When most people think of marketing, they think of advertising, brochures, websites or newsletters. In fact, many people have a negative impression of marketing - they think it boils down to convincing (perhaps even manipulating) people to buy something they don’t want or need. When they think of selling, they think of the proverbial used car salesman who won’t let them walk away from the lot without a car with all the bells and whistles at an inflated price.

The Small Business Marketing Cycle

To many small-business owners, it means “networking” (i.e. trying to meet as many people as possible), “advertising” (i.e. running ads in newspapers/radio/tv, mailing fliers/postcards/letters), “internet marketing” (i.e. putting up a website and running an online ad campaign to get traffic to your site) or “sales” (i.e. pitching everyone you know on the benefit of your services).

Many small-business owners start off with one type of marketing but soon become frustrated with how ineffective and time consuming the process is. If they run ads, they wonder why no one is calling. If they set up a website, they wonder why no one is visiting their site. If they cold call prospects, they wonder how many calls it takes before they find an interested buyer (many times, it’s 1-2 out of 100 calls!)

Feeling disillusioned, they turn their attention to another type of marketing, hoping it will work better for them. A few months later, they turn to something else. And so this “marketing” cycle continues until the small-business owner gives up or reverts back to other ineffective methods in the cycle.

The Marketing Mindset

“Marketing” is an umbrella term that involves everything you do to attract clients and help them solve their problems. It includes:

• How you explain what you do.
• How you price what you sell.
• How you present yourself and your business.
• How you advertise your business.
• How you package your products and services.
• How you give sales presentations.
• How you follow up with sales leads.
• How you communicate with prospects, customers and clients.
• How you provide customer support.
• How you ask for referrals.

As you can see, marketing is not just a set of tools to communicate with prospects and clients. Marketing is a mindset. It is more than the casual philosophy of “just do it” - just send out those postcards or catalogs or newsletters and wait for the phone to start ringing. It’s about everything you do or say to customers and prospects through any type of medium - phone, email, brochure, website, etc.

Marketing’s job is to find you good prospects who need your products and services, will willingly pay for them and will do so in a cost-effective manner so that you make more money than you spend.

7 Elements of a Successful Marketing Campaign

Marketing involves everything you do to get and keep clients. That includes:

1. Creating services - Researching the real problems your prospects are having, what solutions are currently available, and what you can offer to make their lives easier.
2. Educating prospects - Explaining to prospects what their current problems are costing them and how your services can help them.
3. Building rapport - Building genuine relationships with prospects. This isn’t about saying what they need you to say so they’ll buy from you. It’s about understanding who your prospects are, demonstrating that you care about their well-being, and showing them that you have the expertise to help them solve their problems.
4. Demonstrating your passion - Selling is about sharing things we’re passionate about with others who might benefit. If you go see a fantastic movie, you tell everyone you know that they absolutely must see it. That’s selling. In the same way, when you sell your services, you must speak with a passion that shows you love what you do and believe in yourself and the results you get for clients.
5. Putting your prospect or client’s best interests first - Your prospects and clients come to you for advice, so it’s up to you to provide them with the best advice you can give.
6. Providing excellent service - That means being an expert in your niche area. You need to be courteous, friendly, and concerned with your client’s wants and needs. You need to know the soft stuff like how to uncover what’s holding them back from solving their problems, how to make them feel comfortable with making a purchasing decision, and what it takes to make your interactions with them as smooth as possible.
7. Keep in touch - Finally, once you’ve completed the transaction, you must keep in touch and ask for referrals.

As management guru Peter Drucker has written, “Business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results. All the rest are costs.” Innovation is about tailoring your services creatively to fit your clients’ needs while marketing is about promoting your services to the people who need them most for a reasonable fee.

Read more articles on creating your marketing strategy or download our free marketing plan guide.

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