Do you think like a marketer when it comes to your small business?

Because in small business, marketing is EVERYTHING.

Given all the changes the last couple of months have brought to the small business world, it’s timely to ask yourself – Do you approach your business with a marketing mindset, and do you think like a marketer?

Even if you don’t think you necessarily are a marketer, you are by point of fact in running your business, in the business of marketing (yep, you are!).

I find that there is a very clear distinction between a small business owner who has a marketers-mindset, and one that does not.

So, let’s take the test.

Grab a piece of paper to jot down some responses to this quick five question quiz – you can choose A or B for each question:

Question 1

A) You see your key role in the business as being the DOER. Outsourcing scares you. You’re a give it to me, I can do it better/faster/quicker.

OR

B) You know your money-making activities, inside your business, and you give them your core time. You happily outsource lower level tasks to others.

Question 2

A) The sale is the sale right in front of you – it’s all about dollars in the door, with little thought given to future sales opportunities of prospects.

OR

B) You concentrate more on creating a lifetime customer than on a single sale. You want clients who you can turn into raving fans, rather than just chasing another quick sale to make ends meet.

Question 3

A) You believe everyone is your customer/client. You try and tell everyone about everything you do, in the belief that by telling maximum number of people you increase your chances of making a sale of something.

OR

B) You know who your ideal customer is, who your who is, and you target them. Your message is targeted at those people.

Question 4

A) If I look at my marketing, captions, brochures (marketing messages) they are ‘I’ and “ME
focussed, telling people who YOU are, what YOU do and how well YOU do it.

OR

B) My marketing is CUSTOMER CENTRIC, focusing primarily on them and the problems I can solve for them.

Question 5

A) You are constantly telling prospects why they should buy from you and showcasing your products and services.

OR

B) You recognise the value in investing time in creating a content to nurture your prospects until they are ready to buy and giving value, value, value before you ask for any sale. You want quality over quantity.

Right – let’s look at your answers. Did you get all A’s or all B’s or a mixture?

This little quiz is similar to one I took myself many years ago.  As my experience was growing and evolving over the years, I have been able to adapt it to the quiz above for you guys to use here. Taking the quiz it was one of those key turning points in growing my knowledge when I started out in business, so I wanted to share it with you too.

So – what do your results say about you?

If you naturally choose option B then you are thinking like a marketer.

If you recognise that you are practising a lot of option A strategies, you may want to reconsider your approach – and I can help you do this!

Until you begin to think like a MARKETER, your progress in business is likely to be slow, and the number of clients you create will be low, no matter how good your product or service.

To think more like a marketer and make marketing a priority in your business means you simply need to change your mindset just a wee bit.

Here are my top tips on how to become a better marketer!

1. Start thinking about what you do in your business to make money, what you’re good at, (fabulous at in fact!) and do more of that! Then think about how you can outsource some other tasks to staff if you have some or a VA or PA – if you don’t have one of them either, then perhaps this is an opportunity to explore that.

Do what you do the best and outsource the rest!

2. Start thinking and implementing strategies into your business that will make your current customers into customers that come back again and again and turn into raving fans.

Is a loyalty program appropriate for your business?  Or do you need more nurture strategies, keeping top of mind until they are ready to buy again? Have a good look at your customer base and think about what marketing you can do to convert your customer base into the return customer/raving fan customer!

3. Sit down and work on your Ideal Client Avatar. Remember: most businesses will have 1 or 2 (possibly 3) different ideal clients/customers.  Do you know your WHO really really well?  What keeps them up at night?  What problems do they have that you can solve?  The more you know this person, the better your marketing will become.

4. Go through your current marketing online and offline and count the times you’ve written “I’ or “me” in them. If there’s too many you aren’t talking to your prospect, you are simply talking at them.  Change this – put the customer experience central to your marketing.

5. In your marketing, your captions, your social posts, your website, your print marketing, and so on, will I find value, value, value or only ask, ask, ask? We live in a world that we must give, give, give before we can ever ask for a sale.  We need to develop know, like and trust with our prospects before the sale.

Has this blog given you some food for thought, or left you with some burning questions? Let’s continue this conversation in my Facebook Group – Like Minded Business Owners.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Feel free to leave me a DM on my Small Business Made Simple Instagram with any comments or ideas (including fab discoveries)!  The DMs seriously make my day!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jenn Donovan is a marketing strategist and social media extraordinaire, coach and mentor to savvy business owners.  Owner and Founder of Social Media & Marketing Australia.

With a passion for making business simple, because it’s isn’t easy but it should be simple or at least simpler, she’s built a reputation for helping other small business owners simplify their marketing and businesses so they can reach their goals, be more profitable and live the dream (finding the freedom they set out to achieve when they started … the illusive small business owner freedom dream …!)

Jenn believes in giving before asking and that’s why she’s the host of the popular Small Business Made Simple Podcast