How do small businesses use marketing?

[jng88]

Hi all,

I am currently in the process of setting up a marketing agency for small businesses, offering a variety of services from copywriting to stategy at competitive prices.

To assist me in developing my service, I am interested in finding out how small businesses currently use marketing; in particular the following:

1. Where and how do you normally advertise?
2. How much do you spend, on average on marketing on a yearly or monthly basis?
3. Which marketing services do you need for your business (eg. social media page management, copywriting etc) and would you be willing to pay for?
4. How much would your monthly/yearly budget allow you to spend on marketing services?


Please feel free to PM me, and thank you for your help!

 

[AutumnFireflyDesign]

Interested in learning people's opinions on this too! So a PM or a comment on the thread will do good!

 

[Mark Whitehead]

There is a big difference here between what small businesses want and what they need IMHO.

The big five for small businesses are:

1. Networking - however, many of them don't undertand how to effectively link networking activities into their sales and marketing process.
2. social media - however, many of them try to sell rather than engage
3. cold calling - however, many spend too much time talking and not enough listening
4. blogging - however, many don't have the online reach to make it effective
5. advertising - however, often the advert is not creating an effective impact with their target market

There is a tail end of other stuff but the main issue is they don't have a system that encompasses and aligns all of their marketing activity strategically in order to support their sales process.

Many small businesses haven't thought about how they can be unique and stand out from their competition. If I were a marketing business I would be supporting clients in the initial planning stage and then reaping the rewards of supporting their implementation of the plan.

 

[HazelC]

1. Where and how do you normally advertise?
Advertise? No where - networking, social media and website is where I increase my brand awareness but not sure I would say I advertise.

2. How much do you spend, on average on marketing on a yearly or monthly basis?
I pay for business exhibitions, network memberships and events, Hootsuite (for social media management) and that's probably about it.... so maybe £2k a year

3. Which marketing services do you need for your business (eg. social media page management, copywriting etc) and would you be willing to pay for?
I run a social media and content company so have both and don't need to pay - no other marketing services currently required

4. How much would your monthly/yearly budget allow you to spend on marketing services?
Dependant on services required.


*** I think an additional important question is age of business ?*** (mine is 20months)

 

[AnnaDanishek]

To my mind social media today is the most powerful engine for small businesses

 

[Nochexman]

To my mind social media today is the most powerful engine for small businesses

Why does your mind think that?

 

[Parcelhub]

We were a small business once!

Word of mouth and Email marketing are very cost effective. WordPress is almost free, besides the theme template and hosting. MailChimp is free up to 2000 subscribers. So many resources out there for free. A well optimised Twitter profile - Following and engaging with your target audience, is, while initially it will take up a lot of your time, very cost effective.

 

[Helen Wood]

Just a note, I would shy away from WordPress ... it's very easily hacked. Apart from that small note, Mark above me, made a great comment I agree with!