I tend to give a lecture or short talk to business owners once a month, in addition to this in my consulting work I am frequently astonished at the lack of discipline that businesses have when it comes to developing and implementing ongoing marketing strategies.

 

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Given that marketing [and the resultant sales] are the life and soul of every company I am continually baffled at how little time business owners pay to marketing. The title of this article is ’small business marketing ideas’ but when talking to executives from corporates I see a tendency to continue doing what has been done in the past.

That, of course will guarantee past results ! So – what are some of ideas that business owners can start to think about in order to effect change in their organisations ? Without looking at the details of the business of the reader, I would like encourage taking a look at the field of …

• Channel Marketing

… that it to say; stop and think about the various routes ‘Marketing Channels’ that you are currently using to …

• a) Get your message out to prospective clients
• b) Deliver your products and services to the end user

Take for example; some of the large supermarkets – here in the UK we have bit ‘T’, ‘S’ and ‘A’. They present their messages to us via the television, via the internet, newspapers, radio, billboards, flyers and the list can go on. In addition to this we can purchase the goods that they have on offer via the internet, via the TV or we can of course go into the store. We have described various Channels To Market that the supermarkets use to ultimately get us to purchase their goods.

Now, one of the lessons that we can learn from this is that there are / can be / should be various means / methods / techniques in use at any point in time as part of our ongoing marketing strategies. This is of course an ongoing process and something that will be developed / strategised and worked out during any business strategy consultation.

Marketing is a skill and discipline that many business owners who are experts at their particular business field often fail to appreciate – this is not something is done when it comes to Accounting and Finance and Manufacturing, the expert is normally called in to perform these functions. Marketing is the most important part of your business – do not leave it to chance, get expert help that can help you develop an ongoing coherent strategy from which to work from.

If you have any questions about this and would like to discuss personal consulting and coaching with me Stephen C Campbell, do not hesitate to get in touch ….

I worked with Lisa Porter of  http://www.Armonioso.co.uk/ developing the complete messaging …

 

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… and Business MarketingStrategy development – we covered development of appropriate Marketing Channels, Segmentaiton of the Market from both a Demographic and Psychographics perspective as well as working on which Category of the Marketing Lisa’s business would be operating in.

Some months after working on the business, I coached Lisa form a Self Development perspective as often, this is the part that is underdeveloped in many of us.

Business is at the centre and heart and centre of life in most of the developed world and some people view starting and promoting a successful business as an extension of themselves and; as a vehicle where they can go on and make a positive influence and difference in the world at large.

 

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When we look at how business has developed over time we can see that we are in a highly competitve market place and we can also see that there are so many people who have decided to startup and work in their own; small work from home businesses. This within itself is such a great thing but with that comes many challenges which we shall touch on in this article.

As a Business Marketing Strategy Consultant – one of the things that I am faced with and see in my working life is the fact that the Small and Medium Enterprise Business Owners are in fact experts at their particular field. That may be Makeup, Woodworking, Car Mechanics, Medical and the list could go on and on. Now when it comes to developing a coherent Marketing Strategy – I liken it go one opening up a restaurant and hiring a specialist to prepare the food, to wait on the tables, to serve at the bar and all of the other necessary tasks that are necessary for the smooth functioning of the eating establishment.

You can go on to compare this with all that is needed in order to develop a Strategic Business [Internet based] Marketing Strategy from which to establish ones livelihood. Based on my experience in conducting business in over 25 countries throughout Europe, the U.S. and the Far East I know tend to focus on three main components i.e.

• Channels to Marketing
• Marketing Categories
• Marketing Segmentation

Before I start with anything though – I will work on developing the message that the client has to ‘say about themselves and of their product and service.

More than anything else, the small business owner is encouraged to seek out and to use the very best Business Marketing Strategy consultating services that they can; this will end up saving a lot of time not to mention the amount of monies that they will will end up not losing buy having spent the money up front on using a Strategic Consultant.

I gave a presentation the other week about the process of marketing and the internet. It was interesting to see the reaction and anticipation of the audience when I got through some 30 minutes of the business marketing strategy information output without really going into any real depth about the internet.

The point that I am always trying to make is how to view the internet as a part of the overal business marketing strategy of any organisation. Of course all large and small companies know that they need to have a website, this is where I see so many problems in relation to the development and execution of a business internet marketing strategy. That is to say, there often is no strategy – the website is ‘thrown onto the internet because the Small Business Owner has been told that they must have a website [which is true - I would say].

As I develop key Business Marketing Strategies from conception to implementation it is the message of the organisation that needs to be clearly understood by the business owner before that message can be communicated by any medium. That is where it comes to the message that I am constantly putting forth …

View the internet as a Marketing Channel

• If your message is not clear
• If you have not defined your key Marketing Segments
• If you have not identified the most appropriate Channels To Market
• If you have not taken the time to define the Profile of your Ideal Client.

… And of course the list could go on with all of the components that a Strategic Business Internet Marketing Consultant [the function that I provide] bring to any business. As you would hire a chef to prepare the food in your restaurant [and not try to learn how to cook yourself] – hire in a Business Marketing Strategy Consultant to help take your business to the next level.

Any comments, let me know, if  you need any consulting – get in touch.

Best,

-Stephen C  Campbell

Simone runs an Event Promotion company and we met for a consultation through a referral from a previous …

 

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… client. We focussed on where the business stood today and then on what Simone’s thoughts were on where the business should be heading.

After looking at the overall market and scoping out the opporunities we were able to hone in on the the most appropriate direction for the business should be.