How to Advertise Your Small Business - 3 Tactics For Better Responses

Almost all small business owners tend to "fall" into the business they're running. Some stray into it, and others follow a dream, but not many of them truly have a small business marketing plan and plan the business AS a business.

They appear to labour under the delusion that because they're good butchers, bakers or candlestick makers they are also going to be good at operating those sorts of businesses.

Alas, it's infrequently the case, because they don't grasp the fundamental truth: every single business lives and dies by the quality of its marketing.

So in this short piece I share with you what I consider to be the 3 most significant principles in any small business marketing plan.

There is much more, indeed, but if you can grasp these 3, then this alone is going to place you head and shoulders above your competitors.

1. Follow up till doomsday

The most effective small business owners understand the secret to success in business is rigorous follow-up.

The more you tell, the more you sell, in other words.

Your prospects of selling something to someone on the first pass are typically pretty slim, and even in my business, which is in an industry not particularly noted for its long sales cycle, I consistently get first-time buyers who have been on my list for (literally) years and have just at that moment chosen to buy.

2. Customers, instead of sales

The very first sale you make to a customer is often inconsequential in financial terms because the real value is always going to be in the subsequent sales you make. The lifetime client value, in other words.

Few business owners truly recognize this, and unnecessarily waste a lot of time and effort going after fresh business without adequately nourishing and developing the relationships with the customers they already have.

In my experience, it's often held true I make more money in my relationship with a client in the long term by talking them out of an early and to my mind inappropriate purchase.

3. Primary Focus

Why does your business exist?

Any answer significantly different from "to make a profit" suggests to me you might need to think again about the whole business thing.

This is not a money-grubbing approach to take. No matter what the eventual aim of your business, it's got to pay its own way so it can meet the wages bill, pay its other bills and keep up with its commitments.

And this means you've got to be making sales. There's no other way to do it.

This is no contradiction of my earlier point, by the way, since by focusing on the relationship and the long term value of the customer or client you are also necessarily focusing on sales.

What you're not doing is focusing on any single sale as being especially important.

Certainly you do need to make sales. But you must never be of the opinion that any one customer, client or sale is necessary. Always be ready to walk away, even if you think you can not afford to. The instant customers and clients know they have you over a barrel ... you're doomed.

Truly, it's much easier than you think to grow a successful and profitable small business, and if you pay attention to what I've given you here, it's going to be a whole lot easier for you.


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Jon McCulloch is Ireland's leading direct response marketer. Visit his website now and take just three of his 52 FREE small business promotion ideas he's giving away today, and actually put them to work for you and you'll be amazed by the results.

They've all produced substantially better results for small businesses just like yours in the last two years.