Marketing

We know you are open for business, but does the rest of the world? Figure out your go-to market strategy. You can define your customer by geography, demographics, psychographic, and even behavioral activities.  You may want to conduct surveys, reviews of similar businesses,  and ESRI can pull profiles with details about the community.  You need to find a way to tell people you are in business and find the right market to do so requires thought and dedication on your part as the business owner.

Times have changed and people are called influencers for a reason, they yield some power over the market. Your ability to believe in your ideas and unlock resources to make it happen needs a following of others as well. When you have access to many people willing to follow your lead, contagious innovation can inspire others to jump on board with your journey.  The most precious asset in the world is attention. Flex your muscle around building a narrative. Part of your business structure might include how to gain access to other people's community or sphere of influence. Media and commerce are blurring the lines and you need consider how build your culture, start doing the possible and eventually you will do the impossible. 

It is not a lack of marketing that causes businesses to fail, it is poor marketing.  Tell your story, share an insight, and create value in what you say and what you do.  Just make sure it fits what you've discovered about your customer.  Gather data, find out what you can, learn from it, and with continuous agile customer development, you can determine how best to reach your client with the right messaging.

Besides hearing from you, how else are you going to get the word out that you are in business? Make sure the content has some relationship to your product, and your unique take on things. Set up goals, drive interest that comes with a call to action.  

Social media offers opportunities to market your business and create a following.  What are you able to share about the work that you do? Do you have time to manage a content marketing calendar?  Are you able to create the content to engage with others?  Are you responsive to comments and have a plan to correct unfortunate situations.  Things go wrong and how you handle it will set you apart and establish a better relationship.

One thing that brings success for many businesses is being involved in the community. Find ways to be a good neighbor to your customer, the business community, and a good steward of your location.  Whether online or in person, having a connection in the community might be just what you need to stay mentally healthy.  Create your business ecosystem for advice and support.  Make sure you are working on the business more than you are working in the business.

The importance of making a profit will help to motivate you to market your business.   Be creative, learn from others, and remember why you went into business in the first place. There are many business just waiting to provide you the help you need to market your business.  The City of Fort Myers loves to see local businesses supporting other local business.  

Make sure your marketing clearly represents the business, speaks to the audience you want to reach, and ultimately drives business to you.  Keeping up with market transformations is part of your business strategy. Be engaged, be effective, and create a direction to balance quality and growth to stay top of mind for your customers.