Small businesses everywhere suffer from the unequal access to the marketing funding they have compared to their larger competitors. Some complain about it, others get on and short circuit the system by turning it on its head.
Large companies overrun with so called marketers do things in a pretty standard sequence.
Advertise to build awareness,
Generate some customer trial,
Build on trial for repeat purchase.
Small businesses need to find a way to get people to trial their product without all the mass advertising, they need to be able to target their ideal customer specifically, without the investment of mass media, and these days, paid social media which has replaced much of the mass media, but still needs to be managed.
Following are 5 strategies that have worked for my clients, often in tandem.
Sampling.
If for example, you run a restaurant, stand outside at lunchtime and give samples of your signature dish to passers by who match the profile of your ideal customer. Don’t waste money on advertising in the local paper, or sponsoring the local footie team (although that may be a good thing to do for other reasons)
Amazon allows you to sample the books on their lists in a number of ways. You can look inside most books, typically you are shown the contents page and often the first chapter. Sometimes you can download a sample chapter, and from time to time there are deals for a limited time on one book in a series, and of course there are the recommendations tailored on your search and purchase history, and reader reviews. All sampling.
Meadow Lea, a brand icon built through the late 70’s and into the eighties had a hugely effective media persona, ‘You ought to be congratulated’, but was supported with an extensive program of sampling in supermarkets that continued for many years. Getting consumers to sample the product on a bit of bread in store, where the purchases are made was a hugely effective, but low key, slow burn, strategy
Identify your ideal customer.
Identify the most profitable market, by identifying your ideal customer, not just the ones who say they like you, but those who put their money where their mouth is. It amazes me how often a target market turns out to be other than the most profitable market when you do some data digging.
If you are an architect, the most profitable market is unlikely to be first home buyers, far more likely to be successful 40 plus professionals. They might be harder to find, and sell, but way more likely to be able to spend the necessary money to get what they want.
Differentiate yourself.
Create some sort of differentiation that has some emotional component, so it is likely to be something personal.
I drive an old Mercedes, love it to bits. Whenever it gets a service, the car comes back cleaned, not something I ask for or pay for, (at least not directly) but very nice. Last time I picked it up after a service, there was also a matchbox car of the same model as mine, and a note “for your new grandson” on the passenger seat. In casual conversation when I dropped the car off, I had shown a picture of my new grandson. Think anyone else would ever get to service my Merc?, probably cost them 10 bucks for the toy to ensure I never went anywhere else.
Use direct response techniques.
Direct response advertising provides a huge portfolio of ideas and techniques to learn from, and from long experience, we know direct response works. Even after social media has destroyed much of the advertising industry as we knew it a few years ago, direct response has adapted and thrived. Virtually every offer you receive in your inbox has been crafted with the disciplines of direct response that originated and were refined in the back half of the 20th century. Always have a call to action in an ad, an email, or piece of copy if the reader does not know what to do next, they will wander off.
Direct response advertising is absolutely and immediately measurable, you know what you get, and can test varying treatments, so being able to calculate an ROI on your investment is now a reality.
Create or highlight a problem, then solve it with your product.
Purchases are made for a reason, and while the reasons vary from the rational response to a problem, to the emotional solution to an imagined one, the rules are the same. If your product can deliver the solution better than the alternatives, you will be successful.
Colgate used variations of this technique from the mid 70’s with the Mrs Marsh series of ads, which is to my mind the best example around. However, you do nit need to have Colgate-like budgets to use the same formula. Almost every ad for weight loss products, gym membership, and a myriad of other things uses the same formula, varied in a range of ways.
Fix your website.
Most businesses these days have websites, and most websites I see are just bloody awful, at least they are if their objective is to build business. If the objective is to stand around and do nothing, then they are fine. There is tonne of advice out there on how to make your site more effective, and this is not about SEO, although that cannot hurt, it is about making the site more ‘sticky’ for when people visit.
There are some pretty simple things that will help add ‘stickyness’:
- Understand your Bounce Rate. When a visitor to your site fails to move past the first page, it usually indicates that you have failed to engage them, they ‘bounce’. Experiment with differing treatments on your site, noting those that do not work, and ‘doubling down’ on those that do.
- Ensure there is a prominent headline that leads to an action, top and centre of the page. As noted above, problem/solution headlines work well in this context
- Make it clean and uncluttered, so as not to distract the visitor from the next thing you want them to do
- Use video. Up till recently, Video was not a common tool, but as site visitors become more fussy and less likely to stay out of curiosity, and video gets better and cheaper, its use has exploded, as have the expectations of visitors.
- Have social proof prominent, especially video testimonials prominent on the site. People want to be assured by people they can relate to that you are trustworthy, and will treat your money with the same respect they treat theirs.
- Collect emails and mobile numbers. The old saying, ‘The money is in the list’ still holds, but in these days of mobile, having mobile numbers is becoming increasingly important, SMS messages have an almost 100% open rate, and is remarkably flexible. For example, if you run a restaurant, and have 20 seats available one evening, and you have mobile phone numbers, send out an SMS offering a bottle of champers with dinner as an offer to fill the seats, tonight. It may be that the average revenue on a table is $150, with marginal costs only for the food of perhaps $25, and you have just given away $20 to get the seat filled. Seems like a good deal, and the those who get the champers will be pleased, and talk about your restaurant.
Finally, and importantly, get stuff done. So often I see the results of procrastination, and self doubt, don’t let it hamstring you, and if you need a nudge, call me.
