You know I would love to have $10 for every time I have heard this statement “Lyndon, starting and owning my small business is a dream come true for me”. Let’s face it, that is how it should be.
After all having years of toiling at someone else’s business enterprise or even starting out on your own soon after completing education having a small business of your own, where you can be your own boss is true happiness for many.
But owning a small business is not as smooth and simple as you might think it to be.
Managing time effectively, planning, strategizing and implementing your marketing plan are some of the many responsibilities that you have to shoulder over and above keeping a constant vigil on profitability and growth.
It is therefore no wonder that most entrepreneurs are perennially looking for small business marketing solutions to retain growth and also prosper.
Needless to mention, small business marketing solutions are not available in ready to use packages. Every business has its own typical situations, pitfalls and highs.
Every businessman/woman therefore has to learn at every step and put his/her learning and experience to proper use on a regular basis. Some small business marketing solutions are however time tested and have been proved universally right. Here are some of them:
No business can survive unless you are ‘better than the rest’ in some way or the other. Of course monopolistic situations do happen but in today’s time and economy, there is hardly any niche where you can monopolize the market for too long.
There are sharks in the waiting and any attractive business proposal would soon attract a host of investors.
So to come back to your success in business a ‘unique selling proposition’ or USP must be an integral part of your small business marketing solution.
It could be as varied as your creativity permits but has got to be some aspect of your product or services which no one in the market is offering or likely to offer for a long time to come.
It could be a special formulation, packaging, unique distribution channel, unparallel after-sales-service, customer relationship management, unique benefit or whatever.
Attributes like price does not have a sustaining power which a USP ought to have – since any competitor would find matching price the easiest thing to do, either by reducing, hiking or even through offers etc. But there are some intangible benefits like odor, silk touch, promise of status, fulfilling aspiration, etc which are difficult to match and the USP is sustainable over a long period of time.
Another small business marketing solution can be provided by customer testimonials.
There is nothing more credible that someone telling you that he or she is satisfied with the product or services.
When someone has used the product happily, then it must be good. That is normal human psychology.
So fill up your marketing communication with customer endorsements – the more relevant they are the better acceptance you expect for your brand of product.
Co-marketing is another tried and tested small business marketing solution that works well most of the time.
For example if you are marketing cupboard dehumidifiers, tie up with a furniture company that with each of their cupboards you offer a set of dehumidifiers at half the market cost!
To induce a trial you might also think of giving it as a free giveaway. When you walk piggyback with your product and co-promote it with a related product line, chances are that your product can gradually stand on its own feet
I have put a very short video presentation above which is a short precise of this post. Stop on each page and take notes!
Chat Later!
Lyndon
P.S. Below is something I recommend for your viewing and adding to your DVD Library. You can Kick back, view and be totally inspired. Also great to put on after a hard day, when you think “Why Am I doing this!”
Yes, we ALL get days like that. I promise you, this will keep you motivated
I really appreciate that you keep coming back to my site, it's loyal people like you that make what I do worth it. If you have any questions feel free to email me. Oh and since you obviously like our site it'd be great if you could share it with a friend... They'll love you for it!
