BY PETER J. ELIOPOULOS
As a small business owner or manager, you”™ve nurtured an idea and built it into a successful enterprise. Your work is your passion and you should take pride in telling your story.
Small businesses are big business in Westchester County. They provide us with health care, home repairs, food and other vital services. They”™re also job engines. Small businesses have historically created the majority of new U.S. jobs.
As a small business, you”™re constantly working hard to improve the bottom line and it”™s important to tell your story through marketing. Many small businesses often struggle with marketing concepts. Businesses in the U.S. ideally allocate a fraction (1 to 2.5 percent) of top line revenues to marketing budgets, but many fall short of even that fractional spend.
The key is making the most of your marketing dollars. To succeed as a small business owner, you need to tell your story well. To borrow a phrase from a National Geographic executive ”“ if it”™s untold, it”™s unsold.
No single marketing effort works all the time. The fact a particular marketing strategy wasn”™t right for one business doesn”™t mean it”™s not ideally suited for another.
Sometimes it”™s better to zig when your competitors zag. Look at the classic example of Kellogg overtaking C.W. Post in the cereal industry during the depression. C.W. Post followed the simplistic pattern of cutting marketing spending during tough times.
W.K. Kellogg knew people would still eat during the depression, so he doubled his company”™s marketing budget in 1929. Sometimes when a brand disappears during tough times, customers and prospects can interpret that as a lack of staying power.
Consider the following five key marketing practices to help tell your story:
Ӣ Start your planning with research. Know your customers and get some feedback from them to form the basis of your marketing programs. Think about the phases of your marketing program as research, plan, execute and measure.
Ӣ Determine what marketing success looks like to you and define your success metrics. If you canӪt measure it, youӪll never know if a particular marketing strategy actually worked. If your small business finds data hard to come by, consider looking to your local chamber of commerce or another business organization for assistance. Data is the lifeblood sustaining good marketing programs. Constantly test your approaches by measuring your results.
Ӣ Rotate your marketing tactics and alter your approach. While you want potential customers to recognize a consistency in your advertising as you build a brand identity, research suggests people will begin to tune out something they perceive as unchanging. Vary your cadence and approach, but donӪt be arbitrary. Plan carefully.
Ӣ Small business is intensely personal. A handwritten note thanking clients for the business and perhaps offering them a discount can go a long way toward building customer loyalty and in a social media age, itӪs actually a way to differentiate yourself. Consider including a second offer to your customers immediately after theyӪve made a purchase. For many small businesses, 80 percent of their business comes from 20 percent of their customers.
Ӣ And remember, social media is not a panacea. While a great tool for grassroots efforts, social media is not a substitute for traditional marketing. Properly leveraged, social media can sometimes enhance and augment tried and true marketing approaches, such as connecting members of a community with shared interests on social media sites.
One other critical consideration is staying engaged in your local community. This helps create word of mouth about your business and brand. Get involved in local business organizations ”“ chamber of commerce, Rotary, Lion”™s and other service clubs.
Support other small businesses and pick a local organization to support as well; it could be a baseball or soccer team, a theater or other local charity. Being involved helps build relationships and networking opportunities.
Give a student a job or an internship if there”™s room for a young person within your business plan. Young people are now conditioned to share every detail of their lives with friends, so you can bet they”™ll spread the word.
If cash-flow problems are restricting your business development, then talk to your banker. Every good business plan needs a good banker that acts as a strategic adviser in discussing cash-flow management and business-planning issues, including having some money to market and communicate.
There are a number of different ways small businesses can finance their operations, including several different lending programs through the U.S. Small Business Administration. Don”™t fear the paperwork; a good banker can help walk you through the process.
The bottom line is to include a place for marketing and communications as part of your overall business plan. Remember, untold is unsold.
Peter J. Eliopoulos is chief marketing officer of M&T Bank.
Well said Peter. I like your comment on social media. A social media strategy is not a media plan. It’s a building block of a synergistic multi-media plan.