Small Business Marketing - Word of Mouth Is Key

Startup Sunday

Photo by Nicholas Smale via Flickr.

I've been thinking about small business marketing all week, thanks to attending the terrific GrowSmartBiz conference on Tuesday. (Where I met the fabulous Ahava Leibtag!) I picked up some new ideas and contacts, but most importantly, came away from the event convinced that it's vital to be obsessed with high quality and strong customer communications.

Marketing for small business is different than for national or international brands, which enjoy instant name recognition. By contrast, small business marketing relies heavily on word of mouth and personal relationships, the GrowSmartBiz speakers generally agreed. Fortunately, this arena is where most of us excel -- delivering for our current customers and ensuring repeat business.

Building relationships and finding new customers costs money -- so we entrepreneurs should focus on nurturing our existing relationships, and moving them further along the path to a sale. (Or to a bigger sale, if they're already a customer.)

Bob London, founder of the consulting firm London Ink, talked about the importance of "nurture marketing" for small business -- or staying in touch with clients, partners and colleagues electronically. He recommended calling two customers or clients each week, just to check in. Don't try to sell them anything!

"You don't want the pitch of desperation in your voice," London warned. But "people love to be asked for their feedback," and those conversations are an important way to market your small business.

When you talk to customers, make sure to listen more than you talk. You have two ears and one mouth -- use them in that proportion, advised Ramon Ray, editor of Smallbiztechnology.com, in his remarks at the conference. If you get a no, take it with grace but ask whether you can keep the relationship going, whether it's having coffee or talking by phone or sending them your e-newsletter, he said.

Personally, I've always found that the public relations people who are most successful are the ones who -- after I've rejected a story pitch -- ask me, "What are you looking for?" So in my role as a freelance writer, I make sure to ask editors what they want, and to listen -- rather than relentlessly pitching them the stories that I happen to have in my reporter's notebook.

In the end, small business marketing all comes down to relationships. I don't mean that people are going to do business with you because they like you, but if you have a strong relationship with a customer, you'll better understand their problems and needs. That puts you in a prime position to sell them a product or service that meets those needs.

What does small business marketing mean to you? And how does it differ from the strategies we may have used when working for a large corporation?

Comments

[Steve Fisher]

Katherine, thanks for taking the GrowSmartBiz session beyond the conference and sharing it with your readers. So glad you were able to join us in-person and found the conference valuable. We will continue our conversation about topics that matter the most to small biz at www.growsmartbusiness.com.

-Steve