It’s Time to Recognise the Importance of Small Businesses
Small businesses play a pivotal role in the economy as they provide jobs in every city, town, village and country area. But such employment is often overlooked because individually they employ relatively few, while collectively providing many jobs.
Finding customers
Small business owners use many tools to reach customers but it is often difficult to keep up with the latest technology. Finding the time to work out what’s best for the business is a daunting task and yet marketing for growth is an essential skill for any small business. Business owners try to increase sales but struggle to figure out how to attract customers in shrinking and competitive markets. Steadily building an awareness of the business is one way to increase sales, as marketing is no longer seen as a single event for the launch of a product or service. Marketing in today’s climate is captured in every email, webpage and relationship with every customer. Each action builds awareness and supports the digital marketing process, which becomes the culmination of countless communications over a period of time. Every contact with a customer communicates something good or bad about the company’s values, products and story.
Digital marketers use the most effective tools while also automating as many processes as possible to provide consistent messages while reducing costs. Given the availability of so many social media platforms, it is difficult to keep up to date with the speed of change. But any business can harness technology to work for it on a 24/7 basis, as part of an overall strategy. Learning which technologies and platforms work best and developing an understanding of their specific roles is vital for any growth strategy.
Sharing information
One old fashioned way for small businesses to grow is of course to share information with other owners at similar stages of development, as it helps cut through the noise of distraction to discover what works. Such interactions happen when businesses are part of a network where swapping what they know happens as a function of mixing with each other. To support such casual learning it is helpful to find a mentor to provide specific advice on how to target new customers and new markets to drive sales. Arranging one-to-one mentoring sessions is also useful to develop a long-term marketing plan focussed on growing the business. But, amid all the busyness, it is important to remember that some of the simplest methods work too, as email is still seen as an effective tool to communicate with new and current customers.
So, growing a small business in the digital age is as important as ever because the jobs they provide are crucial to so many people in so many places.
