The key in Small Business Marketing Plan
It’s difficult to make the decision when you have a million suggestions in your mind. For example, I don’t like eating at restaurants where the menu is the size of textbook. Even when I point out what I want, there is always someone else at the table who feels uncomfortable to read every single item on every page and the more they read, the more unsure they become about what they want to order.
When you’re trying to figure out how to market your business, you probably have felt the same way. There are so many ideas and options that you can’t keep track of all of them. Each one leads your thoughts down a different path. The next thing you know, your brain is swirling and you just want to forget the whole thing because it’s too frustrating. But, of course, you know you have to market your business in order to grow and you don’t want to sit back and do nothing…so you again start worrying about what you should do.
Almost everyone wakes up on Monday morning with great intention to do ‘something’ significant that week to improve and grow their business. But the demands of our daily activities keep us from getting that ‘something’ done.
So where do you start? Here are three quick tips…
First, remember your audience and your goal. Are you a local business? Do you rely on customers in your local area to support your company? If you’re selling sandwiches and are generally only going to sell sandwiches to people in your neighborhood, then don’t worry about strategies for national businesses. On the other hand, if you can promote and sell your product or services anywhere in the country, your marketing plan can have a ‘national’ focus. So if you know your geographic focus, stick to it and don’t get distracted by advertising or marketing ideas that aren’t beneficial to you (no matter how slick or cool they seem).
Second, consider your weakness. Do you have a constant flow of traffic but not enough sales? Then focus on ideas to increase your sales rate (not your leads for generating more customer traffic). If on the other hand, almost everyone who walks in your store or visits your website becomes a buying customer, then your focus needs to be generating more traffic because your sales conversion rate is great!
Lastly, don’t feel pressured or obligated to buy into everything that’s being sold. So many times, we sign up for an advertising package simply because there’s a salesperson standing in front of us and we’re really not sure what else to do to promote our business anyway so we go ahead and buy what they’re selling. Educate yourself and know your options. If you have the knowledge and information about marketing alternatives that will help you save money and drive more sales, then you can confidently decide what path you want to take and easily push aside those things that won’t help you.
