Having a small business is tough, no two ways about it. It's only getting harder as the economy shrinks and consumer spending dries up. To thrive in today's market, you need to step above the noise and stand out in your niche, whether that's a brick-and-mortar store or an eCommerce marketplace.
By helping hundreds of businesses pull their socks up and go to market with refreshed ideas, products and marketing, I've put together these steps to help put you on the right track.
“Catching someone's attention and being heard amid this streaming torrent of information is the greatest challenge of contemporary marketing.”
― Adele Revella, Buyer Personas: How to Gain Insight into your Customer's Expectations, Align your Marketing Strategies, and Win More Business
1. Start with your objectives
You built this business for a reason. What was it?
Are you looking for the autonomy of being your own boss?
Perhaps you're hoping to make it big, sell up and live the life of a successful entrepreneur.
Maybe you just have a passion and want to turn that into income.
Whatever the reasons are, now is the time to write them down and decide what tangible outcomes you want to achieve.
The more specific, the better.
Here's an example: "I want to reach enough revenue within the first 2 years to exceed my operating costs."
Nice, there's a clear objective. Now you just need to figure out your overheads and you can put a number on that objective. Let's say it's £100,000 per year for the sake of the example. Now it's clear that you need to exceed that in sales to reach your objective, so you can set your prices and margins appropriately and forecast the number of products or services you need to sell to reach that figure.
For each objective you've written down, decide on a relevant metric to track if you've succeeded. Even if it's a guess.
Let's say you want more brand awareness, so you decide you want to have 200 more new users on your website every month within 6 months.
Jot down a few ways you think you could achieve these objectives.
2. Decide what makes you special
Your core business likely consists of a handful of products or services. Make sure you've got them written down somewhere. How much do they cost you to create/deliver them? How much do you charge? What's your margin?
Now, is there anything special about those products or services? Are they unique in the market? Do you offer interesting add-ons? Is the price competitive? Is the quality particularly good?
Only write down the stuff which your competitors either don't do, or don't do nearly as well. These are your Unique Selling Points (USPs).
Note: Having a lot of experience, or really good customer service isn't a USP. They have to be things which consumers will consider to be a differentiator between you and the rest of your niche.
If you've now got a list of things you think are special, fantastic! If not, don't worry, you can still leverage the wants and needs of your customers.
3. Who are you selling to?
As marketers, we use a concept called "buyer personas" to decide what our target customers look like.
To create your buyer personas, you need to ask yourself the following:
- What are my consumer demographics? So, age, gender, income, location
- What are they looking for? Do they have certain challenges they want to be met?
- Where can I find them? Do they hang out on certain online platforms like social media, read certain publications, maybe see billboards, or watch TV?
- What are my solutions? These should directly relate to what your customers are looking for. If they make cupcakes and are frustrated with wasting paper cupcake cases, maybe your reusable silicone ones are what they need...
At the end of this exercise, you should have a pretty decent idea of the type of person or people you are selling to. Now you can tailor your marketing, website, and in-store messaging to speak to the needs of those people.
4. Look at your competitors
We're all up against other businesses that sell similar products and services. Put aside your contempt for your competition for a moment and give them a good look over.
It's likely your competitors are doing one or more things quite well. Take a deep dive and see what you can learn then apply it to your own business.
Visit their website:
- Do they cleverly categorise their products?
- Is their branding modern and clear?
- Is the checkout process quick and easy?
- Are they running any sales?
- Do they have decent product or service descriptions?
There are a million things you can learn from a competitor's website, especially if they've been in the market longer than you have.
If they are a physical store, visit! Go and see how their staff conduct themselves. How do they present and package their products? How is the shop laid out?
Once you've decided that your competitors are doing certain things well, bring your own business up to scratch or even go beyond and exceed consumer expectations within your niche. E.g. if a competitor only offers Paypal, add Paypal AND Klarna AND debit/credit card options to your store.
5. Make a plan
You don't have a lot of time on your hands. Your staff probably don't either, if you have any. So time is precious and a small amount of it should be spent planning what to do with all the things you've just learned.
You know what your objectives are and what you want to achieve. You know roughly how to achieve them. You know what you're selling, what makes it special and who you're selling it to. You also have a good idea of the market you're in and what your competitors are doing well (or badly). You've thought of how to apply those learnings to your business.
Now you just need to get out there and make it happen. Write a to-do list with the steps you need to take to adjust your business based on the things you've learned.
Now you need to market your business, and you should have a pretty good idea of where to do that. Take the learnings from your objectives, products and persona research, and decide where you want to focus your marketing efforts.
If your customers are on social media, make an account where they hang out. Start posting using the messages and solutions that you know are important to them.
If they are in-store, signpost how your products solve their challenges with labelling or signage. Perhaps put an advert into a specific publication you know they read.
6. Get some help
At this stage, hiring a freelancer or a marketing agency/consultant for a few hours a month can be a great investment. They will often have the creative skills, knowledge and time to put together compelling ads, imagery, video and signage.
An agency or freelancer should discuss your objectives with you, understand your personas/products/services and provide a short and long-term plan for the services they can deliver. Hold them accountable for the time you are paying for.
If they are providing marketing services for you (like social media, SEO, or advertising), make sure they give you an idea of the return they are providing for your investment. This doesn't always have to be money in the bank. It could be something like more followers on your social channels, or more traffic to your product pages.
Often, hiring an all-rounder marketing freelancer, or even an in-house marketing executive can make the world of difference. They can focus on getting your message out there, and you can focus on running and building your business.