Being a small business with limited resources is like fighting a war with low ammo, every shot counts. And no place is this more true then your marketing. You can let your marketing budget run away with you very easily and not have any money left. In my time, I have run a few businesses and thought I knew what I was talking about when it came to being in business, alas I learned the hard way that there is no better teacher then experience.

My List of marketing mistakes is numerous and mainly boils down to being sold to, rather then buying advertising or marketing. Advertising sales people will tell you what you want to hear. At the moment you are buying advertising or marketing services, what you want to hear is that this will make you a return of your investment many times over your initial investment. You end up getting caught up in there enthusiasm and buy the service and end up making the minimum return.

Back to my point about small business marketing and warfare, we can learn a lot from guerrilla groups like the Viet Cong there strength was knowing how to use what they had with a creative knowledge. This left a far superior force always on the back foot you need to transfer this kind of creative knowledge into your business.

Think outside the box

Thinking outside the box, how many times have your heard that phrase? If I had a penny for every time some marketing / business guru had said all you need for success is the ability to think out side the box, I would be a very wealthy man.

Its not a complicated as it sounds its simply thinking out a new strategy as an example a big business would send out mailings to thousands indiscriminately. A small business would not have the resources to spend that kind of money, if they did and it failed to produce the response required it could mean the end of the business. The small business needs to study demographics and target their adverting focusing on the tightest group that is more likely to buy the product or service.

Do not think cheap think cost effective

Many consumers will go for the cheapest option this is sometimes a big mistake. printing as an example, you may decide to print your marketing materials on a bog standard home printer because it costs you less , customers will feel like you are as cheap (not in a good way) as your adverting. Paying a (little) bit more can be a real payoff in the future. My take on anything (now!) is to classify everything into two groups’ assets and liabilities. Assets make a return on investment, liabilities just cost money. Some liabilities just cannot be avoided like fuel, cars consumables but some can. I now think before I spend and so should you.

Word of mouth marketing

This is the one time giant slayer among business warfare and by far the best cost effective advertising there is, but how do you get it? The answer to this question is simple by giving great service. I for example will try my best to help a client out I have one client that has had some financial difficulty and has to start the business from scratch again. On this occasion, I am providing my services at a reduced rate to help them get back on there feet, in turn this customer will recommend my service in the future.