Get Smarter Marketing

The Small Business Owner's Guide to Building a Savvy Business

Jill Brennan

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781683503934
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Kundenbeziehungen

"Every business owner should read this book—there are practical gems for all" (Rodney Young, Managing Director, Masters and Young Pty Ltd). Want to connect with more customers who want what you're offering? Marketing can be confusing for business owners, but a well-thought-out marketing effort can rocket your small business out of a rut. That's why Jill Brennan, an expert with more than twenty years of experience, created this clear and concise guide to small business marketing. * Find Your Big Picture
* Develop Your Business Identity
* Know Your Customers
* Make Your Marketing Repeatable and Scalable
* and more With Get Smarter Marketing, you can follow a simple, yet powerful, step-by-step framework for connecting with existing customers—and attracting new ones.

PART 1

YOUR MARKETING PLAN

CHAPTER 1

FIND YOUR ‘BIG PICTURE’

Customers today have more choices than ever before, so simply talking about the features and benefits of your solution isn’t enough to make you stand out. Instead, most customers want to be part of something bigger than themselves. This is why people donate to charity. It’s why they take on feats of human endurance like running a 100km ultra marathon in the middle of summer and raising money for homelessness at the same time. They want to motivate themselves to achieve something they didn’t think they could and to do it in a way that prompts others to support them and the cause they are championing.

Most people want to have a positive impact on the world around them, and one of the ways they can make that contribution or that impact is through the money they spend on products and services. For example, if a family is going to spend money on hot water, why not buy a solar hot water system that uses less energy and is better for the environment than an electric system?

Being clear on why you do what you do, where you want to go and how you want to get there gives your customers the opportunity to have that positive impact and to be a part of something bigger. If customers believe in what you believe and what you want to achieve, they feel good about supporting you. This builds trust that not only makes them more likely to buy from you but will also make them want to share your products with others.

Meanwhile, understanding why you do what you do, what you want to achieve and how you will do it as a business owner will make you think differently about your business. You’ll be motivated to think more strategically about your business, to lift your eyes beyond the day-to-day and seek out tools, strategies and expertise that reinforce your reason for being in business and help you achieve your goals.

So how do you achieve this clarity, draw in more customers and set your business apart? You need to define your beliefs, your vision and your values.

START WITH WHY

As Simon Sinek argues in his book Start with Why, ‘people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.’ Customers are drawn to businesses that have a greater purpose than simply making money because it means the money they spend makes them feel good about their choices and themselves.

From your perspective, a funny thing happens when you discover your ‘why’. If it is truly what drives you then it becomes an inspiring call to action with a motivating force of its own and drives everything that you and your team do.

As a small business owner I doubt your reason for being in business is to simply make money. After all, you could be making money in a job that doesn’t come with all of the complications and stresses of a small business. So what’s your ‘why’? What’s the passion behind your business?

When trying to work out what motivates you, it may be necessary to brainstorm some key phrases and see how they sit in the context of your life. Your ‘why’ is very likely to be hiding in plain sight, as your life probably already reflects what you value; you just haven’t thought of it in that way. The things you surround yourself with, the activities you choose to do, what you’re most proud of, how you spend your time and your money and the issues that get you fired up all make up what drives you.

Grab a sheet of paper and write down your top three priorities for each of the following to point you in the right direction.

• What drives you?

• What gets you out of bed in the morning?

• What makes you feel energized?

• What do you believe in?

• What do you value most?

• What do you surround yourself with?

• What hobbies do you most enjoy?

• What are you most proud of?

• How do you spend your time?

• How do you spend your money?

• What issues get you fired up?

If these questions aren’t enough to give you clarity, then you may need to delve into this exercise more deeply. If so, John Demartini’s book The Values Factor is an excellent place to start and features many practical exercises that will help you more fully explore this area.

It can also help to see what this looks like for other companies. Sometimes it can be hard to spot as companies don’t always have a direct answer to the question ‘why do you do what you do?’ Instead it is usually the part of a sentence that follows ‘believe’ or ‘passion’ on the ‘about us’ or ‘company’ page of a website or brochure.

Let’s take Lululemon, for example. Lululemon is an active wear brand. What drives this business? They believe in sweating every day.

Collective Magazine is about challenging the status quo, which is demonstrated by their tag line—‘game changers | thought leaders | rule breakers | style makers’.

Meanwhile, Totokaelo is a fashion retailer that is trying to stand out through the careful curation of products it sells. ‘We believe the art and objects a person chooses for their life are a reflection of values and perspective. We hope to provide a unique point of view that attracts those of similar mind.’

All of the examples above provide a reason for operating that underpins the type of business they are in and provides a platform from which all product and business decisions are made.

HOW TO EXPLAIN YOUR ‘WHY’

The key to creating a compelling ‘why’ isn’t just about working out what it is, but wording it in a way that others can embrace too. This doesn’t need to be a long, rambling fireside chat about the meaning of life. While it may start out that way, you will then need to distil your ‘why’ to a sentence or two.

Some examples:

Backroads is a company that runs walking, hiking and biking tours. On their website the owner and founder, Tom Hales, states that he believes ‘the world is best experienced up close and under one’s own power’.

Elon Musk, a former owner of PayPal and the entrepreneur behind Tesla Motors, the creator of mass-market electric cars, wants to radically change the world for the better.

Google’s ‘why’ is the democratization of information, to make as much information as possible accessible to everyone.

My ‘why’ is to empower others to innovate beyond what they thought was possible and create a far better tomorrow than they imagined today.

Once you’ve figured out what the motivating force is that drives you, the next step is to work out what you want to do with that information. How will you use it to shape the future direction of your business? This is done by crafting your vision.

THE VISION TO ACHIEVE YOUR ‘WHY’

Your vision is the over-arching long-term goal for your business. If your ‘why’ is the reason behind your business, your vision is what you are going to achieve, or the impact you want to have on the world.

A clear vision gives your customers a common goal that they can support with their time, energy and money, which contributes to making them feel like they are a part of something significant.

For employees, having a common goal acts as a unifying force. Employees can better articulate what your business is about to both your customers and anyone who asks them what they do and where they work. Working for a small business doesn’t always have the allure that comes with a big corporate, but they can be the envy of their friends if they are working for a company that is trying to achieve a larger goal.

For you, a clear vision is one of the keys to being seen as a leader—in your business and in the wider market place. Successful leaders inspire others to follow them. They make others want to join them on their journey, because that journey enhances their own life. In order to inspire others to enlist on your journey, you need to know where you are going.

Aligning your ‘why’ with a vision for the future is a great combination, as your vision is your ‘why’ in action. It’s how you achieve your reason for being.

Take a moment to ask yourself, where do you want to take your ‘why’? What sort of impact do you want to have? How can you bring your passion to life? What will that look like?

If you look at the visions for some of the companies I mentioned earlier, you can clearly see this connection. Backroads’ vision is to be ‘The World’s No1 Active Travel Company’. Google’s vision is ‘to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.’ Tesla Motors’ vision is to ‘accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport’.

My vision is to help small businesses develop the systems and processes of big business while maintaining the dynamism and flexibility that comes from being small and nimble so they can solve tomorrow’s problems.

To work out your vision, ask yourself:

• If you could achieve anything, what would it be?

• What would make you sit back and go ‘wow, it would be amazing if I could do that’?

• What would have an impact beyond your current business?

THE VALUES GUIDING YOUR VISION

The next step in realizing your ‘why’ and your vision is to determine your values. Your values are your guiding principles. If your vision is the destinatio...