1. I don’t sell online. I don’t need an online presence. Even if you are a brick and mortar storefront that doesn’t plan to sell any products online, you need an internet presence and social media of some sort. People are looking for your business or businesses like yours online. Do you want to be left out in the cold when all it takes is a website, a Yelp presence, and maybe a Twitter or Facebook account? The answer is no. You don’t. Get online and do it now. If social media is daunting to you, Hootsuite has a user-friendly program dedicated to helping you manage your social media presence.
2. I only need to focus on getting new customers. While it’s important to acquire new customers to your business, you must remember that you have to keep your current customers happy so they’ll be repeat customers. The backbone of your business will be those repeat customers. Current customers can also do your marketing for you. They can tell people how great you are and get more customers in the door.
3. Inbound marketing is just a fad. Inbound marketing is actually just an evolved form of traditional marketing. The core strategy of this type of marketing is to provide value and usefulness to your prospects, make your business visible, earn trust and get the sale. Inbound marketing is really just an efficient, modern way of marketing your business. Hosting webinars is a great way to participate in inbound marketing; it gets your name out there and can provide critical feedback and communication between yourself and prospective customers or donors. BigMarker has an amazing hosting program for webinars that could end up helping your company thrive.
4. I’m cheaper than my competition so I don’t need marketing. Offering the best price doesn’t mean you have the best value in people’s minds. Price shoppers are also the most difficult to keep because they’re always looking for a better offer and believe us, they will find one, eventually. It’s better to identify your demographic, price your services for value and cost and attract, long-term, loyal customers that will keep coming back because you’re good, convenient and offer a great product.
5. Advertising is the same as marketing. No, it’s not. Advertising is a part of a larger marketing picture. Small business marketing leverages everything from various forms of advertising to social media and in-store promotions. If you are looking to increase revenue through advertising, Socialpilot helps you automate your social media management. They have a feature which allows you to boost your Facebook posts through ads, which could gear your content toward potential customers who do not yet follow you.
6. Keep changing your advertising or your sales will decline. It may sound logical, but it’s just not true. You should never get rid of advertising that works. There are many small businesses out there that are using the same advertising they’ve used for years and still getting new business in the door. The goal of advertising is to attract new customers, right? Some of those ‘new’ customers haven’t seen your advertising yet and some of those people need to see it more than once, maybe many times, for it to work on them. Of course,that’s not to say you can’t improve advertising that is working. You should also test new things to see if they work for you too. Allocate about 80% of your advertising budget to proven promotions and 20% to new things.
Idea labs Consulting is an Austin-based team of coaches and consultants helping small businesses solve a wide range of business problems since 2011. Our team is composed of experienced entrepreneurs and technical experts.
We offer three distinct ways to work with you based on your current needs.
- Unlimited business coaching and consulting for a full year [$100 per month or less]
- Access to our resource platform of our products and services [pay for what you need]
- Business products and tools we recommend [free]
While there are plenty of sources for start-ups and small businesses to receive help, funding, and mentorship, Idea Labs operates like a marketplace by meeting the needs of your business’ ecosystem. As opposed to the common consulting and business coaching trope of increasing billable hours or project scope in order to maximize revenue, we prefer to be a place you can depend on during crucial stages of your business journey. We can help connect where you are now and where you want to be.
Idea Labs Consulting
www.idealabsconsulting.com
(512) 348-6344
