Strident Marketing for the Small Business

Oct 12, 2015 | Uncategorized

It has been quite enlightening to follow the many and varied discussions surrounding policy issues for the Labour Party. One of the areas that Mr Corbyn, the new Labour leader, has been exercised about is his desire to avoid a Trident replacement.

Some of us being of a certain age, can recall the debate over replacing Polaris with Trident and the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, being equally strident in her arguments about the need to replace the old system.

One union leader has been just as strident as Mr Corbyn but with the opposite view, preferring to replace it and continue our own independent nuclear deterrent. This to protect skills and jobs in the engineering sector.

There is a significant debate to be had about this situation and the benefits for UK PLC.

The same process can also be applied to ourselves in a business context.

How often do we carry on doing something, out of habit, because we feel it’s right or because it’s easier than considering an alternative.

Agreed on your aims?

Any business needs to be sure of its overall aim. Putting a big mission statement on the wall might look good but is it what we really want to do? Is it really part of our strategic plan?

True to your aims?

One of the largest and most successful car companies in the world, in an effort to achieve its strategic target, tried to take a shortcut. The lawyers are probably going to be the biggest winners.

A successful business must have clear aims and be strident in its policy of making them clearly understood by customers and upheld by its team members.

Sure about how to achieve those aims?

This week sees the start of rival camps setting out their arguments for the Euro referendum. Their aims are clear, persuade us to say ‘yes’ to stay in, or ‘no’ to get out.

In the marketing arena we need a strident message to our potential customers, both what we have on offer and what action they have to take to accept it.

If the message is clear they are more likely to say “yes please”.

Set your marketing budget?

Any project will cost us; how much should we spend? If we think of marketing as an investment, what level of return are we expecting? We need to be strident in setting that budget.

Measured your success?

Having set the aims, put out the message and paid the printer’s bills, we need to measure our success.

Many of us can be tempted to let this part of our marketing process lapse. We need to be strident in the follow through.

A simple spreadsheet logging enquiries is the simplest and most basic of tools but tells us a huge amount. Plenty of CRM systems will also do this job just as well and often with added benefits. Pay and forget tells you nothing.

Evaluated your results?

There is no point shouting out a message if no one is listening. Feedback tells you where the customers are and lets you focus to get the most response.

Next steps?

Why not attend our next Accelerator Club session looking at Marketing Strategy for the Smaller Business

Wednesday 21st October 8.00am, with special guest Emma Pyott of Semaphore PR.

Book online via our website or through Eventbrite.

We expect a Strident response!