Small Business Marketing Strategies

Companies Benefit from Business Social Media

February 19th, 2011 By DavidChan Leave a Comment

“Business social media” is increasingly becoming an important part of business marketing these days. However, many companies don’t know what this really means or how they can benefit from it. The simplest way to describe the use of social media is to compare it to conversations around the office “water cooler.” In the office, employees gather in lots of places … the lunchroom, near the water cooler, or in the lobby, for example. They end up talking about a variety of topics, such as: upcoming social events, their children’s activities, how they love or hate the company or even the latest gossip.

If you were a fly on the wall and listening to these conversations, you’d gain valuable insight into the likes/dislikes or interests of each employee. In this way, you may decide to target specific programs or activities to retain key employees, for example. This process is not unlike how salespeople bond with their prospective clients. Salespeople gain a better understanding of their clients through engaging with them in social activities such as: playing golf, entertaining them over dinner and other similar activities. During these social interactions salespeople gain their client’s trust and, if successful, eventually make a sale.

In the context of today’s technologically intertwined world, the use of business social media allows businesses to engage with potential customers in far more complex and expansive ways than the “office water cooler.” A business can dialogue with tens/hundreds of thousands of potential customers over a multitude of topics related to their industry niche. By becoming the proverbial “fly on the wall” or, better yet, interacting with potential customers, businesses create trust by injecting value added information. This is a critical component of the sales process..

For example, a skin care company might “solicit” new customers by engaging with them in social media forums and offering advice on how to cleanse one’s skin. Next, the company might offer tips on eating the right types of food in order to keep one’s skin hydrated and nourished. Eventually, as the prospects become more trustful of the information source, the company can then interject products and services that might appeal to them.

There are many more ways that business social media can benefit companies. In fact, the number of social media “coolers” is rapidly increasing. The best way to capitalize on this growing trend is to just jump in and participate. Once again, the key to success, though, is to provide valuable information within the context of the dialogue. Trust is hard to obtain but very easy to lose.

Capitalizing On Small Business Trends

August 2nd, 2010 By DavidChan Leave a Comment

What are some of the most useful small business trends and how can you capitalize on them? Some of these trends have been happening for while and others are just beginning to become known. The great thing about these trends is that if you understand them and are willing to adapt, you can get up ahead of the curve and meet or exceed revenue and expense projections.

Marketing is becoming increasingly easier for small businesses to execute on, because of the ever-growing use of the Internet and the proliferation of tools. Let’s say for example, Google’s powerful search engine. If you understand how to use Google’s local listings service, which is called Google Places, you can dominate your category for a local area. For example, if you are pizza parlor and you know how to create a local listing by adding reviews, videos, and the correct keywords, you can have a listing that is easily found by many customers in your local and nearby cities. This tool is so powerful that it’s becoming the search of choice for people, outperforming the Yellow Pages and the newspaper.

Another great marketing tool includes the ever increasing pool of online PR services, which are both free and paid. By creating and distributing your own press releases online, you can reach a much larger audience than just your local region. In addition you will reach an audience of patrons who trust press releases over generic search results.

Other small business trends include the use of millions of different types of services now available on the Internet. They help companies reduce their expenses in a myriad of ways. For example, one great service for saving you time and money is one based on the concept of “virtual telephone service.” What does this mean? A virtual telephone service generally means a voice over Internet protocol or “VOIP” system. A virtual phone service allows you to make and receive phone calls, as well as use all of the other telephone services that you are used to such as: voice mail, call forwarding, and three way calling. These services cost a mere fraction of what they used to cost during the monopoly days of the old AT&T.

Small businesses are also getting smaller. What do I mean by that? The overwhelming majority of small businesses are sole proprietorships, which means that they are single individuals who are running the business. This has all become possible because of the availability, flexibility, and increasingly cheap technology. With this technology you can virtually run a business that touches a city, state, country or even the globe without leaving your home.

There are plenty more small business trends that can be harnessed. But the key to success is not just following the trends but utilizing them to your advantage.

Best Small Business Marketing Strategies for Today

June 27th, 2010 By DavidChan Leave a Comment

Some of the best small business marketing strategies are those that have been utilized for years. They include the standard practices, such as: networking with business associates, joining your local Chamber of Commerce, guerrilla marketing, advertising and cold calling. Increasingly, though, small businesses are using new techniques and methodologies that leverage the Internet. Consider that there are over 34,000 searches per second on Google. Consumers search for everything including research information, how to source and buy products and much more. It’s been estimated that fully 20% of these searches are for a local type listing, e.g. finding a business in a local region, county, or city.

By utilizing widely available Internet tools and services small business owners can market to new and existing customers in ways not available in the past. Traditionally, products were marketed through newspaper ads and classifieds, yellow pages and even radio spot and TV commercials. Generally these marketing mediums are called “offline” marketing. Tracking offline marketing campaigns were difficult and often downright impossible. There was really no “direct” way of measuring success, except through surveys and inserting ad response codes. One of the problems is that people forget ad response codes and surveys do have a high percentage of related errors.

New Internet / online small business marketing strategies incorporate such concepts as social networks, online PR and the newly renamed Google Places. Let’s dissect these strategies to see how they fit within any small business’ overall marketing campaigns.

Google Places is essentially a local listing within your demographic area, whether it is a county, city or borough. With Google places, small businesses can list their company utilizing words that people type into Google search when looking for a service or product. For example, when someone searches for a “tailor” in Manhattan, New York, Google would serve up a list of tailors in that area. These listings appear even before the traditional top 10 organic listings that Google services us. It’s imperative to understand how to utilize Google Places in order to maximize your potential customers.

Online social networking complements offline networking with business associates. Think of online social networking as joining your local Chamber of Commerce or socializing at the office water cooler. Through online social networks, such as Facebook, Linkedin, and MySpace, small businesses can reach out to many more potential customers than they could ever have achieved through using offline networking avenues alone. Learning how to navigate these online social networks is critical to reaching new customers, as well as maintaining existing ones.

Small business marketing strategies should also include online PR. Small businesses are used to guerrilla type marketing. Think of online PR as another way of getting your message across to your market through free and cheap publicity. Generally there is a section in newspapers and magazines for announcements, such as a staff promotion, a new product, education and things like new partnerships. By issuing an online press release, you can reach thousands of viewers without alienating them through a “sales” pitch. Press releases are generally viewed positively and “trustworthy” by consumers.

Incorporating these new marketing strategies will help small business owners maintain their market position, as well as grab new markets. This is especially true during this period of transition as offline marketing reach through print, radio and TV declines and gives way to online marketing through the Internet and mobile devices.