Entrepreneurial exhaustion is hardly a new topic: Many small business owners have to wear many hats to get the job done on a daily basis, and they run the risk of burnout.
Even if you’re doing well personally, you may struggle to understand what your business needs in the way of marketing.
Consider these three challenges and identify the areas that most affect you and your small business.
Starting a small business can be tough in and of itself, but when you throw marketing into the mix, you may feel that you are running two businesses instead of one.
If you don’t have the people, the budget, or the time to create a marketing campaign for your product or services, you’re not alone.
The problem here is that you need your new business to be recognized by a specific audience — and to do this, you need to effectively market it to them.
You’ll need to set aside the time and create a budget for marketing, even if it’s minimal, to make sure your audience is aware of your product if you want to sell it!
Small business owners of older generations may feel out of touch when it comes to the wide range of social media platforms available to consumers today.
Even millennials (who famously got the world to join them on social media when it exploded as a means of communication in the early 2000s) may be starting to feel unsure of themselves as Gen Z has moved on newer social media spaces.
The bottom line: If your identified market is not of the same generation as you, you may have a communication problem when it comes to social media. Or, in the worst-case scenario, you may not be using social media to market to your audience at all.
Pinpointing your audience isn’t just about understanding their age, generation, or other demographic classification.
If you’re selling all-natural mineral makeup products, for example, most of your clients are likely women.
Using social media marketing to target all individuals between 15 and 60 may be a good start, but consider how much of your advertising budget you are spending on marketing to those who will never buy your product.
It’s best to define your marketing goals, identify a specific audience, and sell your product or service to these people directly instead of simply targeting anyone who may look at an ad.
If the idea of finding your audience or narrowing down prospective clients makes your head spin, it’s OK!
This isn’t always as simple as it sounds.
The first tip we’ll give you: Your audience is not everyone in the world. Knowing this, and accepting the fact that there will be groups of people who have no interest in your product, can help you find the ones who do.
Your website, and your other social media accounts, are important first steps.
Think of these as the front door to those entering your company in the online space.
How it looks, and how you sound when “speaking” to potential customers, matters a great deal.
Clarifying your brand, upgrading your web presence, and making a narrative of your company’s story may help you attract the right clients in the first place.
After you do this, consider the following points to narrow down the customers you seek.
The first step to take, if you have not been collecting data on your clients’ purchases, is to start doing so immediately.
It’s impossible to determine what to do next, or what to do better, if you have no idea who is buying your product and for what reason.
If you don’t have data yet, use this time to conduct some careful market research on your item, your brand, and the locations where you sell your products.
If you’ll be selling in a mostly online space, consider who may search for and find your products online.
Making a list of who you aren’t marketing to may be the easiest and the most clarifying step in the process of identifying your audience.
For that mineral makeup company, you already know that you will likely not be marketing to children or most men.
Should you market to men at all? If you want to, write this down.
You know that you’re not going to be marketing to people who don’t care about natural products.
If you’re a local business, or you aren’t sure you want to ship internationally, you can rule out other states and countries as this applies to you.
This may seem like a silly or obvious exercise, but it can be extremely enlightening. It may also help you get the ball rolling if you’re stuck when it comes to marketing for your small business.
Are you a small business owner who is stuck trying to market your products and services in the same ways with little to show for it?
Identifying your audience will help you determine an actionable next step. Contact Seer Production to speak to an experienced marketing team today.
We would love to partner with you and show you how clarity, storytelling, and audience identification can improve your marketing and your overall sales. Get in touch today and watch your business start to grow!
https://tritonbusinessadvisors.com/7-small-business-marketing-challenges/
https://blog.hootsuite.com/target-market/