|
Small
Business, BIG Marketing™
by Will
Dylan ©2004
CHAPTER 4 - MONEY
SAVING MARKETING TIPS (con't)
Common
Mistakes
In
my business dealings, I’ve seen so many small
businesses fall victim to marketing mistakes. Remember,
dollars are scarce and time is limited, so you can’t
afford to waste your resources on marketing pitfalls.
Here
are some common marketing mishaps at small companies:
Spreading
your investment too thin
Too
many entrepreneurs fall into this trap. They scrape
together a small marketing budget, then they spend it on
a small newspaper ad here, then 6 weeks later on a small
radio purchase there. Always doing small, disjointed
marketing activities with long gaps in between.
It
doesn’t work. In fact, it’s a colossal waste of
money. It’s tough to have a small budget, but the
least you can do is use your money in spurts so that
people actually become aware of your business. The
public is bombarded with advertising every day. If you
run a handful of ads on the radio, or one small ad in
the paper, you won’t break through the clutter. Nobody
will notice you.
Instead,
focus on making an impact with your limited budget. Run
as many radio ads as you can afford for 6 or 7 weeks in
a row, then stop for a few months. (In the business,
they call that a “pulsing
strategy”). That’s a lot better
than running a few ads per week. By focusing in a brief
campaign period with some repetition, you’ll have a
better chance of motivating people to buy your product,
or at least getting people to remember who you are.
Don’t
mimic the big guys (when it comes to marketing)
There’s
really no point in trying to copy your larger
competitors marketing tactics. They have bigger budgets,
and no matter what you do, you’ll get steamrolled. 10
people will notice them for every one that notices you.
Instead, look for advertising opportunities where your
competitors are not strong. If your competition
advertises in the major daily newspapers, focus on
community papers and buy bigger ads that are more
noticeable. Or get modest sized ads and put them in many
community publications. Companies are always looking to
advertise where their message will encounter little or
no competition from direct competitors. (Big companies
buy “exclusivity”
in certain newspaper sections on certain days for just
that reason---so that they can be the only company in
their industry talking to customers that day.)
In
short, advertise where your competitors don’t often
advertise. It’s tough enough to get customers, you
don’t need your ad going head to head with a larger
competitor on top of it.
Continue Chapter 4 >>
<< Back to Table
of Contents
|
