Small Business Marketing: Quality Is Not an Option & Referrals Reign Supreme
I work with many small businesses looking to get their brand out there and increase their lead quality and quantity with a strong marketing strategy. But what is a lead in the first place? And should you even focus on finding and collecting leads as a small business yourself?
A lead is defined as an individual or organization that is interested in what you have to offer. A person becomes a lead when they sign up for your email newsletter, download a resource or make contact with you through any available channel. This includes in-person networking, as long as they express interest in wanting to learn more about your products or services. As a small business, considering your marketing strategy and how to reach potential clients is just a part of running a successful business. Especially if it’s you running the entire show, you want to make sure you have passive lead generation channels set up on your website so anyone interested has the option to become a lead on their own.
My standard small business marketing strategy includes setting up a blog on your website, managing an email newsletter, and participating in only 1–3 social media accounts where you know your ideal clients dwell. This might be surprising to hear, as it sounds relatively minimal. Let me explain.
When you’re a business-of-one (or very few), you are responsible for ensuring your marketing strategy is executed regularly. You have to generate high-quality content. You have to create emails and send them out. You have to post to your social accounts on a relatively regular basis. You have to nurture the relationships with your leads in hopes they one day become clients. This is in addition to providing your main products and services. This all takes time, and can increase your overhead if you have your hands in too many marketing pots. It becomes stressful trying to manage too many channels and may force you to create watered-down, unfocused content because you feel the pressure to churn out more content in less time.
Simplifying your marketing strategy allows you the time and space to focus on quality. As a small business, quality is not an option since we have to wear so many hats. I always recommend creating high-quality content to give away for free. This helps educate potential clients, builds trust and sets you up as a thought leader in your industry. It’s better to spend more time generating high-quality content and posting less frequently than posting watered-down content regularly.
The focus on quality extends to finding leads as well. We cannot waste our time and energy on marketing channels that don’t generate high-quality leads. So as a small business you have to ask yourself, who is your ideal client and where have they come from in the past? This is where we have to be honest with ourselves. Yes, maybe we’ve had some success with website and promotional campaign leads converting into clients, and can possibly justify spending more money on a larger, shinier marketing strategy. But depending on your industry and the products/services you provide, the majority of your best clients have most likely been referrals. Right?
So on to the next question. How do we increase the chance for referrals? It’s here that we have to focus on the things we can control, as referrals can be unpredictable and elusive. Here’s a short list of honest ways we can increase the chances of receiving referrals:
- Branding: Ensure you have engaging branding and an up-to-date website that reaches your ideal clients and allows them to learn about your company and connect with you 24/7
- Customer Service: Always respond to emails of past, current and potential clients promptly with the intent to help
- Network: Never underestimate the power of your network, whether your friends, family, past bosses or co-workers, or even brief acquaintances
- Request Feedback: When you wrap up a project, even if the project went swimmingly, ask your client if they have any feedback to show you want to improve and that their perspective is valuable
- Image: Watch what you post on your marketing channels, make sure you aren’t alienating potential leads with negative posts or comments, even if your intent was humor
- Content Strategy: As previously mentioned, creating high-quality free content and getting it to your network via email newsletter and/or social media helps improve your brand image by providing helpful information to all interested, even if they don’t end up working with you, they may send someone else your way
Creating a marketing strategy that works well for you can increase the chances your ideal client will find you whether you’re actively seeking them out or not. It helps you build a workflow around generating quality content without stretching you too thin. Focus on doing what works for you so you can serve your clients effectively and authentically.
