The top 5 problems and solutions small business
wants answers to in marketing their business.
Small business owners have many problems they face in marketing their business. In working with many B2B small businesses, we have found that there are five problems that constantly surface that need attention to achieve small business marketing success.
Time management is the first big problem. If you are lamenting, you don’t have enough time in the day to get things done you’re not alone. Spending your time on the important issues separates those that achieve success and those that muddle along. Are you identifying your three to five daily rocks, the important and urgent priorities you need to address each day? These are the 20% of actions you take which yield 80% of your productivity. Here are three keys to successful time management they include:
- Write down 3 to 5 of your most important & urgent priorities daily
- Your daily tasks must be specific no vagaries allowed
- Hold yourself accountable for achieving your daily tasks
Target market identification is another big problem we often encounter. Many small business owners incorrectly describe their target market as everybody. If you hear yourself describe your target market as you can sell everyone, then you may want to rethink that position. Everyone is a big target market.
Defining your real target market and knowing the size and scope of that target market is step one. Step two is to analyze within your specific target market how many different market segments there are that you can realistically serve. Now you are in a position to establish resource allocations necessary to efficiently and effectively mount the proper marketing campaign that will produce a satisfactory sales outcome. Thinking you can sell everyone creates a loss of focus on your marketing efforts. Resources like dollars, time and energy that are not focused and will yield a poor result.
Client personas not being researched is a frequent missing marketing ingredient too. Not having researched and created client personas of a business’s ideal clients are just as important as identifying the target market. Why? Because defining a client persona allows you to uncover the important marketing communications message points you will need to reach, resonate and convert sales prospects to clients in your target markets. Creating a client persona will allow you to:
- Immerse yourself in your customer’s skin
- Uncover client pain points
- Discover the vernacular used by your prospective clients
- Learn where to look and find your potential clients hang out
These are critical necessities in developing customer-centric marketing messages in today’s content marketing.
No marketing plan and no budget. It is amazing how many small businesses have no marketing plan and no formalized budget. Expecting success without these marketing fundamentals is a sign of hoping for success instead of planning for it.
Planning your marketing and establishing a budget is not that hard to do. There are plenty of free resources available for writing a marketing plan and creating a basic budget. The benefits of performing these tasks are many.
- Establishes business goals & objectives to evaluate success
- Defines business opportunities
- Instrumental in defining your target markets
- Identifies your value proposition
- Outlines key marketing messages
- Eliminates knee-jerk wasteful spending
Investing your time and effort in a marketing plan and budget will increase your success and save many thousands of dollars in marketing expense.
Focusing on marketing tactics versus marketing strategy is the last most common problem with small business owners. Mistaking marketing communication channels as marketing is commonplace. Many people approach small business promoting “marketing” as telemarketing, email marketing, social media marketing, web marketing, etc. No wonder small business owners get confused. None of these so-called activities are marketing. They are marketing tactics used as part of the overall marketing process to deliver an organization’s marketing messages.
The solution to this problem is easy. Get a real marketing plan not a so called instant solution or waste money on the “hot” marketing fad at the moment. There are many good ways to distribute your marketing message. A strategic plan that evaluates which communications distribution options are best suited to reach your market and convert prospects into sales for you will prevent you from wasting your money.
Takeaway
Knowing your marketing problems and seeking out solutions is the first step to achieving marketing success. We have attempted to provide some solutions to some common small business B2B marketing problems.