As a small business owner, who might just be starting out or have had a business for years, marketing is likely on the forefront of your mind; how do I bring new customers to my business, how do I expand my business footprint into other locations within my state?
In the age of immediate gratification & ever changing technology, small business owners must be able to evolve to keep up with the changing landscape of their business and the needs of consumers. Just because you have a website does not mean you have a handle on the marketing for your business. Is there a marketing plan in place? What methods are you using to drive consumers to your website? Do you have the structure in place behind the scenes to drive website traffic to your webpage? These are just a few questions you should ask yourself as you work to grow your business.
With so much information out there, it can be confusing to try and determine what a small business owner should do. In theory, marketing might seem like an easy concept to understand but in practice its only successful if a small business owner actually understands the concepts of marketing and truly believes in it success! Well known author, John Jantsch, creator of the Duct Tape Marketing series does a fantastic job of explaining marketing to the average business owner, making his concepts relatable and easy to understand.
One of John Jantsch’s focuses is to help a small business owner think about their ideal customers and try to determine the best ways to appeal to those ideal customers. A small business owner can step back and look at their existing pool of customers and categorize those customers into different buckets; those who are involved and easy to work with, those who are middle of the road and those who we grumble about when they contact us. Take those existing customers and evaluating why we enjoy working with them might help an owner determine their ideal customer. Small business owners should preferably have a healthy relationship with their ideal customers – it should be a give and take where both parties are satisfied with, and benefit from, the relationship.
From there, marketing to your ideal customer should become a bit easier. Being able to draw potential customers to your website by creating content that is insightful and relevant through blog posts and newsletters can be beneficial. If your current clients are calling with questions, then one could assume that there are other potential customers who have the same questions. Write a blog post focusing on those questions and answers – draw new customers to you!
What makes the Duct Tape Marketing books great for small business owners is the authors ability to provide relevant and real-world examples to explain various marketing concepts throughout the books. Those examples easily depict some of the most basic concepts that John Jantsch is explaining; how a small business can use their website to make it clear to a new customer, who needs what you’re selling, that you are knowledgeable, friendly, and most importantly, you can be trusted.
If you have been struggling with marketing your business, we recommend that you check out the books by John Jantsch (ducttapemarketing.com) and look at other ways to bring new customers to you!