As the year draws to a close, it is time again for annual seasonal reflections to dominate the agenda.
For this year’s retroactivities, I thought it might be worth sharing some thoughts and findings following a year-long survey/experiment on how businesses market themselves.
There is nothing overly scientific about this project, more of a light-hearted view of how marketing is portrayed in the small business world especially the accompanying perceptions.
This work identifies 5 different characteristics businesses exhibit when interacting with marketing ideas, philosophies, and beliefs. At the end of this article, you will be invited to take a short test and establish your “marketing type.”
- Starters – new venture marketers
- Start-up businesses have a high level of enthusiasm for marketing, but often, their budgets are restrictive.
- The mentality is very much “How much money is too much money to launch my brand!”
- The challenge is prioritising which activities to do first, specifically what is a good springboard to a realistic ROI
- Starters are either in the “Website Under Construction” phase or have, as a minimum, created a landing page or platform to create an online presence.
- They span a large spectrum of Professional Service Industries or businesses who have followed their dream and created a new product and are keen to see their “baby” grow and develop.
- As they are the new kids on the block, their content will be fresh and usually well-intended, often involving a high degree of social media, as it is often inexpensive and can be managed in-house.
- Marketing opportunities – developing a marketing strategy is crucial to ensure money is spent wisely. A well-signposted road map is usually what is required, which should be reviewed frequently and changed depending on the outcomes of the initial activities.
2. Glisteners – marketers that latch onto the latest Shiny Thing
- Businesses’ who feel that thought leadership is what they recently saw on “The One Show!”
- The mentality is very much “let’s go with the latest trend rather than have a strategy.”
- This approach creates the illusion of an opinion leader but can easily be misconstrued as a bandwagon jumper.
- Glisteners will have a “perfectly fit for purpose” website, which may get a serious and sudden makeover depending on how bright the spotlight needs to be to highlight a shiny aspect of their marketing.
- This is usually the domain of established companies from all industry sectors who have tried numerous marketing campaigns but often in a reactive rather than proactive manner.
- Their strategy accommodates the latest marketing trend rather than whether it is right for the business or sector.
- Social media marketing will always be seen as the doyen of the glistening classes!
3. Reactors – marketers that react to what their competitors are doing
- More of the knee jerk variety than the nuclear.
- The mentality is “if it works for them, it will work for us.”
- There are cross overs and parallels with Glisteners, especially if competitors use new marketing activities.
- Reactors once again have excellent websites and are invested in the concept of digital marketing but usually on a superficial level. They don’t seem to subscribe to the notion of playing the long game and are looking for instant results and immediate ROI, which often nullifies the need to conduct serious proactive marketing.
- Owner branded companies and medical professionals are great exponents of this form of marketing, often not displaying patience to see whether tangible results are deliverable.
- Marketing opportunities – proaction rather than reaction and implementation needs to be considered as part of future plans.
4. Chatters – word of mouth marketers
- These businesses usually do little or no marketing.
- The mentality is very much “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
- There is a strong reliance on existing clients making recommendations regarding the quality of their service and growing their business without allocating any budget to marketing.
- Chatters will usually have a magnetised portal website to attract new clients, once existing clients have passed on the word.
- Many established Professional Service Industries adopt this marketing stance, e.g. accountants, lawyers, and medical practitioners. The keyword is established, and it’s a great position to be in once you have built and consolidated your brand.
- Often a previous investment in digital marketing is part of the previous marketing mix.
- Marketing opportunities – ensure that positive experience testimonials are regularly received and uploaded onto social media and Google My Business.
- A reappraisal of digital marketing activities would cement their positioning on search engines.
5. Courters – marketers who work through a collaborative team
- These businesses use marketing as a pivot to drive their business forward.
- The mentality is very much “plan, build relations, execute, collaborate and grow.”
- They look at marketing through a 6–12-month budget, creating timelines, constantly reviewing what has worked and what hasn’t and changing direction where appropriate.
- Courters will be updating their website with content regularly, embracing many different media. Blogs, Vlogs, videos and newsletters.
- Professional Service companies of SME size usually have one person from the team allocated to conducting marketing, who interacts with an outsourced marketing specialist. This person usually project manages the delivery of the marketing strategy and plan. It is recommended that medical practitioners also apply a similar doctrine so marketing is conducted consistently and seamlessly.
- Marketing opportunities – ensure that a new strategy is in place every 6-12 months to avoid stagnation.
- Constant networking is recommended to ensure that service providers quality is sustained to a high level of delivery.
Take the Quiz
Hopefully, you will see some similarities with these marketing characteristics, but why not confirm your suspicions by taking this test!
1. Do you have a marketing budget?
a. Yes, reviewed at least twice a year
b. Yes, reviewed annually
c. We allocate money as we need it
d. No
2. When did you last review your marketing strategy?
a. 6 months ago
b. Last year
c. Whenever we need to start a new campaign
d. Never had one
3. Do you have someone allocated to providing marketing for your business?
a. Yes, we have a dedicated marketing professional
b. No, currently looking at outsourcing
c. Yes, our reception staff manages our database
d. No
4. How do you communicate with your clients and customers?
a. Through multi-media channels: blogs, newsletters, video, podcast, website, social media
b. Through our website looking at developing social media and other touches
c. We occasional upload content onto our website and social media
d. Our website is there for any new clients to see us, and we have a LinkedIn business page
5. How frequently do you visit online or face-to-face networking events?
a. At least twice a month
b. Exploring options as to which ones would provide the best ROI
c. We have been part of a network for many years and regularly visit meetings to stay in touch with business trends
d. We have dabbled with marketing in the past and have no need for it now
e. Our website is there for any new clients to see us, and we have a LinkedIn business page
6. How regularly do you benchmark yourselves against your competitors?
a. We are conscious of what they do but don’t get too worried about their activities, we like to stick to our plan
b. We review competitors but feel we have an edge on their service/product offering as we are new to the market
c. We regularly review what the competitors are doing and usually respond quickly if we find they are conducting marketing activities that we can readily replicate
d. We rarely worry about competition
7. How well maintained is your database?
a. Updated weekly, compliant with GDPR regulations and used for all types of marketing activities
b. We are developing a database and are aware of the associated legalities
c. We have a member of staff who cleans and corrects the database whenever we launch a new campaign
d. We have a good robust database of existing clients to whom we send a Xmas card every year!
Answers
If you answered mostly
a) You are a COURTER – someone who is already doing planned, structured and collaborative marketing
b) You are likely to be a STARTER – appreciate the nuances of how marketing can kick start your business and make good plans to utilise the resources available through your network
c) You are either a REACTOR or a GLISTENER – you respond to competitor activity and wait for your business path to be lit from whichever corner of the Internet shines the brightest!
d) You are a CHATTER – carry on getting business through word of mouth; structured marketing should be considered in the short to medium term to enhance your business offering.
