6 Things a SME Needs to Understand about Marketing

For any business — big or small — an effective marketing strategy is the differentiating factor between success and failure.

Big businesses have a massive advantage over their small and medium sized counterparts due to resources they have at their disposal and the corporate connections that might have been developed throughout their period of operation.

For smaller organisations, the founder of the business is more likely to be the salesman and marketer as they seek out clients. Most small businesses are thrown into the deep end when it comes to generating sources of revenue. Most people like working with established organisations.

Digitization has made marketing for SMEs much easier due to its cost-effectiveness and reach. However, it’s important for small businesses to know how to navigate both new and traditional marketing platforms if they are to make a mark in their respective sectors.

Below are some tips that SMEs need to keep in mind when marketing their products:

1. Know your Target Market

It may be easy to create content and post it online and “hope for the best”. However, knowing and understanding your target audience is critical. If a businesses has an idea of who their target audience is and what they want, it’s still important to sustain your research in order to keep up with trends. The more you know about your customer, the better you are at coming up with a message. Research involves securing data on your customer. This can be done through interviews, digital analytics, surveys and user testing.

2. Map Out your Channels

You can reach a large number of customers through various channels. This include blogging, search engine optimization (SEO), branding, social media and referrals. If you are a B2B provider, content marketing is the best way to get your word out there.

3. Measure. Measure. Measure. Then Measure Again.

It is true that the easiest way to measure business results is by sales. But it goes deeper than that. You want to know exactly what marketing efforts are triggering revenue. Mapping out marketing KPIs is key in enabling long-term growth and brand affinity. Once you have a marketing strategy aligned with your buyer's journey, you will need to measure outcomes some of which are:

a. Website traffic using a tool like google analytics

b. Website traffic by source using google analytics

c. Bounce rate - the percentage of people who leave (bounce away) from your website

after viewing only one page

d. Conversion rate - how many people take an action on the website (download, buy,

subscribe etc)

e. Cost per conversion

f. Impressions - on socila media, how many people saw your content

g. Enagement - how many people engaged (liked, cpmmented, shared etc) your

content

h. ROI - money in divided by money spent to get your buyer via marjeting efforts

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the best ways to convert leads into revenue. The content in the email should be geared towards engaging and growing your business. Other benefits include easy segmentation, easy to manage, global reach, low cost and immense ROI.

5. Webinars

Webinars are discussions that happen online. Depending on the topic being discussed, it can help net new clients and also build credibility amongst your existing audience base. They can also be recorded and used as marketing or training content.

6. Partnering with other Businesses

Combining resources with other businesses can help you scale up your operations and accomplish things you never could when you were a single entity. The easiest way to about this is to work out a complimentary agreement that is of mutual benefit to both businesses.

As you grow your SME, we sincerely hope you are successful and prosperous. Keep in mind that marketing is the proverbial icing on the cake. The basics still remain which is having a flawless and easy-to-navigate website coupled with impeccable customer service. Indeed the customer journey starts with marketing — but it ends with the product.