1. Marketing

Marketing is a key factor for all SMEs, and business owners should understand its benefits better. Successfully getting a product and service out to the customer base is as important as the product itself. Simply dabbling in marketing is a waste of money. A robust and clear marketing strategy is needed from the beginning to drive the business forward.

Ensuring that your website is search-engine optimized (SEO) is key to getting traffic to the website. Building a reputation through social media and PR means building trust in a product or service and, although a very different marketing tool to SEO, it is just as important. Getting people to visit a website is the first hurdle, but making them believe in the authenticity of the founder and the product is what will make them buy or commit.

As a small-business owner, it is necessary to understand all types of marketing, including email marketing, copywriting and podcasting. This will help you make informed decisions on which types of marketing will be useful to your business. Knowing what your marketing needs to look like, even if you intend to outsource it in the future, is imperative.

For example, you can learn copywriting skills. You are the expert on your subject, so create content and share that expertise in blog posts. Also, think about what content works for your audience. Do they ingest information visually by video, aurally by podcast or verbally via articles? Consider social media content and what platforms are useful to you. Making a product real for customers is important. Consider what content might make your target audience buy your product; then tailor your content to meet those needs.

Marketing innovation is crucial to the continuing success of any organization. Marketing has changed, largely thanks to the internet. It is more complex, but there is also more opportunity to spread your net far and wide. Communicating with your customers or clients is important for SME marketing strategies. Listen to what they want and need from you or your product. Make sure you solve any problems they may have.

Once your marketing strategy is underway, make sure you regularly assess its strengths and weaknesses. Do this by looking at how many people visited your site, how long they stayed, what the conversion rate was and, most importantly, where these customers came from. Then you can start allocating money to maximize these areas and grow your customer/client base.

Finally, keep learning about marketing. It is constantly evolving.

Final Thoughts

Overall, in my view small-business owners should not focus on making money quickly. The focus should instead be on building a business strategy that delivers a very specific set of results. And because of the consistency and diligent application of that strategy, SMEs can outperform the market they are in and generate profit for their stakeholders.