How To Fix Your Small Business Marketing To Dramatically Increase Your Sales

Unfortunately many marketing initiatives by small businesses fail. Most small business owners have not been trained in how to market a small business and are unlikely to have a specialist marketer in-house. Often a small business will originate from the business owner’s passion and skill at what they do – they are at the heart of their small business. So why do marketing activities fail so often for small businesses? It is because over 95% of small business owners will select one of three marketing approaches, “copy-cat advertising”, “forever advertising”, and “do nothing”, that unfortunately do not deliver to expectations.

One form of small business marketing that is very prevalent is the Copy Cat method of advertising. This mimics what another company is doing and typically copies their ads. The end result is normally no significant return on the marketing dollars spent because there are fifty messages out in the market place all very similar.

The “forever advertising” is to decide on one type of advertising and just stay with it forever. For example, advertising year after year in the Yellow Pages, or ongoing advertising campaigns in your local newspaper. Where this fails is that it is only reaching the same people who access or read these mediums year in and year out. How do you measure if this is the best spend for your marketing dollar when you only have the one ongoing/unchanging method. This may mean limited growth and potential for your business.

The “do nothing” approach, means as it sounds; the business owner does nothing to advertise their business. The business owner may believe that their business, products or services will just speak for themselves. This is not a realistic way to promote your business; you can not reach your potential customers if they don’t know you are there, or if you are not actively communicating with them.

Marketing can appear a strange and puzzling world to the unacquainted and it may seem hard to understand why it has to have a place in small business processes. What marketing is about is allowing people to: get to know, like and trust you, your business, products and/or services.

The first step to fixing your marketing in your small business is to be clear on who your ideal customer is and to be as specific as possible. If they are a business: where are there premises? how many employees do they have? what is their annual turnover? what are the key attributes of the business owner? what problems do they need help solving? what else can you say about them? If you are not sure how to identify your ideal customers then start with describing one or two of the best customers that you currently have.

The next step of identifying the “irresistible offer” for your ideal customer, is about what you can offer them that will make them want to rush out and become a customer. This “irresistible offer” can define you in the eyes of your customers above your competitors. Consider the promise that Dominoes Pizza’s made in the past that blew their competition out of the water: “Pizza hot and fresh to your door in 30 minutes or less or its free.” Dominoes Pizzas understood that their ideal client would find this offer irresistible, as their customers wanted hot pizza delivered right now to them guaranteed.

The last step is to communicate your irresistible offer to your potential ideal customers in a way that they can get to know you, like you and trust you. The best way to do this is via people just like them sharing their positive experiences about your business. This can be in the form of a testimonial from current customers delighted with your business. You will then need to package this with your offer and possibly some detailed case studies and get it out to your prospective new customers. This will build awareness of your business and assist in the development of likeability and trust. If you are then able to follow up with your potential customers personally, you will be well on your way to driving new customer to your small business.

Want to find out more about Pyxis Business Partners marketing expertise, then visit Pyxis Business Partners website and request your free consulting session on Brisbane marketing for your business’ future success.