Once you have a business plan written, you will want to implement it. If you are already in business, then you are probably implementing your business plan on the fly, making changes to your business as you find time to tackle those projects. If you are just starting your business, then you are likely to encounter various logistical hurdles when you attempt to implement your business plan: securing financing, obtaining the appropriate business licenses and permits, leasing a facility, contracting with suppliers, hiring employees, dealing with tax accountants and insurance salespeople, and all the other boring, complicated, technical details that make starting your own business less fun than you might have dreamed. Well, that's work, and sometimes you just gotta roll up your sleeves, get the job done, and move on. For now, we'll assume that you have taken care of these details. (We may come back and revisit some of them in a later post.)
Ideally, your well-rounded business plan would have included at least an outline of your initial marketing plan. However, we'll assume for now that you're operating your startup on a shoestring, and that you haven't given much thought to marketing, other than to say to yourself, "That's too expensive!"
If You Build It... They Might Not Come After All
It is alluring to believe that one can successfully pursue the "Field of Dreams" approach to business. However, unfortunately, countless business owners discover every year that this optimistic view is fatally flawed. You could create the greatest product ever; you could sell it from the most fantastic outlet space in the history of your industry; you could provide your customers with the best customer service in the world: and your business could still fail if you don't do enough to promote it.You Need to Advertise
I know, I know, everyone hates advertising. Business owners despise advertising for its upfront cost and the absence of a guarantee that it will do anything at all for their business. Consumers loathe advertising because it is such a pervasive, constant barrage, and especially because these days many companies are using technology to engage in marketing practices that feel like a violation of the Constitutionally guaranteed Fourth Amendment right to privacy. Don't be one of those companies.It is possible to advertise your offering without annoying people excessively. On the other hand, if you don't actively engage in some marketing activities, you will probably be going out of business soon.
This is where you say, "But I'm an Exception to the Rule!"
Of course, there are always exceptions. There are hole-in-the-wall boutiques and restaurants that rely on their location and some word-of-mouth promotion from their customers. You'll notice that most of them tend to last less than three years; but some very few manage to eke out a marginal existence for decades. You probably think you can do what those few did, and maybe you will; but statistically speaking, well let's just say that if you want to improve your odds of success, you should advertise.Perhaps you are a consultant working for just one or two major clients who you met through your last job: you may say to yourself, "I don't need to advertise, because I already have more work than I can do." That may be true, for now; but ask yourself, are you running a business just to get by for now? or are you trying to establish a growing concern that will be highly profitable in the long run? Wouldn't your business make more profit if you hired a junior employee? You would probably need to engage in some degree of sales and marketing activity to get enough new business to keep your junior employee busy. Also, be sure to consider the worst-case scenario: what if your current clients decide not to renew your contract? If you don't have a backup, you could quickly end up in a financially precarious position.
You Still Need to Advertise
If nobody knows that you exist, then they will not seek you out. Even if you have a storefront shop in a trendy district, people who are familiar with your brand identity are more likely to walk through your door than people who see you as a perfect substitute for the slightly more well known competitor down the street.Regardless of your industry or your offering, you need to market your business in order to be profitable.
You cannot rely solely on word of mouth to bring you enough customers to grow your business. (That includes social media: it's trendy, but don't count on it to benefit you as a small business owner.) Except in highly specific circumstances, you can't rely on your location to bring you customers either; and even then, if you don't have a promotional campaign, then you had better be providing something that is so highly unusual, desirable, and hard to find that people will be willing to actually hunt you down in order to find it.
No, regardless of your industry, your product offering, your service guarantee, your specialized knowledge, your quality materials, your superior design, and whatever else you have to offer: regardless of any of these, if you want your business to grow, you have to advertise it. Otherwise, you may discover that "if you build it, nobody at all might come"; and then you're out of business with a lot of bills.
Choosing Where to Advertise
Earlier you identified your target market: the group or "type" of people who are most likely to purchase your offering. You considered some of their probable characteristics: location, age, gender, income, level of education; any characteristics that might be relevant to their potential relationship with your offering. Now you can begin to take what you know about this group of people, and extrapolate from that the most appropriate way to communicate with them effectively. If you are selling a highly specialized product that is solely used by aerospace engineers, then you will want to figure out which trade publications are read, and which websites are frequented, by your target demographic; and then you will want to advertise through those magazines and websites.Case Example: You Have a Booth Where You Sell Clothes You Made Yourself
If you are selling cutting edge fashions at a street fair, you might bring in enough customers just by having a large, showy booth; a well-organized display; a great location within your local market; and a prominent sign to make you noticeable. This basic visual presentation of your business to your prospective customers is critically important, due to the effect of first impressions as well as the more basic challenge of getting noticed in the first place amidst all the noise and clutter; and you may actually find it quite surprisingly expensive to obtain a choice location and an attractive sign. This is marketing at its most basic.The Next Level
Taken to the next level, you could engage in marketing activities to increase your level of sales during the street fair, and to bring you additional sales continually, in between street fairs and even in the off season.In this example, your target demographic consists of trendy young people who live nearby.
You could hang fliers on telephone poles; but the telephone companies discourage this, and in some places they may even attempt to fine you.
Instead, you should research several potential media outlets, and invest in the one that is most likely to be effective, NOT the one that is most affordable. Remember, your Return on Investment is more important than the initial expense. Plan your activities accordingly.
Get a Website
You'll probably want to start by setting up a website for your small business. A future post in this series will delve into the detailed ins and outs of web design and website hosting more extensively. For now, suffice to say, you can get great hosting for not very much money; and if you can't afford a professional website design service, many hosting plans include a WYSIWYG do-it-yourself online design tool option which allows you to create and maintain your own website at no additional cost.Direct Mail
Take a photo of your booth during a street fair. Have it printed on a postcard, along with your booth location and your web address. Buy a consumer mailing list from one of the many companies that sell such lists. You can refine your list by region and demographic characteristics, for example, women between the ages of 18 and 27 who live in a certain ZIP code. A few days before the next street fair, send your postcard to as much of your list as you can afford. You may want to include a limited time discount offer to get customers through the door right away; but don't make it such a deep discount that you lose money on the promotion.Print Advertisements
Find out what publications are being read by your target audience, and advertise in those publications. If you're in Portland, OR, and you're trying to connect with trendy young people, then you'll probably want to advertise in the Mercury weekly newspaper. If you want to connect with a larger audience, people with more sophisticated taste, or people who actually have a disposable income of their own, then you would also advertise in the Willamette Week. If you specifically want to communicate with the students at PSU, then you would buy an ad in the PSU student newspaper.Advertise Online
Depending on your industry, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is often highly cost-effective. In volume-driven industries where per-sale profits are low, the Cost-per-Click (CPC) is typically low as well. In industries (such as auto sales or Business-to-Business) where a single sale may lead to a large customer lifetime value, CPC's are often much higher; but if you get a reasonable conversion rate on your clicks, then the premium is easily justified by just a couple of large orders.Advertising on the websites that are most likely to be frequented by your target market may be more expensive than Search Engine Marketing, but the trade-off is a more direct line of communication to a specific group. Whether this trade-off will lead to a pay-off in monetary terms will depend on your situation, and you will want to monitor your campaigns closely to ensure that they are performing as expected.
Local Radio
Buying advertisements on local radio stations may be a bit spendy for a street vendor, but if you have opened a physical shop or online store, you may find radio advertisements provide a great value, connecting your business with a large audience for much less than the cost of TV.Be Creative
The unusual gets attention. If your campaign is unusual enough, you could benefit from "viral" effects (where consumers pass along your ad to each other) or even media attention, which is great publicity that money can't buy.For Now
That should be enough for you to get started thinking about your marketing campaign. We'll post more to this space as we have time.Until next time, best of luck with your business.
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