Small business owners and marketers are watching the stock market dive and credit get harder to come by. Six months ago, many would have agreed that content was king in terms of effective branding, marketing and growing a small business. Today, cash is king. You must preserve cash. You want to measure all business functions for their contribution to growing your company. Marketing included.
You have probably already assessed your branding and marketing activities and programs and have eliminated the ones that aren’t paying off.
Until the recession bottoms out and reverses, you may have more time than money for marketing. You can still keep your small business marketing going by participating in social media. Connect with your customers and prospects and join in the online conversation.
Reach Out and Converse
Participating in social networks and blogging or commenting on others businesses blogs (if you do not have your own company blog) gives you an opportunity to continue to reach out to your customers—even if your marketing budget is flat.
The benefits of participating in the social media marketing conversation are the same as they were before the financial meltdown reduced our collective savings/home values/stock portfolios by gazillions.
Here is a quick summary of social media benefits for small business owners:
- You learn what’s on the minds of buyers. Their questions, challenges, preferences. In short—you gain more insight. (We could all use more insight.)
- By participating (contributing content, commenting, asking questions in the great online conversation) you make your company more “findable” online when your customers are ready to buy.
- When you listen, you will gain fresh ideas for how to offer innovative solutions to your customers’ and prospects’ problems.
- Fresh ideas will give you the inspiration and motivation to write and contribute great content.
Jennifer Laycock at SearchEngine Guide blog explains this so elegantly with a wonderful diagram, see her post here.
Here are my suggestions for some get-ready steps to effective branding and marketing your small business in these tough times:
Listen to the online conversation. Listen hard.
1. Invest your time in ‘listening online’. Monitor online sites where your customers and prospects are spending time.
2. During conversations with your customers, ask them what they’re reading online. Include partners, suppliers—anyone in your industry.
3. See who is talking about your company or others in your industry. Track/follow blogs, social media sites and online communities popular with your industry, your partners’ industries, your customers, your competitors.
4. Set up Google Alerts to keep track of online mentions of your company, your products/services, partners, customers’ company names. Google Alerts send you email notifications when keywords or names you’re tracking appear online. This is an efficient way to discover more blogs, online communities and other sites where your customers and prospects may be gathering. If you’re already using Google Alerts, have you updated them lately? Your customers’ focus, problems may have changed. Keep your Alerts up-to-date.
5. Use a newsreader (RSS reader) to make the most of your ‘listening’ time. (I love FeedDemon.) Newsreaders are browsers for blogs/RSS sites. Following blogs using a newsreader instead of a web browser is like going from driving an 18-wheeler truck to a Nascar. Add every blog that you think your customers might frequent to your newsreader. (Here is my partner’s explanation of how to use a newsreader for PCs.) how-to-use-a-news-reader_1
In my next post I’ll make suggestions on how to get your great content out there where buyers will find it.
[…] Small Business Marketing In the Down Economy […]