The Golden Rule of
Small Business Marketing
Solving the
Marketing vs Operations Riddle
As a current small business owner
and corporate marketing manager, I have seen marketing
from both sides of the fence. The big corporations tend
to rely on their buying power and large advertising
budgets to convince their potential customers to buy
their products, while small business owners tend to be
more crafty with their modest marketing budgets, looking
for unique opportunities here and there that will
enhance their sales efforts. There is one rule, however,
that is applicable to both the big guys and the little
guys. I call it the Golden Rule of Marketing, and here
it is:
Marketing will never solve an
operations problem.
As much as marketers hate to admit
it, the bottom line on marketing is that it tends to
cause more harm than good when a company’s operations
are not running smoothly. So if sales are down and
you’re considering ramping up on your marketing
dollars to “solve” the problem, you should first
ensure that the problem is not with your operations.
Evaluate your Operations
How do you sell your product or
service? How good of a salesperson are you (honestly)?
How about your service delivery…is it smooth and swift
or slow and cumbersome for customers? All of these
questions pertain to the operations of your small
business, and none of them can be rectified by running a
razzle-dazzle marketing campaign. In fact, a successful
marketing campaign that encourages people to purchase
your product or service, only to find that the product
or service is faulty or the service delivery is poor,
will hurt your business in the long run through negative
word of mouth.
Consider an Example
Imagine that you run a hardware
store. You need to have the right store hours and the
right personnel in each department in order to ensure
that your operation runs smoothly. If you have a great
lumber salesperson working in your plumbing department
(and he knows nothing about plumbing), that’s an
operations mistake. You can pour over the numbers each
month and work hard to come up with new marketing
schemes to boost your sagging plumbing sales, but
nothing that you try will work as long as you continue
to employ the wrong salespeople in the wrong
departments. In fact, a great marketing program that
draws people in to your store only to experience poor
service when shopping for plumbing supplies might
convince them not to return to your store, thus damaging
your business. It’s a broad example, but you can see
how easily it would apply to other businesses, including
yours.
Think About your Business
Does the above example sound like
something that might be happening in your small
business? Maybe you’ve got the wrong people in the
wrong places, or maybe you are trying to do everything
yourself and haven’t accepted the fact you can’t be
a copywriter/salesperson/accountant/operations manager
effectively.
Remember, marketing will never
solve an operations problem. It is critical that all
small business owners remind themselves of this rule
every time they consider a new marketing plan aimed at
boosting sales or countering a downturn in business.
Before you spend your money, ask yourself “What’s
the problem with my business” before you try to solve
it through increased spending. If you can identify that
the problem lies with your operations, it can usually be
repaired for far less than a new marketing blitz will
cost you.
You can’t throw money at an
operations problem and hope that it goes away. An
operations problem is like a bad cut and marketing is
salt in the wound. Your business will be better served
if you heal it first, then drive the customers to your
door.
Article
contents © 2007 by marketingyoursmallbusiness.com
Will
Dylan is the Author of “Small Business Big
Marketing” a powerful e-book for small businesses
available through his website www.marketingyoursmallbusiness.com
. Will also offers article and news release writing
services. You can contact Will at askwill@marketingyoursmallbusiness.com
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