Small Business Building the Better Marketing Mousetrap

So… you built a better mousetrap? Key marketing touch points.

  Owners of small and medium-sized businesses often feel either inadequate (“I don’t have the same marketing resources I had when I worked at corporate…”) or overwhelmed (“how can I even begin to compete against X, Y or Z which are way larger?”) Yet, there are many tools that can help these businessmen grow their businesses in an effective and  cost-efficient way. With this initial post, we begin a series that will examine these tools in detail and give you real-world advice on how to use it. Now is the time to ask yourself the two most important questions in marketing: So what? Who cares? The answer to both will give you your entire marketing plan. Owners of small and medium-sized businesses often feel either inadequate (“I don’t have the resources I used to have when I worked at corporate) or overpowered (“how do I even begin to compete with larger competitors?”). Yet, there are many tactics and tools which allow a small or medium-sized business to grow. Over the next few articles we’ll go over all the different tactics and tools you have to make your business successful, but, first, let’s take a look at my two favorite questions:  So what? Who cares? So what? Answer this and you have your entire messaging strategy.

• What problem does it solve?
• What makes it better than other similar or competing products?
• Why would anyone buy it?
• What is the value proposition?

There are many ways to understand the “so what” of your product. Possibly the simplest, clearest one was the “Blueprint for Action” published in “The Marketing Revolution”, a groundbreaking book by Kevin J. Clancy and Robert S. Shulman  nad chart below (P. 115). The basic grid is this one: The grid divides all your product features into two categories: those that are important to your clients and those that are not. Then it divides those features into those in which your product is superior, two in which neither your product and your competitors are at parity and a final one in which your product is inferior to the competition’s. In the next article we’ll see what to do in each case. Who cares? Answer this and you have your entire segmentation strategy.

• Who will be the early adopters?
• Who will be the fans? The evangelists that will create the word of mouth you’ll need to grow initially.
• Who will be your loyal buyers? Those 20% – 25% of buyers who will represent 70% or 80% of your sales?

Next- A simplistic look and follow-on chart