Tasty Marketing Tips and Tricks for Small Businesses

Figuring out your marketing budget isn’t always easy. In fact, most of the time it’s probably hit and miss. Mostly miss. Here’s how to take the guesswork out of working out a realistic marketing budget.

I n Part 1 I suggested that you look back over the past year and document exactly what you spent your marketing dollars/pounds/euros/etc on. (If you missed Part 1 you can read it here.)

You should now have a detailed list of all the print advertising, fliers, business cards, websites, copywriting, brochures, promotions etc that you worked on. You should also have an idea about which of your marketing efforts were successful and which weren’t.

Should. But probably don’t. Assuming that you’ve figured out how much you spent on marketing last year, that’s as good a place as any to start with as a guesstimate for this year’s budget. Only this year, do things a little differently. Be more proactive about tracking your marketing efforts. Keep notes on what works and what doesn’t.

Doing a newspaper advert? Use a call to action that lets you track who’s replying to the ad. That can be as simple as using a specific email address, a special phone number, or even just asking prospective customers how they heard about you.

If you have a website, or plan on getting one, make sure that you have a way to track what people are doing on your site. Which are the most popular pages? Which pages make them run away screaming?

You can get some great insights into whether you’re spending your marketing budget wisely by listening to your customers. Ask them questions. They’ll be happy to tell you what they think. And even happier when you take action to improve their experience with you.

These same principles apply just as well to you if you’re just starting your business. True, you’ll probably end up pulling your marketing budget out of thin air, but also true that you’ll learn what’s working as you go along because you’ll do what so few businesses do from the very beginning: you’ll test and track your marketing to make sure you’re always doing it that little bit better.

And little improvements soon add up to a whole lot.

So go ahead. Pick a figure. Small is fine to begin with, until you get the hang of it. But don’t be afraid to add to your budget if you can see that your plans are panning out. If you know that you’re bringing in $5 for every $2 you invest in marketing, your marketing budget isn’t going to be limited to a set figure. You’ll invest more to make more. It’s as simple as that.

So go on: Get marketing!

It’s just about now that small businesses are working out their marketing budget for 2008. There’s something about January that makes you sit down and crunch numbers.

It shouldn’t be like that, of course. You should be number crunching all year round. But if January is what it takes to get you focused on the figures, so be it. It’s a start. Continue reading →

There’s a lot of information out there on marketing strategy. In fact, if you type marketing strategy into Google, you’ll get around 23,600,00 results.

But most of those entries on the first page or two aren’t exactly small-business-friendly, even though some of them claim to be.

Here’s a defintion of marketing strategy from www.businessdictionary.com.

A marketing strategy is a: Written plan (usually a part of the overall corporate plan) which combines product development, promotion, distribution, and pricing approach, identifies the firm’s marketing goals, and explains how they will be achieved within a stated timeframe. Marketing strategy determines the choice of target market segment, positioning, marketing mix, and allocation of resources.

Yeah, right. Now honestly, how useful is that definition to you? Don’t you just want to run right out and get your own marketing strategy? Nah, didn’t think so.

Here’s the jargon free version of what a marketing strategy is and isn’t and how to start thinking strategically in your business.

Continue reading →

I teach marketing on a course for people who aspire to start their own small business. Invariably I begin with one of those frightening statistics about how many small businesses will fail in their first year of operation, and how many of those who do survive the initial struggles will still be around five years later.

Depending of the source of the statistics, up to 95% of small businesses crash to the ground before they’ve been airborne for long.

I usually ask my students to help me brainstorm a list of reasons that might cause small businesses to get into difficulties. Below are some typical answers.

• lack of knowledge
• bad management
• poor location
• not enough funds
• no budget
• inconsistent cash flow
• not enough staff
• deficient planning
• inferior service
• substandard product or service
• shoddy marketing
• flawed expectations
• low sales
• unresponsive to market changes
• talented competition

Then, as we look down the list, I ask my students to tell me how many of these reasons for business failure are in any way connected to marketing.

Answer: All of them.

It’s simple really. If you’re a small business, you’d better get your marketing in shape if you plan to be around to confound the statistics.

Time and time again, my clients ask me whether they should drop the price of their product or service to match their competitors’ prices.

I’m biting my tongue.

Think about it. When you reduce your price, what do you actually achieve? At best you might make a few more sales. At worst you’ll cause yourself a lot of business headaches, not to mention financial damage.

Here’s what happens if you drop your prices: You enter a price war in which there are no winners. You drop your price. Your competitor drops hers.

Now what?

You drop your price again.

And she drops her price in response.

And on it goes.

It’s a downward spiral with no end in sight.

And at the end of it, when you’re regained your senses and want to reinstate your original pricing structure you’ll find that your customers are quite happy with the lower price, thank-you-very much.

Getting back to your pre-price-war price won’t necessarily be easy.

Limit Orders at Lower Prices

If you want to encourage a rush of orders in the short term, you can offer a special discount price - but make sure your customers know it’s for a limited time only.

Even better, instead of lowering your price, offer a bonus or a 2 for 1 deal. And let your customers know that there’s a reason for the lower pricing e.g. new stock coming in, or a new program for which you want testimonials etc.

The only time you should consider slashing your prices is if you need cash fast - and if that’s the case, you’re on shaky ground to begin with, so be careful.

If that’s not your situation, figure out another way to get your name out there.