3 Things Small Business Marketers Can Learn From Michael Jackson
One of the biggest challenges small businesses face is financial constraints on their marketing budget. You should be allotting a certain percentage of your small business’s profits for a marketing budget. Unfortunately, many small businesses have little to no idea that they’re pulling the wool over their own eyes. Forgoing marketing is a very *bad* thing, it’s *human nature* to want to save money when you’re *working day and night*, but you’ll never make out like a *smooth criminal* and steal your small business some market share if you’re marketing budget is *off the wall* or nonexistent. You definitely *wanna be startin’ somethin’ *in that regards. Don’t stop till you get enough. Ok, you probably get the picture. If your marketing budget is less than a thriller, that’s okay, you just have to play it smart.
Why all the Michael Jackson references? Because he performed a legendary dance move called the moonwalk, in which he moved backwards while appearing to move forward. Small businesses everywhere can take this as a blueprint of how NOT to run a marketing campaign. Many businesses simply throw money into fliers, online advertising, SEO, television advertising, radio advertising, or any number of marketing endeavors and think that everything will magically be alright. They think they are moving forward, when in reality they are setting their businesses back. The key is to keep records of everything you do. Ask your customers how they found out about you. Did they hear your radio advertisement, see your television ad, or find your business’s website? Customer Relationship Management is a huge part of a successful marketing campaign. If you keep track of which marketing endeavors are successful for your small business, you will know which ones to continue, and which ones to discontinue. Once you’ve figured out what works for your business, you can then calculate how much each of your customers costs to obtain, and with some smart Customer Relationship Managament techniques, you can figure out whether it’s smarter to focus your marketing funds on SEO and television ads to acquire new customers, or maybe a newsletter to your current customers. Maybe a mix of both. The point is that you will know precisely how to spend your marketing dollars to effectively grow your business.
Is your business moonwalking? Does it appear to be moving forward when it’s really taking big steps backward? If you’re blindly spending money on uninformed and untracked marketing endeavors for your small business, then yes, it is. The difference is when Michael Jackson puts on an illusion it is a cool thing. When your business does the moonwalk, not so much. Do the right thing, practice smart marketing to effectively grow your small business.