If you’re a small business owner, here are four tips that will help you secure a great place in the jigsaw puzzle of businesses that will survive and thrive in the future.
- Specialization: Organizations built around a team of experts working towards a common goal will have a greater impact than generalists. This means that small business owners will have to define their core strength very clearly and excel in this. The trap of trying to do everything for everyone is to be avoided and business owners will have to focus on perfecting their core strength. Example: As a call tracking company, AvidTrak focuses on providing call tracking data acquisition tools that help our clientele engaged in Paid Search marketing and Internet Advertising improve their ROI on marketing and advertising spend. We specialize in developing solutions based on specific and sometimes proprietary specifications that our clients develop for data and data reports thereof.
- Understand your customer: If I search for coffee shops on Google and I get a list of shops close to my home, I like it. However, if I get the name of a coffee shop that is close to my home and also sells caffeine free coffee, then I will love it. The reason is that Google has used my previous search history to understand that I am on a low caffeine intake diet and has used this information to return a very relevant result. What is true of Google is even of a small business. If you are able to understand exactly what your prospective buyer is looking for, you’re all the more likely to be ahead of your competitor. So how do you go about understanding your target audience? One very good way would be by listening to her call recordings. Playing back and analyzing recorded conversations can give you a very good insight on the motivations and aspirations of your buyer. Call transcriptions can be used to further understand the keywords that drive your buyer. As a result you get a sneak peek into your consumer’s heart and can tailor make your product offering and marketing pitch.
- Help your buyer: If the intention behind your actions is to genuinely help your buyer, then all you need to do is to listen attentively and intervene appropriately. Social media offers invaluable opportunities for this sort of consumer centered marketing. When you join in a conversation on social media be sure to highlight the differentiating features of your product and explain how these can help.
- Long-term thinking: As a business owner your goal needs to be set over the long-term. Short term goals such as immediate sales maximization will not likely help you gain long term market share. However, if you have your eyes on long-term goals such as brand building and customer loyalty, then you’re right on target for building a successful organization of the future.
