Want more business?

Don’t have a marketing department? Don’t know much about marketing?

You’ve got a problem.

The vast majority of marketing solutions that appear daily on your doorstep (phone calls, emails, etc.) – are either scams, someone’s incompetent idea, or they just aren’t going to work for your business.

I could glibly tell you to find someone you can trust, but how do you know who you can trust?

You could try different marketing companies until you find one that produces results. Except that could take a LONG time. One person who came to us had been attempting marketing for 20 years without ever getting a positive return on his investment. Twenty years flushing thousands of dollars a year down the drain.

Of course recommendations help, but since all businesses are different, that is no guarantee.

I’m afraid there’s nothing else to do but learn a bit of marketing yourself. Then you can make an intelligent judgement.

So here’s some good news in the bleak picture I’m painting. I’m going to teach you the most important things to know right now. Not only that, they are so obviously true you’ll know you can at least trust these words:

TALK TO THEM

You see, marketing is just wholesale communication. Sales in bulk, you might say.

Now YOU, the small business person, do have one great advantage in marketing over larger companies. YOU talk to your customers and potential customers every day. You know what the things are that they want to know. You know what the buttons are that make them reach for their checkbooks or credit cards.

SO:

1. You know who “THEM” are. What type of people buy from you? A lot more of the same types are out there.
2. You probably have a pretty good idea – or can find out pretty easily – what kind of communication channels will reach THEM. These could be postcards, billboards, trade magazines, websites or whatever. So that tells you how to talk TO them. If your marketing doesn’t reach the people who would buy your product, it’s like trying to talk to someone that’s left the room. Frustrating, right? You’ve just wasted your hard-earned money.
3. And when I say TALK, I mean say something that is going to communicate, not something that is going in one ear and out the other. Like the cartoon about talking to your dog, the only word they hear is “bacon” – all the rest is “blah blah blah blah.” When writing copy, you can imagine a typical customer sitting in front of you, and write what you would say to them. It’ll work.

Now if you have someone presenting a marketing proposal to you, or a draft of a website or a postcard, ask yourself:

Does this TALK TO THEM?

So there’s my fast lesson in marketing. You now know more than most of the people who make a living calling themselves marketers. Write me back and I’ll send you a certificate.

TALK TO THEM.