Market Like Big Business
By Kevin D. Johnson, Jr.
Today’s business landscape provides more opportunities than ever for small businesses. Even though the bigger corporations have more capital than a small business, there are ways to apply their tactics to fit your needs. If we explore marketing, for example, there was a time that a company could only get national exposure through such avenues as television commercial spots, magazine ads, and/or outdoor billboards. Even though these approaches are still used today, social media has become another major player in the business game.
We can all start a social media company page free-of-charge and their (Big companies) score board (followers) start at -0 just like a small business. However, it is what we do with the page that makes the difference. Granted, certain platforms have stopped allowing followers to see post organically; this also happens to the Fortune 500 companies. We have the ability, just as they do, to boost or sponsor our posts.
While a small business won’t have the marketing budget that huge corporations have, small organizations can still get their content to a wide audience. However, the more you know about your target market the better. The key is to make your boosted post count by putting yourself in the best position to get your desired outcome. The more you understand the demographics, etc. the better chance a business has to achieve their goals, whether it’s driving traffic to a website, gaining more followers, and/or collecting e-mail addresses and other contact information.
Making sure that the boosted content speaks to your target market is what’s important. Make your company’s budget work for you. This can be done by assessing what social media site(s) your desired clientele frequents most. Is it LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter? Once you understand this, you can know where the company’s time, energy, and money would be best spent.
Other practices that can be used are marketing tactics, such as email campaigns and retargeting your marketing (i.e., when you go to a website, for example, and click on “shoes” and you are redirected to another site- and see those shoes serving as a reminder), and content marketing. From a branding perspective, businesses can pay attention to the ways in which graphics and designs are used by larger companies. There are various options that can provide nice designs that are inexpensive.
Add Revenue Streams Like Big Business
Many times corporations acquire other companies as a way to enter other categories and attempt to increase their company’s revenue. Small businesses might not have the funds to buy out another company in order to expand on economic opportunities, but all is not lost. Assessing the resources and knowledge that a small company has is the best place to start branching out. If nothing else, the information that is acquired during the process of running a business is valuable to those that aren’t aware.
What is common knowledge to some is a wealth of knowledge to others. Find a way to package the information and brand it. This could be online information for a fee, seminars, webinars etc. If you can think of a way to expand your categories and/or services, do so. The more revenue streams the better.
Conclusion
Making your small business better should always be the goal of your company. The roll out, marketing or tactical approaches can all be inspired from larger companies. Just think of innovative ways to scale it down based on your budget and resources. Whatever approach is decided upon- be consistent and look for ways to improve your system.
Big company often fall short in regards to customer service. This is an area that you should always pay a great deal of attention to. Many brands often attach memorable or catchy names to products and/or services with good marketing campaigns behind them. With creativity and utilizing the available technology, small businesses can do the same thing.
Kevin D. Johnson, Jr. is the founder and CEO of NorthStarr Media Group; he is an educator, as well as the creator of NorthStarr Classic Apparel. Follow at @northstarrmedia.
Businessman stock photo by blocberry/Shutterstock
