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There’s a time and place to go big, lord knows we get told how small we are often enough.
But when it comes to marketing your small business I would trade big dreams and pages of killer ideas for one little strategy brilliantly and consistently executed. Small business owners get so caught up in the “web 3.0 idea of the day” that they never get around to doing the sometime overlooked blue collar work that actually makes a difference - you know, networking with peers, writing an article, calling up strategic partners, making one more sales call, taking a journalist out for coffee. It’s the sum total of these seemingly small actions that create the big dream and not really the other way around.
The key is to understand the work that makes a difference, remained focused and plug away. Chasing the new new thing will drive you crazy and never allow you feel what momentum does for a small business. I know this advice isn’t terribly sexy, it’s a little like telling you that the only way to get good at your marketing business is to practice, but in a way, that’s it.
Here’s a tip if you find the allure of the noisy new thing is too loud to stay focused on what needs doing. Create a score card with no more than ten marketing related action items on it. Rate each of those items for importance - give a new sales presentation five points and a new blog post two for example. Both of those marketing related activities will pay off, but one is clearly more important than the other. Now, set a goal of twenty points every day. (The blog post and sales presentation would have netted you seven.) By turning your little marketing tasks into a game you get two benefits. 1) You might actually keep focused on winning the game by completing important actions and 2) if you find yourself with some free time, you might dive into an important marketing task instead of wasting your time reading email.
This little concept can apply to every single person in your organization. In fact, spending the time to figure out the most important little actions each of your staff should take on a daily basis could be one of the most important tasks you could undertake.
Now go out there and dream a little smaller.
Comments
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at Apr 09, 08 | 1:19 pm and is filed under Marketing Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Part of the entertainment in my day is to try the latest and greatest. However, it is just that a part of my day. I keep the nitty gritty marketing of my business simple, tried and true.
For readers looking for existing charts and score keeping check out CJ Hayden’s book “Get Clients Now.” She provides you the tools you need to create a bare bones marketing plan around a score card and point tallying.
Thanks, I needed that.
Great article. I’m creating one of these pages tomorrow and printing out a copy and then going to photocopy a bunch of them.
I’ve been in that slump lately and I think this will work well to get me motivated again.
John,
I was facing this dilemma just yesterday. Our company is always working on projects we never finish because we always trade them for the new flavor.
So yesterday I was finding a way of keeping it simple, and I wrote down everything that we left on hold and never finished. I separated the tasks into 2 groups of importance (need to do now, need to do later) and was unsure of what to do.
At first, I placed all the unfinished tasks into the 7 stages of referral, so I could see where they would fit and what I had to priorize (I found out we are very weak in the “Know” section, which explains a lot). But it still wasn’t enough for me to “sell” the priorities to my bosses.
The scorecard is simply perfect. Just what I needed to kill the “everything’s priority” mindset.
Sorry about the long post, but I had to thank you for yet another insight.
John, I like the simplicity of the idea. I use a similar approach, but do it quarterly. This is how it works.
On one page I create a table listing all my marketing tools in left column. For example, having a Blog would be one marketing tool and having a having a newsletter might be another. Then in the next column I rank each based on the amount of effort needed to make it happen: low, medium, high. In the next column I rank them on cost using the same scale of low, medium, high. Then finally, I rank them on how soon they show results simply based on short, medium, and long-term.
Now on one page I can see for each quarter, how to prioritize my marketing efforts. Using the Blog example, it might have high effort (daily), low cost (one more page on my web site), but shows results in the medium term. This one-page score card is simple, and shows what I should be doing immediately, in the medium-term, and in the long-term.
There are a lot of great marketing tools available to small businesses as you talk about in your Blog, but not all of them have the same impact for your business as another business. This system helps me prioritize.
Hi John
I agree with you. Great post.
SME’s need to spend more time on concentrating on their marketing efforts. Its actually all business but just in different degrees relative to the required sales required to pay expenses.
The great part about small business (SME) is that it is the owner that usually does this and they do it better as they have the most to gain.
Thanks again.
Goran
John,
This was one of the most reassuring marketing articles I’ve read in awhile. As a business owner I’m always hustling to close deals and I occasionally get caught up in trying to learn the latest elusive marketing 2.2.117 tactic.
You helped me remember that the power is my hands to take small, consistent, measurable tried and true actions. If anything I’ll just hire an expert to execute those nifty web tricks to get clients.
Raza Imam
http://SoftwareSweatshop.com
Hiya All! Cool post, got to agree that one has to focus on doing the basics right before aspiring to to play with the icing on the cake.
The KISS principle is universally known, but generally lacking in application. So knuckle down, do the basics right, and once your solid foundation is set in place you can look at building a skyscraper on top.
Hi!
I agree, its the grunt work that makes the most difference in any endeavour, end of story, all the grandiose plans and machinations in the world won’t get the job done if all the small things aren’t in place, if you can’t market your own business you’d better learn
Simple. Practical. Effective.
Duct Tape ideas are just that.
Thanks John for the simple, practical but effective tip.
Thank you for pointing this out so clearly. Sometimes we pursue the newest because we are not solid with what we have. We don’t realize what we have ahold of that is good or understand that it isn’t.
Good point, I can’t tell you how many times I get distracted by a news article that says “this is the new rage to get traffic, this is the new social bookmarking org that’s sweeping the nation…” When it all boils down, what’s the one thing that has made a difference in your day and actually brought changes? The actual physical work parts.
Wonderful concept! I really like what you say about how the only way to get good at marketing your business is to practice. So many people want real answers as to how to market in their specific industry. Really, you just need to dive in and do it!
Great piece of wisdom. Very true, if you have a small workforce or if you are a one-man show, you need to be doing that three or four things right and not get carried away by the promise of so many ideas. The trick is to find the right thing to do, pick up the best possible combinations of activities to promote business.
Great point about keeping the focus.
I’ve found, both with myself and my clients, that less generally is more. Subtract out those activities that aren’t working for you, save yourself some time and stress and do a great job with activities that do work!
Shawn
That is just the kick in the butt I needed right now to get onto my article. Thanks.
Where can I get an electronic scoreboard for my office
John,
Awesome job on the blog. Haven’t been here for a while and you have some great content.
Thanks for tip several months ago to check out Tim Ferris and The Four Hour Work Week. That book literally changed my life.
Hope to meet up with you soon.
Your pal in SE Iowa,
Shawn Frey
This is a great point. Rather than chasing fairy dust you’re much better off focusing on the most important things to do every day and then doing those things you know produce results.
When you want to try another marketing approach add it after you’re existing marketing systems are working automatically and then remember to aim small miss small and fail forward fast with your new marketing efforts.
Awesome post. Doing the basics right, day in and day out, will eventually lead to the breakthrough deals that really make a difference.
Focusing on bagging the biggies, and neglecting your basics is a recipe for disaster that we’re all but only too prone to follow.