During Sept 2022, I had the opportunity to attend a series of networking events run by the ONLE network group. This followed the monthly release of a talk entitled “Marketing the Big Picture…put the Social Media Cookie Jar down!” where I was privileged to be interviewed by one of the network founders James West.
The objectives of this talk were to highlight different types of marketing activities which small businesses could use as differentiators and also to address the current perceived “Gold Rush” associated with social media marketing.
As part of this exercise, I was encouraged to attend as many networking sessions as possible during the month and succeeded in making it to around 8 ONLE meetings where fellow small business networkers participated.
It is fair to say, though, that “Social Media Marketing” is almost neck and neck with networking and represents the most popular form of marketing, as informed by nearly 60% of the 150 ONLE members surveyed.
The most commonly used social media platforms within this group are:
- 52% Linkedin
- 48% Facebook/ Instagram
<Apologies if these stats bring back dark memories of a certain referendum in 2016!?>
As you might expect, a great deal of “service” businesses preferred Linkedin, whilst “product-based businesses” had a leaning towards Facebook/Instagram, almost always mentioned in tandem hence their presentation as a collective. There was one mention of “Clubhouse” as well, which was sadly too small to trouble the stats.
The next most significant marketing success story was Testimonials / Referrals or Word of Mouth – almost the exclusive domain of professional service businesses such as Accountants, Lawyers, and Hypnotherapists which again may come as no surprise.
In a neighbourhood where clearly, there are few raised eyebrows, a great deal of IT companies stated their preferences for digital marketing, especially those involved in SEO or digital marketing (almost 90% of the combined results from websites and digital marketing came from IT companies).
I am now running out of ways of expressing “no surprises,” so I will suggest that you “might have guessed” that Video/YouTube is preferred largely by videographers, although this medium is burgeoning rapidly and is being embraced by numerous other business sectors….watch this space!!!
So, these aforementioned covers 96% of the marketing activities discussed during these meetings.
The aim of this article is to encourage business owners to think about alternatives. Here is a word cloud based on the most popular SME marketing in 2021, probably a bit out of date but offering some activities for thought.
It is great to see that already a handful of businesses are looking at alternatives, such as events, leaflet drops, press/ publications, lumpy marketing, and even direct sales.
I am not suggesting that any new activities replace either networking, social media, or digital marketing activities. What would be great, though, is for business owners to enhance their proposition by considering activities that will help them stand out from the crowd and offer differentiation which, after all… accelerates the beating heart of marketing in your business.
For a conversation on what new marketing strategies may work for your business, please contact me at 07904 185112 or drop an email to sas@businessmedics.co.uk or find me on LinkedIn.
