Small Business, Smart Marketing
First of all, happy Arthur’s Day! What great marketing by
the team at Diageo. Not only does it get our attention, but inside three years it's almost a national holiday. As marketing campaigns go, that's pretty smart. Anyway, on this day of celebrating our national drink, I
thought my latest pearls of marketing wisdom should be at least alcohol
inspired. I dropped by my local wine shop last Saturday evening (Red Island Wine Company, Skerries, Dublin), a great little
spot run by Dougie, a guy who really knows his stuff. We got chatting about how
he could market himself as effectively as possible on a marketing budget that
is but a miniature fracture of our friends at Diageo. That got me thinking; the digital
age, information age, connected age – whatever you want to call it – is the
best time ever to market a small, local business such as this. Here’s how you
can do it.
1. E-mail and SMS – Your customers do not want to be interrupted anymore with meaningless communications that are not relevant to them. Why not take a note of their favourite purchases (in this case their favourite type of wine) and, run a weekly promotion featuring a different type each week aimed at different groups of customer who you think would be interested, using past purchases as a guide. That way, the messages your customers receive, through e-mail or mobile text message, from you will be highly relevant and your promotion will stand a very good chance of being successful. You will need to update and manage a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to help you with this, but there are many such systems on the market at low cost.
2. Loyalty Program – Too many organisations make the mistake of putting too much effort into finding new customers and not enough effort into keeping the ones they already have. Why shouldn’t you reward loyalty? After all, finding new customers all the time is expensive business, while it’s far cheaper to hold onto existing ones. Loyalty programs work. A simple stamped card system can work well, where after a certain number of purchases you give a reward. This encourages your customers to come back to you again, and again, and again....
3. Social Media – The only cost associated with engaging with customers through social media is your time, the rest is free. Now, what other marketing channel can deliver such low cost, or should I say no cost access? Very soon Facebook will reach the 1 billion user mark, making it by far the largest social media platform on the plant. In Ireland, almost 2 million people are on Facebook, sharing their life’s experiences. Your customers are there waiting to connect and engage. It is a great way to develop meaningful relationships. So, what are you waiting for?
4. Search Advertising – If you place an advertisement in a local newspaper (which perhaps you do from time to time), you pay for every advertisement that goes to print, regardless of the results. With PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising you only pay for what you get. You have the choice to pay per impression (each time your advertisement is seen) or by click (each time a person actually clicks on your advertisement). PPC advertising on Google or Facebook can deliver great results, if executed well. In this way you are putting your message right in front of your target audience at exactly the time they are looking for it, meaning your investment (which will be much lower than traditional advertising) is highly likely to deliver a return.
5. Blog – If your shop offers the best product or service in your local area, why not give yourself some thought leadership and become a perceived expert by creating a blog? Write and post a weekly article for your local audience on whatever it is they are interested in. Websites like Wordpress and Blogger provide free blog platforms that make it easy for anyone to publish. If you sell high quality wine, write about wine. If food is your passion, write about that. Whatever it is that you do that your customers are interested in, share your knowledge. In this way you are connecting and engaging with your target audience in yet another meaningful way. You will give your customer more reason to come back to you and they will appreciate the fact that you are giving them more added value.
6. Collaborate – It makes perfect sense to forge relationships and strategic partnerships with other non-competing small local businesses who are trying to achieve the same goals. How can you help each other? Is there a local sports club that would be grateful of some sponsorship support for an arranged fundraiser? Is there a local community event that you could get involved in to help get you noticed and show you are interested? And remember, when you do get involved in such events, make sure you talk about it and make people aware of your involvement. There is little point in doing it if you don’t maximise its impact.
There is obviously a lot more you can do, but this should be
enough to get you started. If I can help you in anyway, e-mail or connect with
me. Oh, and by the way, whether it’s a toast to Arthur or to the gods of
Bordeaux, remember to drink responsibly.
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