Marketing Advice: 4 Ways to Successfully Market Your Small Business

June 2, 2012

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So, you finally started your dream business. You?re elated at the prospect of marketing your products or services, sharing the value of your company with the public, and most importantly ? your potential customers. Your immediate goal is to identify your customers, satisfy them, and hopefully keep them coming back for more. Seems simple right?

But, unfortunately it?s not always so simple. This is the juncture where many entrepreneurs run into a problem: How do I convince everyone that my business is as novel and wonderful as I know it is?

If you?re facing this dilemma here are four marketing lessons that I?ve learned from operating my home improvement company.

1. Define ? and understand ? your audience.

The effectiveness of your marketing is primarily based on three factors: the repetition of your message, to the right audience, and to the size of audience that you can afford to talk to.

For example, it would be much better to tell your story five times a day to a small radio audience of people that fit your demographic than only once a day to a large TV audience. By focusing on repeating your message to a smaller, more narrowly defined audience, you will boost your chances of having your story stick with the right people.

2. Focus your marketing message.

It?s tempting to take all your great advertising ideas and cram them into one all-inclusive campaign. However, you?ll make a greater impact if you take time to ask yourself, ?What is my company?s unique selling proposition (USP)? What sets us apart from the other guys?? Then, pick one or two strategies and tactics to get this key message across to your audience.

At Swift, we communicate that we are a trustworthy, all-American crew by using humor and creativity in our advertising. We don?t waste much time telling the audience what we do; we want to show them why we do it. Our goal is to have a positive effect on the lives of people through our business. We rely on our good reputation and word-of-mouth advertising as part of our marketing strategy, as well.

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