In conversations with small business owners, I have realized that my conversation with them takes the following structure.

• Business owner: I want to add viral marketing / social media / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn (pick your favorite platform) to my marketing efforts.
• Me: Of course, great idea but first who are your ideal customers as that will determine which platform may make the most sense?
• Business owner: I just want to add social media to the marketing activities.
• Me: Great, but what are you trying to accomplish so we can determine the type of results you will get?
• Business owner: I’ve heard that social media marketing gets great results for very little money!
• Me: Yes, it can, however, although it may not cost dollars, you do need to budget time to ensure you are consistent with your social media effort.

For the most part, the conversation is usually engaging and the business owner and I discuss the various options. Based on the type of business and the target market, we can determine whether social media is an appropriate strategy now, later or never.

Having this same conversation with different small business owners got me thinking about how many small businesses get distracted by the hype around the next shiny new marketing thing because they were told they should, when in fact they need to understand the marketing fundamentals for their business, determine their strategy, stay on course and measure their results. Look to add new activities when you have the time and resources to do so.

As a small business owner, make sure you know the following 5 things about your business so you can determine the most effective marketing activities.

1. Know what you are trying to accomplish in your business – In other words, set goals. Aiming at a clear target will help you make decisions about what to do, when and where in your marketing efforts and keep moving towards the final outcome you have set.
2. Know your ideal client intimately – Not only do you need to know what they want, you also need to understand how they purchase your product or services. If they would not think of searching the Internet for the solution you provide, then incorporating social media may not be the right marketing activity for your business.
3. Know what makes you different – Understanding what you do best and exploiting it will help you stand out and be noticed, no matter which channel you use to do so.
4. Know what value you offer – Your target audience will have different issues, goals and needs and will be looking for a solution that works for them. If you can’t clearly explain why someone should utilize your solution, it doesn’t matter which media you use. No one will listen.
5. Know how much time and money you have to realistically spend on marketing - There’s plenty of options available. We just need to be selective and spend our precious resources on what will get us the best return on our investment. Once you have decided on the best activities for your business, be disciplined about how you spend your time and money on marketing activities. It’s easy to get enticed by empty promises and activities that don’t pay off for you.

Before you jump onto the next new social media “thing”, be sure you know these 5 pieces of information about your business and are comfortable with the answers. Then you can put a plan together that utilizes all of the marketing channels that are available today in the most effective manner.

How well do you know the answers to these for your business?

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

5 Things You Need to Know to Market Your Small Business is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

This post is the first in a series that will discuss your year end marketing review to help you get ready for the new year. By the end of the series, you should have the information you need to create a basic marketing plan.

During the last month of the year, I always like to take some time to review my business results and my marketing efforts over the past year so that I can adjust where necessary and be ready to hit the ground running when the new year rolls around. The following are the areas that I look at to see what stays, what goes and what needs a bit of tweaking.

• Current client profile – has it changed?
• Goals – which ones did you accomplish?
• Service or product offerings – do they need to be redefined?
• Why people hire you or pay for your services – what makes you different?
• Messages – do they still work?
• Website content and other marketing materials – are they consistent?
• Marketing activities for the past year – what worked and what didn’t?
• Online reputation or presence – do you exist?
• Action plan – what activities will you be using to market your business?

Let’s start at the beginning and work our way through the list.

Has your client profile changed?

As your business grows and matures, you start to notice changes happening that may not necessarily be planned. One of the areas that usually evolves is your client profile. Although we all do our homework about finding the right target market for our products and services, we become attracted to a particular type of client and naturally begin to focus. When this happens, everything you have read about why working with your ideal client is so very important becomes crystal clear.

This evolution shouldn’t be a surprise. Your business takes this turn when your passion for what you do and why you do it shines through everything else. You begin to truly understand what you offer, who benefits from working with you and most importantly who you like to work with. As you get a clearer perspective on your business, you begin to attract a more targeted audience, a niche so to speak, who value what you have to offer and the rest of them begin to fade. Not only do you thrive working with this client, these clients truly benefit from working with you.

What should you do?

If you find yourself working with a client that is different than those you started the year with, ask yourself:

• Why are you naturally attracting this audience? (Passion? Personality? Skills?)
• Have you focused on a particular industry within your target that just makes more sense for you?
• Had you taken for granted something that makes you different that really is important to these clients?

By becoming aware of the changes and understanding why this has happened, you can now use this knowledge to evolve your messages, content and marketing activities to ensure you speak clearly to your ideal client. As I wrote in a previous post on Law of Attraction in Marketing, knowing your ideal client helps you focus and be explicit about what makes you attractive to that market. Don’t view this as a restriction but as a liberating exercise that will ensure you develop raving fans for your business.

This evolution has happened in my business where I now focus on providing products and services for independent professionals and small business owners in the construction and home services industry.

Have you found that you have focused your target market and evolved your business? Share your stories in the comments.

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Small Business Marketing Review is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Why are business owners gun shy about selecting a target market?

Photo courtesy of viZZZual.com on Flickr

You can’t appeal to everyone, so why do business owners continually drive themselves crazy trying to work with clients they just don’t connect with? When you identify people or businesses that you just love to work with, you enjoy your work more and you can focus on providing greater value. But I realize going through this exercise is painful because you still believe that doing so will limit your ability to grow your business and you will “leave money on the table”.

Every business owner goes through this thought process (including me when I started my business) until we realize that targeting enables us to:

• Attract the audience you truly wish to work with (and know when to turn away the client from hell!).
• Develop messages that speak clearly to that specific audience.
• Make choices that help you better market your products or services when faced with limited marketing resources.

The Law of Attraction Marketing

The Law of Attraction is the belief that you attract into your life what you think about. Your dominant thoughts will find a way to become reality. Using the Law of Attraction in your marketing efforts makes you a magnet for those you want to work with and likewise who find value in working with you.

But something else happens when you focus your thoughts and efforts on attracting your ideal client — you begin to attract others that are outside of that target because they like what they hear and want to be part of your success. Knowing your market intimately results in:

• Clearer messages
• More valuable offerings
• More effective marketing
• More prospects coming to you, even those you may not consider within your target market

You may choose to not work with a particular market because you don’t have the experience or knowledge of their market, but that is a business choice. Those are decisions you can make as the opportunities arise.

Knowing your ideal client helps you focus and be explicit about what makes you attractive to that market. Don’t view this as a restriction but as a liberating exercise that will ensure you develop raving fans for your business.

Have you identified who you want to work with and keep them in the forefront of your thoughts? What’s holding you back if you have not?

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Law of Attraction in Marketing is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.