Firstly, let’s get something straight – marketing is not selling, but selling is part of the marketing process! In VERY simple terms marketing is finding a need and then fulfilling it. However, there’s quite a bit more to it than that in reality!
This blog is a quick and dirty approach to marketing for the small business owner who quails in horror at the idea of spending days working on a comprehensive marketing strategy and tactics. It can be relatively straightforward.
Step one: What does your ideal client look like? What size of business do they have? What industry are they in? What turnover do they have? How many staff do they employ? Who are their customers? Use your best client as a template to draw upon.
Step two: Does this profile indicate a particular niche of business types? For instance, is your ideal client a company with at least 50 staff in a service industry? Are they in a particular type of business – e.g. retail, motor dealership, cleaning services? Or they in a particular field of expertise e.g. Finance managers, HR professionals, Facilities managers? When you’ve thought about this you should have at least one niche – maybe 3 or 4.
Step three: Where do the people in this niche ‘hang out’? Would you find them in a professional networking group, at a gym, online, offline?
Step four: How could you get access to the place they’re at? Join online or offline networking groups? Do a free webinar, seminar, free information, etc? Today there’s almost always some kind of online group (usually several) where your target audience, or at least some of them, chat, whether that’s Linked In, Facebook, Twitter or industry forums.
Step five: Get involved, offer information, answer questions, quietly become an authority on your subject in relation to their business. Give away information and be generous with your expertise.
This isn’t a comprehensive marketing strategy, but it’s a really good start and will raise your profile and people’s awareness. It’s not a quick fix, this takes time so don’t expect a flood of people demanding your services, but, when they want what you’re offering there you are right in their field of vision, having demonstrated your expertise – who else will they ask?
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If you want more help you’ll find lots of useful documents in the Treasure Chest – and most of them are FREE!
