DOING THINGS DIFFERENT

As small business owners, you and I have no choice but to do things different. We don’t have gobs and gobs of money to throw at a marketing campaign like the big corporations do.

That’s actually a really good thing, because it affords us the opportunity to do things different and quite frankly, to do them better.

How many times have we been swayed by big budget, big corporate marketing campaigns only to be let down and wondering “why can’t they do better?”

That’s not to say I am anti big business, not by a long shot. I’m typing this on my MacBook and I shot the video version with my iPhone, but you get my point.

From a small business perspective, we have to do better and so does our marketing or we go out of business. So you might be saying, “that all sounds great, but how can we compete with billion dollar companies, who have million dollar marketing campaigns?”

Well unlike them, we want to spend the least amount of money possible! That also means we have to get to the point and be honest with our marketing message.

My driving professional philosophy has always been to be different. That means I like doing things better than my competition and more to the point, I like doing things right. It’s just so much more rewarding, personally, professionally, and financially!

HOW TO MARKET AS A SMALL BUSINESS

Like we talked about, the one thing we can’t do is market like a big corporation. Of course that’s usually the first thought, “look how successful they are.”

However, if you take a closer look at that so called success, it is inefficient, often dishonest, and costs wayyyyyy too much money.

Small business by its very nature is regional. That alone changes our strategy. We are never going to create a nationwide campaign, where the message is more generic. They are usually centered around feelings, moments in time, and other ethos that just don’t work for what we are selling.

We need to focus on specifics our customers care about…

One of my teachers used the analogy of trawler fishing to explain big corporate marketing. They spends tons and tons of money to catch anything and everything, then they just throw away what they don’t want.

I understand why they do it, but it’s extremely wasteful and IMO just lazy. Not too mention, the terrible ROI. Which is obviously something we care a lot about. So this is one of the areas where we need to be different and do much better with our grassroots marketing.

Another issue is that marketing is everywhere and collectively, we are just sick of it. So one thing we can’t do is annoy our potential customers.

We have .8 seconds to make our pitch and get a yes or no to engage contact. Even if the viewer is not interested, I don’t want to annoy them, because I always want to make a good impression. That way, even if they don’t need what we’re selling now, they’ll come back when they do need our product or service!

As a small business owner, I’m always looking for a good deal. That doesn’t mean the cheapest, but I do want the best value for my money. That’s the guiding principle behind our pricing, so if you compare apples to apples, you’ll see we are the best deal around.

Also, transparency is a big deal for me and I’m guessing you too. That’s why we give you an upfront estimate, so you know exactly what to expect and there are no surprises. I’ve heard too many horror stories from customers that come to us, because someone else ripped them off. I won’t stand for it and that will not happen here.

That brings me to arguably my most important business philosophy and that is longevity. I don’t want to work with you on just one project. I want to work with you for years to come, I’m in this for longterm success.

Something else that goes right along with longevity, I firmly believe that making you happy, makes me happy. Why? Of course there’s the satisfaction of job well done. At the end of the day, it’s also just good business. If you’re happy with our work, you’ll come back to us for future projects. Not only that, you’ll refer us to your friends and family when they need help with their marketing projects.