Marketing is different between small business and big business. Big companies can afford to spend a lot on advertising. For example, according to Advertising Age, Coca Cola spent US$2,4 billion on advertising last year.
Growing businesses need all the money they can get to spend on product development, paying rent and salaries and buying equipment before significant revenues start flowing in. This leaves very little for expensive advertising and promotions. This is where leverage and creativity comes in.Speaking at last week’s BusinessLink networking breakfast meeting, marketing and business building expert, Max Soutter, enlightened us on the way business strategies have changed.
Modern advertising developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th century. To reach millions of people and get them to buy the products coming off the mass production lines, companies had to embark on mass advertising.
Today’s successful small businesses are not into mass production, but target specific niche markets. This requires a different way of marketing. You need to reach people who are most likely to buy your products. People like to buy from people they know or they like. If your product does not have a nationally recognised brand name, then your best bet is to target those people who know you or are looking for the specific product or service you are selling.
Leverage is defined as the power or ability to move big objects through the use of a lever. Many entrepreneurs have built successful business through the clever use of leverage, in the form of other people’s capital, customers, networks or other resources.
Using the leverage of social media to reach your niche market
Nearly a billion people are on Facebook today. In Zimbabwe, many people have access to the internet, either through computers or internet enabled mobile phones. And the majority of them are on Facebook or other social media, which they access several times a day. There are two ways you can use social media to let likely prospects get to know about your business and your products.
First, you can use your connections, people who already know you. On average, each person knows about 250 people. If each of your connections knows about your business or offer, they can spread the word to each of their 250 friends, thus reaching a potential of 62 250 people.
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The message won’t be perceived as coming from a stranger but from a friend or a friend’s friend. Social media has the power to reach more people today than traditional media, at a tiny fraction of the cost.
The second way to leverage the power of social media is through getting strangers to know you and like you and your business. This involves the golden rule of first giving before expecting to receive.
You can give free information, how to guide or other things of value to your potential customers. An example is to have a blog where you post useful and valuable articles on a regular basis. People seeking information on the internet will find your articles and if they like them will visit your website or contact you for more information.
You will then invite them to subscribe to your website or blog in order to get more information on a regular basis. You will also ask them to pass on the articles, together with the subscription invitation, to people in their network who may benefit from them.
You can also post links of your articles onto your Facebook or LinkedIn page in order to attract more people. LinkedIn now has a facility for creating or joining specific interest groups. I created a group called SME BusinessLink and it is having a rapidly growing following.
If you provide valuable content consistently you find your network growing and will start getting business from these potential customers. People don’t like being bombarded with unsolicited emails or SMS messages. Let them find you and they will like you better without feeling under pressure to buy anything. They will buy when they are ready.
We have organised a half-day business seminar themed “Creative marketing for exceptional results”, set for March 22. Marketing experts, both traditional and internet age, will give practical training and advice on how to take your marketing to the next level using creativity, buzz and social media.
Phillip Chichoni is a business planning and financial management consultant who works with entrepreneurs and growing businesses. You may contact him on [email protected]
