Get More from Your Marketing

How to grow your SME business without spending more on marketing

It can be tough as a small to medium-sized business owner to grow your business. You’ve got many different pressures on you every day, and wear almost every ‘hat’ in the business; spending time with customers, preparing quotes or proposals, sending out invoices, paying the bills, and of course managing staff. There’s barely time left to do the work you love. Little wonder then that sales and marketing is one area that’s tough to spend time on.

To help out, we’ve outlined below eight simple questions to ask yourself, that can help you to quickly identify any areas of marketing and sales that might need your attention, so that you can drive more sales into your business.

1. Do your customers have a reason to choose you over your competitors?

From a marketing standpoint, having a strong point of difference – a reason for customers to choose you over others – is one of the most important things you can do for your business. When done well, it should be apparent in practically every area of your business, making it easy for your customers to point out to others why they too, should choose you.

If your business does have a clear point of difference, it should be easy for you and your staff to identify. If you’re struggling to come up with any reasons that set you apart from your competitors, it’s definitely time to give this area of your business some focus.

2. Do you know who your ideal customer is?

Many business owners struggle to define a clear and highly specific description of their ideal customer. Instead, they rely on broad phrases like “everyone over 18” or “all women over 25”. The truth is, no matter how broadly you think your product or service appeals to people, there are a core group of people who will love it.

Importantly, these are the same people who will tell others about it and rave about you on social media or at friend’s BBQs. In marketing speak, they’re referred to as your target audience. It’s not everyone who might buy from you, just the people you most want to buy from you.

3. Do your ideal customers know who you are?

Bigger brands often talk about being top of mind with their audience. What this means is that as an ideal customer starts to research the type of product or service you sell, are they thinking of your brand as one that they want to find out about? Today, smart use of customer reviews, Google profiles, social media and good website content can help to do a lot of the heavy lifting – good news for smaller businesses who don’t have deep pockets to fund lots of advertising.

4. What would an ideal customer discover about you?

If you’ve been successful enough in capturing the attention of your target audience, it’s likely that they’ll take a look at your website to find out a bit more about you. The question is, what do they want to know and, can they find it? With this in mind, it pays to think of your website as simply a platform to answer the initial questions your future customers might want answered before they commit to contacting you.

5. What happens when a potential customer contacts you?

It’s often surprising for business owners to know how potential new customers are treated by their staff. Whether a first enquiry comes by phone, email, online form or an in-person visit, the response should be both professional and – ideally – closely aligned with your position.

6. How well is your sales process working?

Assuming you’ve been able to handle initial enquiries well, your business might be given the opportunity to launch into your sales process. Regardless of the number of steps in your sales process, it pays to understand how well you perform at each step. This can allow you to identify specific areas in your process where you’re falling short.

7. How satisfied are your customers?

By simply finding out what people love and loathe about your business, you can learn where to invest your time and resources to ensure you end up with customers who rave to others about what you do. Think about it this way: how many of your customers would happily give you a 5-star review on Google?

8. Are you asking for referrals?

If you’re a business that has a bunch of great customers who tell you how great you are, that’s fantastic news. But what are you doing with it? Finding ways to encourage your satisfied customers to encourage people like them to connect with you is key to low-cost growth for your business.

What next?

The questions we’ve outlined are designed to help you identify possible blocks in the various stages new customers work through as they engage with your business. We refer to it as the Customer Flow Model. If there’s a significant block in one area, it usually means you’re losing possible customers who might otherwise have been keen to buy from you.