5 Tips For Marketing Your Products Successfully
Small business owners start at a disadvantage when it comes to marketing. They typically don’t have the budget that the big players in their industry have, so they need to make the most of their resources. Thankfully, entrepreneurs can employ plenty of simple hacks to set themselves apart in the market and gain loyal customers. Here are five solid marketing hints for small businesses.
1. Research Your Audience
The cornerstone of small business marketing is knowing your market well. That means having the pulse of both your target audience and the culture in general. This can be done quantitatively or qualitatively. Qualitative research can take the form of focus groups, personal interviews with in-depth analysis, and casual surveys featuring open-ended opinion questions. Quantitative studies involve building data sets from surveys with definitive questions and doing deep analysis of polls regarding the mood of the public. Both can be powerful tools for determining and refining your marketing strategies.
2. Focus on Providing Quality
It’s difficult for a small business operating on thin margins to compete with economies of scale on price. The good news is that according to one recent survey, consumers consider quality over price when making a purchasing choice by a margin of 53% to 38%. Quality can take many forms; a restaurant can make food from locally sourced ingredients, or a housekeeping service can cultivate a reputation for extreme cleanliness. Whatever your offerings are, strive to make them the best and most memorable, not the cheapest.
3. Refine Your Niche
Creating quality products is step one in serving your corner of the market. It’s all but impossible to be everything to everyone, but you can be the go-to source for products within a smaller niche. A vintage store could cater to jazz-age aficionados specifically, for example. This focussing process has been massively simplified by the advent of e-commerce. Business owners can match their product with a selling platform that overtly caters to consumers in that subculture (such as Etsy for vintage shops). Partnering with influencers in your industry is also a powerful strategy for expanding your reach and enhancing your reputation. Above all, strive to be authentic. Learn about the ways of life and needs of the people your business intends to serve.
4. Have the Best Customer Service
Customer service is another area in which smaller companies have a distinct advantage. For large corporations with a massive workforce and customer base, call centers have become the industry standard, as have cumbersome phone menus and chatbots. Consumer polling, however, reveals that around 88% of customers prefer talking to a live agent on the phone, and 86% would pick a human over a virtual agent. If you have a social media presence (and you should), using built-in messenger apps to interact with customers directly is a timely option, as is having someone standing by on the phone to help with queries either through voice or text. In other words, build your reputation around the inconvenience you haven’t caused to customers.
5. Utilize Sales Force Management Tools
Thanks to rapid advancement in artificial intelligence and machine learning, there are a wide array of digital tools available to automate many business processes, including sales and marketing. Customer relationship management software is one of the more popular and can track a buyer’s journey from cold lead to repeat customer. The same suite of technologies is often used to run email or SMS-based marketing and outreach campaigns. Teleconferencing and texting apps are another popular choice for coordinating remote workers or for keeping sales teams in contact in the field.
Other programs such as virtual assistants, digital payroll sheets, and accounting software are all time-saving options that involve a minimum outlay of resources. Whatever your task, odds are that there’s a gadget available to simplify it.
The Bottom Line
You don’t have to be big to be successful. In a crowded market, smaller companies can make a name for themselves by focusing on bringing timeless value to their customers.
