look the same, it doesn't sound the same, it doesn't read the same, it doesn't feel the same as everything else out there.
In the past, clients of ours have resisted doing anything that wasn't the norm for their industry. They were so set in "This is how you do things" in their industries that they had a really hard time doing anything different. But when they took a chance and made a radical change, they saw awesome results. It'll take some serious thinking to come up with a creative and unique strategy, but it will really be worth it.
The second thing I want to talk about is that you don't pay for advertising if it doesn't pay you back. Now I might get a lot of flack for saying this, but if you're going to networking meetings and you find that there is no give-and-take that everybody is out for themselves, and it's always about what can you do for them and not how you can work together, than quit. Get out of there. It's not quitting, it's saying this is what's best for me, it is not what's in my best interest. And vice versa - if you're feeling that you can't contribute, than you shouldn't be there either.
But also, if you're advertising in newspapers, on the radio, in the Yellow Pages, or magazines, and you're not getting any business out of it, just stop! If more money is going out in ads than is coming in from them you are taking a loss - and that's not what being in business is all about. Don't wait for something to change, because it never will. Just put an end to it.
The last thing I want to talk about when it comes to small business marketing ideas, is that you want to keep things simple, but you also want to make them complicated. Here's what I mean, if that doesn't make any sense to you (which I'm sure it doesn't). You want to keep it simple because people don't want to have to think about what they need to do, where they need to go, or what steps they need to take. So when it comes to your call to action, the information on your website, or your marketing materials, it should be very simple. It should be, "Are you interested in what I have to offer? If so, do this."
Make sure you have a compelling message, and be clear about the action that you want people to take. If you don't tell them, they won't do it. Brochure-style bios and booklets don't work anymore - people decide almost instantly if they are interested, and you have to capitalize on that. If you don't, you'll lose them.
But when it comes to following up, you want that process to be complicated. Your follow up strategy should include multiple channels of communication, which will allow you to continually build the relationship and sell to them whether they are a client or not.
We're going to get into email marketing and mobile marketing in the next article, but think about your current advertising and your current marketing - Are you over complicating it in your messages, but under-complicating it in your follow through? Because it's really important that it actually should be the exact opposite. You want to keep it simple in your messages and you want to make a complicated on the back-end.
In just a couple days, we'll be posting the next article in this series. In the meantime, let all this sink in, and start to think about how to apply it to your business. In the next article, we'll talk about synergizing your online and offline marketing, how to create a powerful email follow up system, and how to use mobile marketing.
About the Author:
It's not easy to think of small business marketing ideas that work for your business. Schedule a free, 30-minute Discovery Session with us today, and we'll tell you if you're on the right track with your small business marketing ideas and more.
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