Marketing Insights for Your Small Business Initiatives

Published in

Money, Marketing, and Economics

3 min readMar 14, 2022

Staying in front of old, current, and potential clients is important. This basic fact is indisputable, yet its tactical execution is easy to botch. I have been receiving the same mundane automated message for 5 years now. Why do they keep doing it? Because it works. If you throw enough stuff against a wall, some is going to stick. That happens to be true if you are canvasing a wide array of people. If you have a finite number of professional prospects, it’s a surefire way to tarnish your image. Here are the top 10 tips about what you must do instead:

1. Know your customer.

Introduce yourself and your company’s services in person when possible. Read up on your potential clients and ask questions to get to the heart of their concerns and objectives. Find and fill a need.

2. Organize your efforts.

Create and maintain a current database. There is no reason to send messages into the void. Re-visit your database periodically and keep meticulous notes. Research CRM software solutions (here are some HubSpot alternatives). Pick one that fits your objectives best.

3. Keep your messages fresh.

Make your message personal, short, and different. Don’t rotate the same mindless mantra over and over again. Using the same message over and over again makes you appear careless and lazy.

4. Respect people’s time.

Keep your message short and focus on the benefits your company offers. Getting lost in specs and features is counterproductive, unless you have already received a specific request from a customer.

5. Offer insights.

Include a message that aims to educate. Have a worthy insight? Share it. For this, you must do your homework. Include empirical proof, case studies, charts, and statistics.

6. Know your competitors.

Who else in the market place does what you do? How do their services compare to yours? Who uses Push and who uses Pull marketing? How are their ratios distributed? (The Difference Between Push and Pull Marketing.)

7. Use grids and fact sheets.

Offer a visual representation of how your services compare. Fitting check marks on a single page is ideal, although a more extensive report, such as this CRM Software Comparison Report can offer great value. Do not approach your prospects with this. Offer it as a follow-up, once a client has been engaged.

8. Offer value.

Don’t underestimate people’s ability to seek value. Only because you were first, that doesn’t mean you should charge twice more than your competition. Be fair, be in line. Sell both tangible and non-tangible deliverable such as responsiveness and great customer care.

9. Don’t overwhelm.

It is important that you have respect for people’s time. Resist the urge to overreach. Dominate one or two mediums for your Pull Marketing and spread out your direct marketing. (You may do a few back to back emails, then pull back and create a monthly schedule.)

10. Use KPIs.

Look at your metrics periodically to understand which messages work and which do not. Create a strategy that focuses on getting results. Use quantitative analysis even if your personal feelings differ. Our cognitive filters have built-in biases. Numbers don’t lie.

I hope you find this useful. The linked articles may offer additional value.

Happy prospecting!