I’ve had several conversations lately with prospective customers who have experimented with social media marketing but have not yet seen results. Almost all of them have set up a Facebook account or Twitter handle, seeing it as a necessity as they watch audience numbers balloon and observe competitors getting involved in social media. But these small business owners also haven’t developed a coherent strategy across the different media they are using, and have struggled as a result.
When a small business owner doesn’t have enough time or expertise to develop consistent messaging across multiple social media platforms, often their efforts are haphazard and result in different messages in different places, which doesn’t instill trust in potential customers.
I would advise owners to think about the one clear message they want to send across both offline and online media as they draft their small business marketing plans. Make sure your value proposition is getting through to your customers wherever they are interacting with your company and your brand.
Small business marketing is often one of the most overlooked and under-researched elements of small business planning, and the effect on the business’ bottom line are often substantial. Even if a small business owner has determined the right product to fulfill the right customer need, if the target customers can’t easily find out about the offering, the business is likely dead in the water.
The emergence of social media and blogging platforms has presented an excellent small business marketing solution, because customers are having conversations and doing research online, where small businesses can interact directly with them. But if the small business marketing is inconsistent across the platforms the business is using, the effort to attract and engage customers is likely to be wasted.
Before you engage on social networks, outline what your most compelling value is to a customer, then refine the offering into a one to two sentence statement of benefit. Make that the cornerstone of your social media outreach, and you’re much more likely to have success winning customers online.
