Photo by azrainman

It’s not necessary to change.  Survival is not mandatory!   – W. Edwards Deming

If you’re not actively marketing your business, you’re at a dead end!  Even if you’re doing a bit of marketing here and there, if you don’t have an online presence…if people can’t find you online – you’re at a dead end!

I had a great discussion with a business owner today who had seen a handout from one of my recent workshops.  One of the bullet points that really caught his attention (and made him noticeably uncomfortable) was the following:

• You should have 5 to 10 active marketing strategies at any given time.

His comment (and I’ve heard this from plenty of other business owners) was “I’m not big enough for a marketing department and I don’t have the time or money for even 5 strategies”!

It’s not necessary to change.  Survival is not mandatory!

As a small business owner, regardless of whatever your business is, you are first and foremost in the Marketing business.  See the marketing assessment below to find out how your Marketing business is doing.

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   photo by !!sahrizvi

Your marketing is a net that you throw out to capture the attention of your best prospects.  You want to snare those prospects (and only those prospects) with the information, benefits and outcomes that speak to their situation.  That’s not going to happen on a single visit or interaction, you need to get in front of them with the right message several times…in fact a big part of your marketing job is to stay top of mind as a value added resource so you’re a no brainer decision when they’re ready to buy!

One of the best tools you can use to build your marketing net is some variation of email marketing.  There are a lot of great reasons you need to be using email marketing with your business – here are few to get you thinking!

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  photo by annia316 

A lot of business owners talk about growing their business by networking.  You imagine a crowded chamber after hours meeting and it’s hard to picture generating business in that kind of setting.

The reality is you can’t (or at least it’s unlikely).

What you can do at those kinds of events is meet new people and determine if they have any potential to collaborate with you in the future.  If they do and you can develop a mutually beneficial win-win relationship  over time with someone you get to Know, Like and Trust.

THEN you have some good potential to generate new business from networking!

I had a great demonstration of this the other day over coffee.

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  Photo by andy_c

Maybe this has happened to you.  You’ve got a great idea for a new product or a new business – something you just know people are going to be lining up to buy.  You do some quick back of the napkin business planning and realize that you need to get the word out on your new brilliant stuff!  You need a website, or advertising or public relations!

The problem is that you’ve jumped directly to a marketing tactic and you’ve totally skipped the marketing strategy!

I’ve talked before about the importance of consistency when it comes to winning the marketing game – consistency comes from having a clear strategy for your marketing to begin with and then being able to stick to a plan.  However you have to have the plan first!

Not sure what I mean?  Here are 5 questions that will help you form your strategy first:

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Photo by Adam Pniak

These days more than ever it’s critical that your business stands out from the crowd (for the right reasons).

Recent studies show that an ever growing majority of people are turning to the internet first to solve their problems and buy solutions, services and products.  Specifically they’re using search engines like Google.

They’re looking for you, but if they can’t find you…if you’re not standing out, then they’ll go with who ever they can find and you’ll be out a customer opportunity (and an easy one at that since they were ready to buy when they started looking).

The good news is that most small businesses aren’t doing a very good job at building an online presence.  For most businesses owners the bar is pretty low – if you do just a couple of things on purpose you could find yourself on the first page of Search Engine results when those customers come a searching.  A little creativity and some focus could be all it takes to really ramp up your lead generation.

Below are 8 examples of different ways to stand out online – real businesses, real examples that you can steal borrow from.  What could you start doing with your business to stand out?

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