Small Businesses: Time to reassess your marketing strategy. 'Cause um...the world has changed.

Let me say this right off the bat. There is no sales and marketing spell that you can say over your business to bring clients in the door. ESPECIALLY, not now in the middle of all of the uncertainty in the business world.

Instead, I contend that there are numerous little things that are tried, tested, and edited over time. Most often, various tactics are implemented and functioning all at the same time. It sounds complex but it isn’t. It's a recipe. You just gotta know what to put in the pot to get the results you are looking for.

As you know, marketing is simply the process of successfully connecting your business’ value to the correct client market. Which one marketing strategy will work for you? All of them or none of them.

What I mean is, every marketing strategy invented could be a catalyst to improving your exposure and moving the needle on your sales goals this year (which I hope you have adjusted by the way). But, it could be none of them. Meaning, none of those old ideas in and of themselves may be the ticket anymore. Or, it may also be the time to double back and revisit some tried and true methods to re-establish your reach. You may need to combine several strategies. You may need to start with one tactic then move into another over time. You may need to create something altogether unique to your business. Everyone’s path is different.

However, some dynamics to marketing remain the same. There are things that EVERY business from Apple and Walmart to Mom & Pop’s corner store must know to market effectively. It is time to reassess these data points given the paradigm shift in the employment rate, in company structure, what vendors are still accessible, and how have budgets shifted as well. Revaluate things such as:

• What demographics make up your ideal target market?
• Do you have an additional scope that could meet unique needs now?
• If it is B2B, are your potential clients in a rebuild phase now? How will that effect their engagement with you?
• Where do your potential customers live and work? Are they virtual now? Are they working?
• How do they normally get to the internet? i.e. laptop, phone, desktop, When do they get online and when they do what are they doing, searching for or engaging with?
• If they were looking for your widget or service, where would they look?
• Who has influence over their decision making?
• On average, how much disposable income or budget do they have?

Knowing the answers to these questions can still help you determine which sales and marketing strategy makes sense for your business and which ones would frustrate you right now and waste your time. A BIG marketing strategy for me is launch events. I had a major course that I planned to launch in April around my birthday. It was going to be a happy hour, swanky networking thingy. In my head, it was FABULOUS. Then Covid19 happened and immediately it became the party that never was. So, knowing my target and understanding how they have adapted to this virtual world, postponing and making the launch event virtual was a marketing shift that I didn't see coming.

Remember there is no supernatural magic pill in marketing that will jumpstart your business. To say I have the answer for YOU, would be disingenuous. I don’t know your business. I don’t know your customers. But fortunately, you DO know your business! You DO understand your target client! Just make sure you have reassessed them, given how much has changed in such a short time.

So how do you figure out what works?

Although I can’t know which strategy is best for you, I can tell you what I use and why. Sharing my thought process can also help you determine how to make the best decision for your business. Clarity on your business scope is one of the first steps. (If you have more than one business, a marketing strategy has to be designed specifically for each one.) 

CDJ & Associates (CDJA) is my boutique business management consulting firm that specializes in content/communications, event management and business building strategic plans. Our target client is small to mid-size businesses & entrepreneurs including political candidates and public figures. Our moniker is “Navigating your vision into reality with excellence.”

• CDJA Strategy: 1. Reengage with former clients (via email, texts, calls and postcards) first for a wellness check and to offer strategic re-engagement planning services. 2. Broaden the scope and offering to our newest industry client, churches and non-profits. (share portfolio and offer graphics to support their new online presence)

The Camille Company (TCC) is my lifestyle brand. It is the medium that I share my life balance how-to’s by offering a behind the scenes life of a CEO and Mogul in the making. Using online programming (Camille TV), mastermind groups, products and teaching, TCC gives leaders the inside scoop on innovative, creative ways to do life & business better. Our tagline is “Let’s do life together.”

• TCC Strategy: Tape Mogul Moments show Season 3, via FB live and then edit and post on YouTube to draw potential tribe members to the I.C.E Society and to market the launch and push the new product.

Both companies need distinct strategies based on their distinctiveness based on answers to the questions we noted earlier. For example, CDJA is a more nuts and bolts company. The target audience would not necessarily go to Instagram or TikTok to look for a business consultant. However, they would search for one on google, ask for referrals and check out websites and maybe a Facebook page. Additionally, people searching for a lifestyle guru would not necessarily search on google but would be drawn in by content on a blog, a tweet, a post on snapchat or a video on You Tube.

Understanding who you are trying to reach, where they are and the best way to “talk” to them is what will make up the foundation of your marketing strategy.

Digital versus Traditional

Two of the biggest struggles I see in business marketing is that they mimic strategies that don’t fit their business or even worse they ditch everything that has worked and instead will change to do what’s new and popular. Let me be among the first to tell you that old doesn’t mean obsolete and new doesn’t guarantee a marketing windfall. A healthy marriage between a world of blogging and a world that still values a handshake is possible. Let’s break out some elementary components of each school of thought.

A funnel system would not work well with CDJA’s target audience. Corporations and small-mid size businesses are not looking to buy a product from me and then scale engagement with me via “you do this and then I do that” emails. They are looking for a service within a project scope, by a certain date with a pre-determined budget. Yet, blogging about my industry could work. It would frame us as subject matter experts, raising our exposure and SEO. On the traditional side, we get most of our business from word of mouth or referrals. One of my clients who was running for a political office, was referred to me. I did a keynote speech for a colleague’s wife’s event (waiving my normal fee) and a year later she remembered that I did branding, marketing and PR for political candidates. She was also in PR but had her hands full on a project and referred the client to me. I didn’t market for him. I didn’t create an ad or email a promo. I simply did a good job for someone when they needed a speaker, and they remembered. You can’t buy that kind of “funnel”. You have to earn it. That one client alone, has gotten me 5 additional clients.

Now for TCC, I rely more on social media and digital marketing via videos, email and online promos. But even though it's a more modern company in its approach, I still stand behind some traditional avenues, but in a fresh way. Radio is a major system for reaching audiences, but a fresher spin would be to create podcasts or my online TV show #MogulMoments instead. Print ads, i.e magazines and newspapers are not as popular but taking out an ad on someone’s else website, YouTube channel or in their event materials can carry the same punch contingent upon the anticipated audience.

In your quest to discover what works for you, don’t rush to do what’s new and contemporary for the sake of being “current”. On the flip side, be careful not to be so stymied in tradition that you don’t look at new ways to accomplish the same goal.  

Regardless of your sales/marketing strategy, there are some things that all business can do that are no cost. Making sure your business is represented appropriately on Google My Business (www.google.com/business) is at the top of that list. It's a bit of a process. You do have to go through a verification process to confirm your business, the location, the email etc. After that, you then control how your business shows up on Google. When you “google” a business you can see pictures of the business, posts from that organization and the reviews. Those aren’t by happenstance, you can edit and manage the pictures and content. It’s prime real estate that cannot be ignored! You can never alter reviews but everything else is open for you to put your best foot forward. Google will also send monthly analytics to let you know how much traffic you are getting. So, if you do nothing else in marketing this week, do THIS.

For a low fee (depending on your parameters), you can get comprehensive mailing list data of your target audience. This is especially good if you had a solid, robust email list but you need to segment it so you can send pertinent information to the right people, instead of emailing your whole list for every promo. Companies like Towerdata.com can do the data mining for you. You can ask for demographics like age, zip code, household income, children, net worth, occupation, and hobbies. You can also request purchase data like high-end buyers, luxury jewelry, travel, pets, technology. The more you request, the more expensive this can become. Be mindful of your marketing budget and know in advance what you plan on doing with the information prior to making the investment.

But, as a business owner, understanding sales and marketing may be way outside of your expertise. Hiring a Marketing director or a consultant [shameless plug] could be one of the best investment you could make. If a part-time director or independent contractor costs you, let’s say between 30-40k a year for a small-mid-size business BUT their expertise brings in 400k in business over two years, you have still realized a ROI in over 300k in the space of 24 months. Plus the residual income you can earn from referrals from that work makes the value add even greater. However, make sure you set clear parameters that mirror the values of your company. Keep your hand on the pulse of their technique and stay in the loop of how they do what they do. 

Word of advice: No business owner should ever have the sales and marketing flow of their organization depend solely on one person, including themselves.

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Camille D. Jamerson is a global speaker, author & entrepreneur. She is the senior consultant and CEO of CDJ & Associates, a boutique management consulting firm and The Camille Company (a lifestyle brand for moguls and HNW entrepreneurs). Known as the Olivia Pope of the Midwest, Camille’s strengths include managing and diminishing chaos, powerful brand storytelling, and change and crisis management. Learn more at www.cdjandassociates.com