Ok so what does marketing mean to small business in Australia today?

Through my own past first hand experiences, I can assure you that many small (and large) businesses just don’t get it.

Marketing is not selling.
Marketing is not simply designing up a few brochures, or building a new website.
Marketing is not about sending out as many newsletters as physically possible.
It also is absolutely not selling or telemarketing to people who are not interested in what you have to sell.

You may have heard the old theory on Marking that is all about the ‘4’ P’s i.e. Getting the “right” Product to the “right” Place at the “right” Price, with the “right” Promotion. These days this thought process is not really relevant. Marketing is changing so fast it can be difficult to get a book to print to define it before what you say is again irrelevant. Perhaps one of the best thinkers in dynamic marketing is Seth Godin. His groundbreaking books and thoughts help marketers to break the mould of the restrictive concepts of what Marketing is & experiment with new thoughts and ideas.

Unless you’re trying something new, you’re not trying.

Rarely is there any real planning into what a company wishes to achieve through their marketing activities. This is a large oversight of many firms who wish to ‘account’ for their Marketing Dollars. So much more thought needs to be placed into why things are being done and what outcomes are desired. In fact, one key thing many small business owners seem to overlook is exactly WHO their customers are. If you think you can answer that question, but have never actually done any research on your customer base, then you’re more likely than not, mistaken & you may be surprised on both who they are & why they use your product. Making broad sweeping assumptions about these facts can in fact impede your business growth.

1. First things first, conduct research on your customer base. Find out who they are and why they selected to use your business over other providers. While you’re doing this, ask them how satisfied they are with your business & how you can better serve them. Do this in a personal manner if possible, if you customer base is too large, then a combination of phone and survey may have to suffice.

2. Secondly, take this information and look at your products & services. Have any key points been raised by your client base? Should you go back to the drawing board or modify your product / service / support? Are they happy with how you serve them? If not – you’ll need to go back into the product development cycle to get back to the front of the wave or risk losing that spot altogether.

3. Then take a look at customer communication. Have you been communicating effectively with your customers? Through newsletters (electronic and/or hardcopy)? Through email? Through personalised mail outs? Don’t over do these, or you’ll simply annoy your client, but effective communication is critical. Be daring but not scary in your communication. Boring will be forgotten.

4. Then start to look at all the magazines, trade shows, television, etc you have utilised in the past. Map out over a 12 month period all of these activities. Have they been effective? In the past have you measured the effectiveness of any of these campaigns? Which ones? Will you lose business if you don’t do any of them? Start to put together some new ideas. Brainstorm. Be creative. You must try something new, whether it is a print campaign, a daring display at a trade show, or a cutting edge new website. Start to get these things down on paper and planned out. The minute you become boring, your business will start to be forgotten in the midst of other businesses doing a similar job to you. If you haven’t read Seth Godin’s Purple Cow book, I suggest you go out now to buy a copy.

5. Measure. Don’t simply conduct a campaign then think, ok, Job done. Think of creative ways to measure your campaigns, either through a coupon code, or special trade show deal, think. Be creative. Think out of the box (Here’s one with a creative coupon, or using QR codes, or this fantastic bicycle campaign.)

6. Once you think you’re done. Start Again. Don’t fall into a recursive cycle where you stop being creative. Where you stop measuring, where you stop effectively communicating with your customer base.

So many businesses treat marketing as an add-on to an already existing product, where it is actually an integral part of the product development process. You don’t want to build black cars only to find out they want blue motorbikes. Treat marketing as an important aspect of your business. Have your marketing manager report directly to the CEO/GM, not to the Sales Manager, remember Marketing is not Sales. If your company is large enough to have a board, ensure you have a marketing person in that room for board meetings. And make sure he/she isn’t afraid to say what they think - a good marketing manager will tell you when you are making a silly move or doing the wrong thing, and whilst you may disagree with them, it is better to have that voice of dissent in your midst when discussing Marketing for your business.

Stop. Think. Communicate.