Small Business Marketing - 3 Arising Problems

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... in marketing.

You want more customers and clients. Maybe you want better customers and clients. Or maybe you want to retain more of your customers and clients. Either way, there has never been a better time to market because of the tools we have available now. 

But this poses a problem. While it's easier to get into the game of marketing now, there are also endless choices... confusing choices. 

"Am I suppose to post 5-6 times a day on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat? Where will I find the time? I heard video is really important, but I don't like being on camera. Sbould my videos be 2 minutes or 7 minutes? Am I supposed to create a podcast?"

And this internal dialogue goes on and on slowly turning our ideas, goals and vision to stone. 

And if our own internal dialogue wasn't a big enough obstacle, we also have gurus who are trying to sell you their way to market and convince you of what works and what's right in marketing. 

So how do you know what to do? How do you know what's right? 

Over the next several posts I want to give you foundational principles that will help you sort out the confusing world of marketing and how to make your marketing feel authentic and valuable to you and your potential customers. 

3 Arising Problems in Marketing for Small Businesses

1. Noise. More and more businesses are getting into marketing. They're trying social media, facebook ads, Groupon, email, landing pages and more which has created a really noisy market place. 

It's hard for our perfect clients to hear us or distinguish us from our competitors because we all look and sound the same in the noise. The best way to pierce through that noise is by establishing relationship with those you seek to serve. 

(I will cover the importance of relationships in marketing in the next post)

2. Change. Things change all the time in the realm of marketing and the tools we use. I can see a divide growing between those who are brave and willing to stay current and those who are resisting this change. Learning Facebook Ads or Video or learning how to clarify your message takes work. And we often don't feel like we have time or patience to learn. Plus, with so many voices contradicting each other about what works and what doesn't, how do we find the right change to invest in? 

3. Confusion. All these changes and opinions create confusion. Because we don't have foundational principles that guide how we think about marketing, we're stuck in a foggy, confusing environment where we know we need to market... we've even spent good money trying to market... without the results we hoped for or being any clearer about how we want to market. 

So we give up. Until we are inspired to try a new "thing" we heard about on a webinar. And then we try it and it doesn't work. So we give up. See the pattern? 

All this changes when you have foundational principles that guide how you think about marketing. 

In the next few posts I will unpack the 4 Foundational Principles I teach my clients so you can begin to find what works for you and can filter all the advice out there to determine what's in alignment with your foundational principles and what's not.