Any business that wants to have a minimum guarantee of success should start from the intention of satisfying a specific need to a specific customer profile in the most convenient way for it.
No matter the market, the location or the volume of sales, all businesses need to do Marketing.
Marketing is not just advertising, it represents a set of promotion, analysis and strategic growth actions that any business can implement to boost its sales.
Marketing should be considered as an investment, not as an expense, which in the medium term will give us good results both in increasing sales and customer loyalty.
Small business marketing
We know that for small businesses, which have limited resources, it is difficult for this to be taken into account, but they must make an effort to maximize resources and have a good marketing strategy, because of it and depending on how it is done. , we can increase our sales considerably.
Currently the best method to develop a good strategy is to have the combination of traditional marketing (offline) and digital marketing (online).
The combination of both types will allow small businesses not only to build trust and increase relationships with our customers, but will help us to stay always present in the minds of our consumers.
Here are some tips that can help small businesses:
The customer comes first.
The client is the King
The success of the companies depends on satisfying the expectations of the clients with their products or services. If they are pleased, their sales grow, because customers repeat their purchases and also recommend the company to other customers. If they are not satisfied, they stop buying and logically do not recommend others to do so.
Know, study, analyze and classify our clients
Small businesses, due to their size and organization, tend to have more direct contact with their clients and therefore it is much easier to know how they are, how they think, what they need, etc.
Do not forget to keep track of our customers, as the market is constantly changing.
Listen to your client, you must be attentive to their opinions, suggestions, comments, complaints, etc., this will allow us to adapt our products to your needs, tastes or preferences and know what we should improve.
The treatment towards your client is the key for a business to have more acceptance than others, we must develop enough empathy to make you feel special, with it we will not only repeat that you recommend us.
It goes without saying that a good customer service is the basis of loyalty, answer the phone correctly, solve problems they may have as quickly as possible, the customer should always be satisfied.
We said in this article of our blog dedicated to loyalty that costs between 5 and 6 times more to get a new customer than to keep existing ones.
Impact your client, from time to time we must perform some kind of special action to provide some experience that is difficult to forget about us, at this point we must be original and creative.
“Customer satisfaction is the most solid component of the value of the company”
Customer Database
We must always try to get some data from our clients, with them we will create our data base with which we can track and maintain contact with them.
We can carry out email marketing campaigns to send you news, offers, etc. (always with permission)
To get this data we can make promotions or a draw where to participate have to put your data or also request directly. (All this taking into account the LOPD)
Benchmarking
Also called referential comparison, it is one of the most popular and effective business practices, and is not limited to any particular area or to a certain size of company. In summary, it consists in making a comparison between your business and the competition. Small business marketing
The work of investigating our competition continuously is of paramount importance to grow our business, it will allow us to know better their behavior and anticipate what they will do in the future, in this way we can plan our own strategies to win clients to the competitors.
Competitive advantages
Making things better, betting on novelties and adapting to the client, determines how you differentiate yourself from your competition. What you can offer that they do not have, it can be some specialized service or exclusive product. Use them as a strategy to avoid having to compete only for prices.
The best way to differentiate yourself is to acquire these five professional competencies that allow others to appreciate the differences.
- Constancy
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Trust
- Commitment
- Advertising
Here we depend on our budget, but do not forget that it is essential to make our products or services known to our customers, first of all we must analyze where our potential customers are and make a good segmentation to get more directly to them with less cost.
Nowadays with the introduction of new technologies, another way is opened within advertising, by this we do not mean that traditional advertising no longer works, but that we can take advantage of the digital age to reach more people with our messages.
We must take into account the advertising in social networks that offers us many alternatives for segmentation and with a very interesting price.
Generate added value
That is, create solutions designed to meet the needs of the client. If you really are a professional you will not find it difficult to find these solutions, since the added value is usually a consequence of knowledge of the company itself, the market, the environment and the competition.
It offers the client more than what he asks for and that you know will be useful to him. If you know the client well, you know what their needs are, their tastes, it will be easy for you to find something that you can offer them.
There are really many marketing strategies and social media marketing tips that you can implement in your business and it is definitely something very important that we must do, but it will always be harder for small businesses that have limited time and resources, both economic and human, so you It will be easier to go step by step covering stages, it is what we advise.
Author Bio
Walter Ponce is the author of the internet marketing blog WalterPonce.com, where he shares proven strategies, tactics and tools to help you build a business that you love and live the life of your dreams. If you’re working on transforming an idea or a passion into an online business, and you want to start making money online, visit the section about Affiliate and Make Money Online.
