Small Business Marketing Tips | Blog Success Articles

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Every company envisions a future where their costs are lower, their sales are higher and their market share is larger. However, can companies really reduce costs, increase sales, and grow their market share, all at the same time? Yes, a company can accomplish all three. Granted, it takes a lot of effort to make your small business marketing strategies work. However, your company can simultaneously lower its costs, grow its market share and increase its sales. What?s ultimately required is the ability to analyze your marketing strategies at a granular level. First, start by defining what a qualified lead means to your small business. Second, define where to locate these qualified leads. Third, outline your marketing strategies to reach these qualified leads and finally, put a proactive marketing strategy together to turn as many of these leads into customers as possible. We?ll review each one of these steps in detail. Each plays a vital role in reducing costs, increasing sales and growing a company?s market share.

1. Qualified Leads: Small business marketing success begins and ends with your company?s ability to find as many qualified leads as possible. However, first you have to define what a qualified lead means to your small business. Will you base that decision on someone?s age, sex, education, ethnicity, or their marital status? If so, then your company is likely focused on business to consumer sales. Will you instead base that decision on a company?s credit worthiness, their size, their location, or their typical order volumes? If so, then your company is focused on business to business sales.

2. Targeting These Qualified Leads: This second step involves deciding how to target these qualified leads. Will you focus your marketing efforts on reaching these leads through inbound marketing strategies, or outbound marketing strategies? For instance, do your customers gather at online forums and social media websites, or are they businesses that are more easily reached by print and magazine advertisements.

3. Enact Your Marketing Strategies: The first step included defining what a qualified prospect is for your enterprise. The second involves determining how to reach those prospects. The third involves enacting your marketing strategies. However, it?s not merely about putting those strategies on autopilot, but more about tracking the results of these strategies from week-to-week, month-to-month and quarter-to-quarter.

4. Increase Your Sales Cycles: Finally, your company must be able to increase your sales conversion rates. Reducing the time it takes to close sales is an essential part of marketing success. In essence, it involves finding the marketing strategy that produces the best qualified prospects. Next, your company must dial into those sales strategies that convert the most prospects into customers willing to purchase your product or service. Tracking your sales cycle times is vital in determining which marketing strategy produces the best leads, and ultimately, which marketing strategy is best for the company. For instance, if the qualified leads from one strategy result in easier sales, then that speaks directly to the first strategy?s ability to produce stronger qualified leads. This means your company should redouble its efforts on the first strategy.

Small businesses can reduce their costs, increase sales and grow their market share at the same time. However, there is no tailor-made marketing solution. There is no guaranteed way to accomplish all three of these aforementioned benefits. What?s ultimately needed is the willingness to analyze results, make the appropriate changes, and always be willing to raise the bar on performance.

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