What if you’ve identified your strength in a service already dominated by a big player? Is there a chance for your small business to hope for any kind of success? Your instincts might also trigger fright or flight. This article is prepared to make you scratch all that. And help you become a fighter (not in the literal sense though). Here I’ll explain to you how your small business can go against a larger competition in the market.
At first glance, it doesn’t look like a fair fight for your small business that is competing with a much larger company. Does it? The big corporations of this world seem to have endless resources for outdoing their smaller competitions—things like having full-fledged in-house marketing team.
Also hiring advertising agencies to create marketing collaterals, websites messaging, advertising, direct mail and email campaigns. They test and retest, conduct quantitative analysis to measure market share, develop new creative messaging focused on brand development. They hire the best and brightest out of business school, and they pay them hefty salaries. Marketing budgets are often in the millions.
Small businesses like yours, for the most part, have few to none of these things. So how can your small business possibly compete and more importantly survive? Or successfully get its message out? Is it a lost battle from the beginning? The answer is a lot more positive than you would imagine, especially in 2021.
Of course, small businesses can and do get the word out about their products and services, but not nearly the same way that big businesses do. And this is a good thing. In recent times, most big businesses are taking a page out of the small businesses’ approach to ‘grassroots marketing’. These days, they’re looking to reach their prospective buyers more directly, which is already a strong point for smaller businesses. SMEs are bereft of internal bureaucracies that slow down decision-making. This often results in a more personalised approach to the market.
So without the resources of “Goliath”. We have listed below how your small business can go against larger competitions.
(1) Focus on one or two target (niche) markets.
You don’t need to reach Millions. You need to reach buyers most likely to buy. To achieve this, you need to first answer the question “Who are your most probable targets?” or what they call your “ideal customers” in marketing. These are the people more inclined to patronise your business with the least resistance to your marketing efforts. Once you have identified these ones, the bulk of your marketing communications, products delivery, and after-service efforts should be directed towards satisfying them. Because your products align with their needs, they are easy to please.
If this is done properly, they become brand ambassadors and drive referral traffic to your business at no cost. According to Nielsen, 92% of respondents trust referrals from people they know.
(2) Concentrate on Common Sense marketing
Common sense marketing in this context refers to a more organic marketing approach that doesn’t cost millions. Things like referrals, your web presence, social media, and public relations. In 2021 we’ve learnt that the best marketing can be nearly free. Some stats that support this claim from Forbes includes;
● 78% of B2B marketers say that referral programs generate good or excellent leads. ● 60% of marketers say that referral programs generate a high volume of leads. ● 54% say that referral programs have a lower cost-per-lead than other channels. ● Marketers rate referrals as the 2nd-highest source of quality leads.
What affordable marketing options are you using?
(3) Unlock the power of your employees
Marketing is an everyday affair for small businesses. Everyone in your team needs to be involved in marketing the business because they are the business. It is easy for your prospects to connect with a business that they know. And a small business like yours is easier to get to know.
One question that should be paramount in your marketing strategy should be this; “Does your staff represent your company well?” Their out-look, etiquette, manners, empathy, knowledge of the products, and willingness to support the custom does the most in winning the heart of both prospective and existing customers alike.
Marketing is the effort of getting people to buy. For your small business, keeping a tight focus on what really matters helps you sustain your business in the face of fierce competitions while eliminating the need to have millions of resources.