Are you really good at your business or practice, but have no idea when it comes to advertising? Do you have a parade of newspaper, internet, phone book and media reps demanding to speak with you about the amazing audience you can reach if you "sign up today"?
What's good for the goose could KILL the gander!
What's good for big business in America is not necessarily so for small business America. Most small businesses advertising in America follow the lead of Nike, Coca-Cola and the biggest furniture store in their hometown. They set aside some advertising money and then they divide it up between yellow pages, a website, the local newspaper, some seasonal radio ads and a three week TV campaign right before Christmas, not to mention the big sign at the right field fence at the high school baseball field.You can't beat Goliath using his weapons. Little David went to the brook and picked up five stones. He focused all of his energy and resources in one direction with one stone. David didn't get a bag of rocks and throw them in all directions hoping one would land in the right place. He had a specific message aimed at a specific target. I believe David would have directed the next four stones at the exact same spot on the giants forehead.
The weapon of big business is a huge advertising budget. They can afford to dominate every media outlet in your city. They don't have to have a strategy or compelling ads. The only thing they need for "gray-matter-real-estate" in the head over every person is a bunch of money. When you don't have a lot of money, you must have a better message and arrow shaped strategy.
Put all of your eggs in the SAME basket! Do not diversify your ad budget. Find an audience you can afford to reach every week, 52 weeks a year. Build a relationship with the people of this audience. Allow them to get to know you and get to like you. (People do business with people they like.) Allow them to learn your story, your strengths, your weaknesses and your business or practice. If your are a dentist, you can't predict when they will have a tooth ache, but you can be the one they think of first and feel best about, when they have one.
"Methods are many. Principles are few. Methods always change. Principles never do." Right next to the standard method of advertising are what you might think are brand new ones. FaceBook, Twitter, E-mail marketing... Yes, it is a new method. The good news is that people and principles don't change. We still want to do business with people we like, we still hate unsolicited sales call and we hate junk male. (Unless we are in the market actively looking, that very second for whatever is being pitched our direction.) The best thing to do with internet tools is to develop a tribe of people who would like to follow you by consistently giving them what they are looking for and giving them a community to belong to. IS THAT A NEW METHOD? No, we used to do it "in person" with real people in a real community. The solution is to apply principles that work in real life to cyber-life. Are you ready for the principle? "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!" Be full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, fairness, gentleness, openness and be understanding. Do you like it when people contact you through FaceBook about something they are selling or a new "business opportunity"?
Just a thought...
