... every move you make ...

When you meet people networking or you’re networking online it’s usual that, at some point, you ask people ‘what do you do?’ 

Some people will answer with the industry they’re in, but people who are good at marketing will actually tell you what their clients get, rather than what they do.  It’s the difference between a description of how the mechanic will fix the leak in your radiator (yawn) and the benefit of getting your car back on the road fast, confident that it will be reliable (relief, reassurance, happy customer).

Most of us have marketing messages we use for both written and spoken material.  The question is – do our actions support our marketing?

As the Police sang ‘Every move you make, every vow you break, every smile you fake, every claim you stake, I’ll be watching you!’  Whether you realise it or not, that’s exactly how the people you meet see you.

So what are your marketing messages?  They are, effectively, the promises you’re making to potential – and existing – customers. 

They include:

• The strapline that underpins your brand
• Values-based statements aimed at getting people to see you as trustworthy and the kind of company they want to work with
• Every word on your website
• Everything that goes into newsletters and email campaigns
• Your personal profile – including anything that you have on social media.

And that’s just for starters.

That means that you need to walk your talk 100% of the time.  No time off, no opportunity to ‘just be me’ – because, especially as a small business owner, you are always representing your business, whether you’re at a networking meeting or a family celebration.  You never know who else is there – and watching you!

The other side of this coin is that when you establish your business and are growing it, you should never make a claim that you are not prepared to stand by. 

Even if you don’t have a strapline or any big statements about how you operate – just ask your best clients how they see your business and you’ll soon discover that you’ve already got a reputation.  

Maintaining a good one is essential.

Take an audit of your website, your marketing material, your social media profiles and posts, the way you do business – are they all congruent?  Is it effortless to maintain the actions that support the words?  It should be.

If you’ve set yourself up to emulate your competitors, you could be making a big mistake.  The one thing that differentiates your business is YOU – so be you, be authentic and you’ll have no problem walking the talk.

As a small business owner it’s much easier to be authentic as people know that they’re getting you, your vision, your ethics and your dedication.  The bigger the organisation, the harder this is to define and deliver.  Authenticity may be a bit of a corporate buzz word, but smaller businesses actually have the edge in presenting this.

What is marketing?

If you own a business you know that marketing is one of those things that everyone tells you are essential.  Most people understand the sales process, but marketing is often seen as a bit 'woolly'!

I used to work for a big organisation and their marketing manager covered advertising, press releases, promotional activities, sponsorship of events, PR and liaised with the ad agency.  This included things like preparing our entries for industry awards, getting articles in local and international press, getting photos of famous faces in our shops and us featured on TV worldwide (if you've ever heard of Dubai Duty Free - you'll know they've been pretty successful!)

It was only when I was studying for my professional qualifications that I discovered the part of the marketing iceberg that lies beneath the surface.  Did you know that an essential part of marketing is statistics?  No, neither did I (and my appalling schoolgirl maths quailed at the thought of correlation coefficients and mean deviations, not to mention scattergrams).  So are demographics, both target and actual.  In fact when you dig about in the marketing equation and it's revealed in its full glory it affects:

Research and development

This is where the maths comes in, who is in your market and what do they want?  Only the really big organisations can afford to invest huge amounts of money in developing something really brand new.

People hold up products like the Sony Walkman (you need to be over 35 to remember this) and the iPod as revolutionary, but they are just an innovative next step from 45s and LPs, transistor radios and portable tape recorders.  The market for portable music was already established - and Steve Jobs was smart by using customer language (1000 songs in your pocket) rather than manufacturer language (digital storage for music) - that's good advertising!

I learned long ago that, instead of developing a brand new product and then having to find a market for it, it's much better to find out what people want and then develop a product (or service) to fulfil that need, it's far less effort and has a much higher success rate.

Finance

Marketing costs money!  The smart finance department doesn't try to prevent the marketing people from spending money, but they DO want to know the expected return on investment.  Having to prove that your marketing is highly targeted does wonders for focusing the mind.  It also stops creative marketing people from grabbing the next new shiny thing.

How many companies have got a Facebook page that they invest lots of time on?  But their primary market is businesses, not consumers - and they spend very little effort on LinkedIn.  That just means they haven't thought it through.

I've come across companies who advertise in publications that very few of their target market read, appear on prime time TV ads, when they're promoting something that won't appeal to the majority of viewers, grab a great deal for local advertising in places their ideal clients rarely visit, etc. etc.  Getting your marketing targeted and developing a budget that you can justify makes sense no matter how big or small your organisation is.

Purchasing

Some people think this is part of the finance function - and in some organisations it is.  If you're buying goods either for resale or to manufacture a product there will need to be a purchasing plan - and that needs to be coordinated with the marketing people.  There needs to be enough to meet the customers demands, but not so much that you have to pay for expensive storage space when you're overstocked.

Sales

Contrary to popular belief, marketing is not part of sales.  Actually it's the other way around - sales is part of the marketing function.

HR

OK, I can hear you thinking 'You've got to be joking!  How can HR be part of marketing?'  Marketing drives sales and people are needed to either sell the products, deliver the services or manufacture the goods - or all three.  If sales volume is low, fewer people are needed.  If sales volume is high, the customers will get snitty if they can't get hold of anyone to buy from or there aren't enough products available or they have to wait to get service - that's a quick way to lose your business to competitors.  High sales are good, but only if you're equipped to deal with them.

You're probably beginning to get the picture - marketing underpins everything the organisation does.  It impacts on every department and is the lynchpin around which the organisation revolves.  Marketing messages aren't just something that result from the creative's latest brainstorm, they're researched, targeted, tested, focused and supported.

I specialise in reputation marketing, which is just a small slice of the marketing cake.   However, whether you're working in a big business or running a sole consultancy all these aspects need to be considered.  The more effort you put in, the better the results you'll get out - that translates to money in the bank and the success of your business.

How to make your business successful

Promising you a ‘magic bullet’ to solve all your business challenges isn’t very realistic – BUT these five things will make a significant difference.

ONE – Make your mind up!

If I had £1 for every time someone at a networking meeting described their ideal contact as “Anybody who wants what I do”, I would be very, very rich!  I wouldn’t recognise an ‘Anybody’ if they bumped into me, to be able to match people to my network’s ideal clients I need much more detail.

• Is your ideal contact male, female, young, mature, an entrepreneur, HR manager, sales director?
• What industry are they in?
• What type of business are they in – micro business, SME, corporate, large SME, not-for-profit?
• What words would make me recognise them instantly?

If you network, online OR offline or both, this kind of detail will get you much better (and many more) good referrals, recommendations and connections.  It’s a numbers game – lots of referrals are no good if they aren’t a good match; lots of good referrals are almost certainly going to end up in doing some business.

TWO – Know your ideal client

To really help people you need to understand what rocks their boat, what they struggle with, what’s keeping them awake at night, what frustrates the hell out of them.  Why?  Because if you can solve some of their problems you have a very powerful proposition.

Also if you can describe what you do in terms of benefits you’ll get far more engagement.  For instance, instead of answering “What do you do?” with your job title (“I’m an accountant/marketing coach/HR consultant”) try coming at it from another perspective: “You know how small business owners usually find there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done?  Well, I help them to develop marketing systems that take the pressure off, don’t take up much of their time and get them more business.”

If the person you’re talking to suffers from any of these pain points, you can be sure they’ll want to talk to you some more.  If they’re not your next client, they’ll recognise other people moaning about these things and may suggest you talk to each other.

THREE – Give stuff away

I give away loads in my Treasure Chest – and there have always been people who say “Why should I give away all my secrets?”  I don’t see it like that. 

Firstly, people can see I know my stuff by accessing my free material – and not only gain a level of trust in my expertise, but also have a subliminal obligation from having received something from me.  That means that they’re more likely to use my services or recommend me to someone else.

Secondly, most people have their area of expertise; if what I offer falls outside their area of expertise they are more likely to use someone who has already demonstrated their skills, than an unknown person.  I can manage a spreadsheet, but I hate it – that’s why I have an accountant, so if someone wants to improve their image and get control of their reputation, they’ll probably come to me.

Thirdly, if someone is going to take the free stuff and try and do themselves they’re probably not going to buy my services anyway.

FOUR – Shout about it!

If people don’t know you exist they can’t ask for your help.  In fact, even if they do know you exist, it’s easy to forget you when they’re getting deluged by information via the internet.

Make sure you maintain your visibility by:

• Attending local networking groups regularly – find the ones that work for you and stick at it; it takes time for people to get to know you.
• Using social media intelligently – pick the ones where your target audience are likely to be active (do your research) and post regularly.  Not just where you’re going and what you’re doing, but tips, advice, etc.  Also keep an eye on what’s going on and help wherever you can.

Remember that everyone is not crouched over their screen watching for your next gem of wisdom, so a few posts a day, spread out at different times won’t appear to be overkill – unless someone is stalking you!

FIVE – Build relationships

‘People buy people they like’; that means you need to get to know people for them to know you well enough to feel as though they like you.

Social media is great for maintaining contact with people, whether it’s on a Facebook Page, a Twitter chat, a thread in a LinkedIn group, watching a YouTube video or a response to an Instagram image or video.  Of course, there are many more options, but that should be part of your research – finding out where your target audience hangs out.

Another way to build your connections is to grow your own marketing list – often by sharing a download of value in return for name and email.  As long as you don’t spam your list, a regular contact by email with something of value will help people to get to know you, value your advice and remember you when they need your services.  It doesn’t matter if they don’t buy right away – it can take between 5-12 ‘touches’ before people say ‘yes’ to an offer.

Is that it?

Of course, this will not solve all your problems, but, if you actually action these five things your business WILL grow.  You might be very surprised at how much!