Pam from The Office

There’s an important aspect of marketing that often gets overlooked.  The tendency is to think about marketing as advertising or branding, but marketing is also all about the little things. 

Marketing is every interaction that you (and your employees) have with your customers and prospective customers.  Are they greeted with a friendly smile?  Do they hear a somewhat formal “How can I help you today?” or an informal “What do you need?”.  It’s those details, the little touches, that create what your business is all about, that create the ‘wow’ moments people will talk about.

Do you look at your marketing as all of the little things that make a difference (and add credibility and power to any advertising you do)?  Do you start thinking of the small touches your clients would appreciate that are unusual in your industry?.  Maybe it’s time to upgrade your marketing – start with a smile…and here are some other ideas that might get you started:

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  photo by nolifebeforecoffee

Can your customers find your business when it comes to searching locally?

Back in April when Google released / updated Google Places they also shared that 20% of all searches done on Google included location…translating to nearly 3 Billion searches using Google data from March!!!

Beyond that, a recent study done by comScore and 15miles that asked ‘What’s the first thing you use when searching for local business information?’ had some interesting results on Local Search…

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photo by albertopveiga

Does it ever seem like life gets too complicated? 

Does your business get so crazy that you constantly feel like you have to play the ‘Hero’ – come in and pick up the pieces and save the day?

Have you ever had a potential customer say to you:  “Now what is it that you do…exactly?”

Simple is underrated when it comes to success in business.

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photo by kennymatic

Marketing for small business owners has gotten a lot harder in the last 20 years.  Way back when, if you wanted to generate some sales, you could pull together an ad, let people know what you were selling and you stood a good chance of selling more stuff.  These days there’s way too much noise out there for poor marketing to drive any sort of results.  You have to know your target market, but even more importantly you have to know the problem you’re solving or the outcome you’re delivering.

Marketing can be a complex process – you need to understand the demographics and the psychographics of your target market. You need to have an insight into their mindset and why they buy, what drives them to spend money. You need a clear call to action. You need your message conveyed in a medium that your target market is likely to read.

In fact there are a lot of reasons why your marketing isn’t working. However the most likely reason your marketing isn’t working is because your message isn’t resonating with your target market – they don’t care!

Which of these statements is more appealing to you?

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One of the foundations of Guerrilla Marketing is creativity – finding a unique and interesting way to capture attention.  However just as importantly you need to be talking to the right people and you need to be getting them to think about the problems you solve and the benefits you deliver.

The example above does a great job of being different and illustrating the benefits…the only drawback is that it probably was pretty expensive, but compared to a TV commercial, I’m sure it was a bargain and it would have much longer lasting impact.

Interested in seeing some more examples…

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