One form of small business marketing that is very prevalent is the Copy Cat method of advertising. This mimics what another company is doing and typically copies their ads. The end result is normally no significant return on the marketing dollars spent because there are fifty messages out in the market place all very similar.

The second marketing approach, involves deciding on one way to advertise and then just sticking to it year in, year out. It might be something like advertising in your local newspaper, or an ad in your regional directory (something like the Yellow Pages), but you choose this form and repeat it time, after time, after time. A common theme arising from this “forever advertising” is that the business doesn’t experience any real growth over the years. By not being able to measure the success of your advertising when you use only one method, you do not have any way of understanding if you are reaching your target audience. It may be that the potential customers don’t read the adverts in their local newspapers or do not utilise a printed directory to source their requirements. How can you know the best way to advertise your business to acquire new customers if you do not try alternatives and measure the outcome?

The final form of popular small business marketing that is doomed to failure is the “do nothing” approach. With this approach the business owner typically believes that their product or service and how they do things will speak for themselves – it doesn’t.

At the core of the small business marketing problem is that most small business owners don’t clearly understand why you do marketing. In a nutshell marketing is about “the things that you do that allow people to get to know you, like you and trust you.” After all if you are going to buy a product or a service from someone yourself wouldn’t you rather buy it from someone you know, like and trust?

To enable your small business marketing to deliver the following three steps are suggested. The first step is to be clear and specific on who your “ideal customer” is. For business customers you need to know: their location; how many people they employ; how much annual turnover is generated; who is their business owner and what are their key attributes; what problems can you help solve for them; and anything else relevant about them. If you are unsure as to who your ideal customer may be, then try looking at some of your best customers for commonality and their fit to your business.

The next step is to formulate an offer with the aim of it being irresistible for your ideal customers; the “irresistible offer”. What promise can you make that will make your customers stop and pay attention – knock their socks off? This irresistible offer can make you known to your customers by your promise. An example of this is Dominoes Pizza’s “Pizza hot and fresh to your door in 30 minutes or less or its free.” Dominoes Pizza’s irresistible offer was to its ideal customers who want a hot pizza delivered right now to their door. This offer was very effective over Dominoes Pizza’s competition at the time.

The last step is to find the best communication channel to provide your irresistible offer to your ideal customers so they can get to know you, like you and trust you. An effective way to communicate this to potential customers is to provide them with information from your customers that love what you do – testimonials. Combine your irresistible offer, testimonials and possibly some case studies in a pack and give them out and you will be effectively marketing to prospective customers to build awareness, likeability and trust. If you get the opportunity to follow up with your prospective customers personally then you are well on your way to having new customers. This is marketing delivering new customers, which means increasing your small business sales.

Looking to find the best expertise in Brisbane marketing, then visit Pyxis Business Partners to find the best advice on Brisbane marketing for your sales and marketing business success with Pyxis Business Partners.