I have never met Mary Biever in person, but we are connected on twitter. I have come to respect her opinions and knowledge, and I am delighted she was willing to share her thoughts here.

Shopping for Small Business Marketing

Marketing Choices Businesses Should Avoid and Seek

“Hire me, and I’ll build your sales to best in the market,” a marketing vendor in the advertising food court calls to small businesses.

The vendor next to him says, “I’ll grow your sales pronto – nothing else like it.”

How is the small business owner to know which marketing methods work best?

We may choose to eat fat-laden fried junk food topped with extra salt when we eat at a real mall food court, but we all know fruits and vegetables are the best choices for our long-term health and well-being.

It’s harder for a business to discern best choices, especially when everything we thought we knew went the way of the rotary telephone.

What should a business hide and seek in the marketing quest for survival in a tough economy?

Avoid

  1. The Oldster. This marketer clings to past practices of phone books, mail, print, and media purchases with no personal track record in modern media. He sells his clients nutritionally empty products. Pretty wrappers with flash and bang don’t sell in a world of marketing-savvy consumers who selectively ignore the old sell.
  2. The Easter Bunny. The hip marketer who throws all his clients’ eggs into a Facebook basket is selling them out of season, hollow Easter eggs. The number of fans on a page doesn’t equate to sales at the business if the fans aren’t the targeted market. Further, since Facebook owns the platform, the business doesn’t own its own marketing and is subject to constant rule changes. With Google+, this is even more outdated.
  3. The Gamer. The contest marketer who sells his client nothing but a contest of the day.  He trains client customers to demand and expect something for nothing and not to get engaged unless there is a free prize of the day.
  4. The A La Carter. This marketer buys a billboard here, a radio spot there, and social media somewhere else without a cohesive strategy.

Seek

  1. The Talker. This marketer engages in real conversations with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. As a consequence, the marketer understands where customers are and what makes them click – and buy client products.
  2. The Multiple Channel Planner. This marketer develops a strategy that utilizes old school methods in new ways – a mix of radio, TV, social media, blogs, video, and mobile apps.
  3. The Eagle Eye. This marketer scans the landscape and spots opportunities. Client sales are his prey. He doesn’t get distracted by flash or bang but bases decisions on sound business principles.

Money can be made in this economy. It requires the right marketing plan, shifting resources into methods that sell in our new social world.

I have never met Mary Biever in person, but we are connected on twitter. I have come to respect her opinions and knowlege, and I am delighted she was willing to share her thoughts here.

She  is a computer coach and social media trainer in Evansville, Indiana.


photo © 2007 Josh McConnell | more info (via: Wylio)