Small business owners need to invest in marketing but should avoid those who promise a one-time, low cost, quick fix to business development. When it comes to growing your business, there is no "set it and forget it" approach to marketing.
Business owners often are not comfortable with marketing and wisely employ someone else to take those reigns. But I've observed that these same business owners are often concerned that their marketing person is taking the slow boat to the land of abundant pipelines.
Small business owners often wonder about the variety of marketing: should we do multiple things or put all the eggs in one basket. For example, we don't seem to be getting many leads from direct mail, should we take that money and invest in SEO? Or, yes direct mail seems to be working, but do we have to send it out every month? Could we mail every six weeks? If email marketing is working, why don't we quit attending events and just send out more email?
Small business owners also tend to get a little nervous when the marketing person wants to try something new. They fret over the marketing person suggesting a different look and feel than the stock art, multi-cultural crowd hanging around in the conference room.
Small business owners should enjoy the peace of mind that comes with engaging the right marketing person. There are six traits that you should look for when hiring or retaining a marketing person.
They should display a curiosity about the business. Good marketing people are curious. They are constantly looking to learn more about everything you do; the products, the services, the customers, the competition. They love to dive into the contextual aspects of how and where your products and services play within the market. Their brains are always looking to translate this domain knowledge into a more compelling message. When they are asking questions and digging for this kind of information, it's a very good sign.
Good marketing people are consistent. They know that the challenge of making your brand top of mind with your target market requires a regular and strategic outreach. They understand the difference between spamming and reasonable frequency. Consistent doesn't mean uniform - so they'll be looking for ways to keep the message and tactics fresh for optimum results.
Good marketing people are results oriented. They watch key metrics to ensure the marketing plan is hitting on all cylinders. They will monitor hits to website and responses to campaigns. They watch to see what works and what doesn't work and examine the possible reasons why. They will test and refine. They will track how many raw leads are generated. They will calculate the number of raw leads that become quality leads and the percentage of quality leads that result in closed business.
Good marketing people experiment. They are constantly looking for new channels or approaches. They will experiment with segmenting the target list, or updating key messaging, or changing the packaging or delivery of the message. When there is time to revisit and re-evaluate, good marketers like to take a fresh look at an old effort. Perhaps the content was less than compelling. Perhaps the title was weak - or failed to address what the prospect was looking to learn or solve. Good marketers are keeping tabs on new technology and platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and how B2B are employing those platforms.
Fun - Good marketers look for ways to inject fun into campaigns. One of unheralded values we can deliver to our customers and target market is to give them something that is fun, playful, different than the usual grist and brighten their day in a small way.
Open - Good marketing people are open to discussing how the plan is working. They welcome the chance to answer the business owner's questions. If they don't know the answer to the questions, they are open to researching, and testing if necessary, to get the answer. The point is good marketers are willing to advise but also revise - they too want to know if there is a better mousetrap.
Business owners often are not comfortable with marketing and wisely employ someone else to take those reigns. But I've observed that these same business owners are often concerned that their marketing person is taking the slow boat to the land of abundant pipelines.
Small business owners often wonder about the variety of marketing: should we do multiple things or put all the eggs in one basket. For example, we don't seem to be getting many leads from direct mail, should we take that money and invest in SEO? Or, yes direct mail seems to be working, but do we have to send it out every month? Could we mail every six weeks? If email marketing is working, why don't we quit attending events and just send out more email?
Small business owners also tend to get a little nervous when the marketing person wants to try something new. They fret over the marketing person suggesting a different look and feel than the stock art, multi-cultural crowd hanging around in the conference room.
Small business owners should enjoy the peace of mind that comes with engaging the right marketing person. There are six traits that you should look for when hiring or retaining a marketing person.
They should display a curiosity about the business. Good marketing people are curious. They are constantly looking to learn more about everything you do; the products, the services, the customers, the competition. They love to dive into the contextual aspects of how and where your products and services play within the market. Their brains are always looking to translate this domain knowledge into a more compelling message. When they are asking questions and digging for this kind of information, it's a very good sign.
Good marketing people are consistent. They know that the challenge of making your brand top of mind with your target market requires a regular and strategic outreach. They understand the difference between spamming and reasonable frequency. Consistent doesn't mean uniform - so they'll be looking for ways to keep the message and tactics fresh for optimum results.
Good marketing people are results oriented. They watch key metrics to ensure the marketing plan is hitting on all cylinders. They will monitor hits to website and responses to campaigns. They watch to see what works and what doesn't work and examine the possible reasons why. They will test and refine. They will track how many raw leads are generated. They will calculate the number of raw leads that become quality leads and the percentage of quality leads that result in closed business.
Good marketing people experiment. They are constantly looking for new channels or approaches. They will experiment with segmenting the target list, or updating key messaging, or changing the packaging or delivery of the message. When there is time to revisit and re-evaluate, good marketers like to take a fresh look at an old effort. Perhaps the content was less than compelling. Perhaps the title was weak - or failed to address what the prospect was looking to learn or solve. Good marketers are keeping tabs on new technology and platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and how B2B are employing those platforms.
Fun - Good marketers look for ways to inject fun into campaigns. One of unheralded values we can deliver to our customers and target market is to give them something that is fun, playful, different than the usual grist and brighten their day in a small way.
Open - Good marketing people are open to discussing how the plan is working. They welcome the chance to answer the business owner's questions. If they don't know the answer to the questions, they are open to researching, and testing if necessary, to get the answer. The point is good marketers are willing to advise but also revise - they too want to know if there is a better mousetrap.
About the Author:
Learn more about strategic marketing. Stop by Dawn Westerberg's site where you can find out all about integrated marketing2 and what it can do for you.
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