NEWS

The one missing piece to help market your small business more effectively

If I think of the traditional small business journey, you’re good at your technical skill, maybe you’re a good accountant or maybe you’ve got a passion for clothing. So you start a clothing brand and you make the effort, you set up your business, you’ve got a name, you’re excited, maybe you create a logo and then you’re sitting at your desk and you’re waiting for the phone or the inquiry or the customer to come in.

It's generally because you haven’t considered what it is that you’re doing, that is different. Now, if I can urge you to do one thing today, if you feel a little bit stuck in your marketing and in your business, just think of one small change that you can make and communicate so that you’re a little bit different to the other people in your industry.

To just say that you’re good at what you do, isn’t enough to cut through. To say that you have good customer service isn’t enough to cut through. Just communicate something that’s a little bit different whether it’s a focus on a particular audience that you offer, whether it’s the location that you offer or whether you’re an expert or a specialist in what you do.

Communicate something that is a little bit different and just make that one small start because if you compare yourself to someone that is like you, that is just communicating a generic offering, then they’re going to be in the same boat as you.

But if you communicate about something that you do a little bit differently, then you have a higher chance to cut through than your competitors.

So think about that today, make that small change that could ultimately make a big impact in your business going forward, because at the end of the day you are competing and you’re trying go cut through. The best way to cut through is to create and communicate a point of difference.

Here’s the approach every successful small business takes in their marketing

I'll often hear people talk about the fact that they've never had to do marketing for their business and how successful they are and I love the fact that they're able to have that conversation.

The reality is though, that in some way, shape or form they just don't know it but they have done some type of marketing.

If we look at the basics of what marketing means, marketing is every touch point in and around your business to how you speak to people on the phone, to what your business card looks like, to what your website looks like. Everything in and around your business and how you communicate is marketing.

The fundamentals of marketing are all about positioning and positioning your business and your brand in the minds of your customers that is different to the competition or minimises the competition or eliminates the competition.

So for those businesses that have never done marketing I always take a step back and have a look at what they actually do and what their market looks like and 99% of the time it's because they are experts or specialists in what they do, so they have eliminated or minimised the competition, which means they have positioned their business and their brand in the minds of their customers.

So by default, and they just don't realise it because they don't really understand what marketing means, they've actually positioned themselves by default and in essence have marketed their business they just don't know it.