Which Works For Your Small Business – Bullets or Buckshot?

My grandfather used to say “I'll take buckshot over a bullet in my butt anytime.” (My grandfather was a working carnie, and had a mouthful of colorful language.) Why did Granddad prefer buckshot? Because buckshot is scattered, not targeted. And it doesn't go as deep when it hits.

I see small biz owners who don't have much background in marketing take the buckshot approach all the time. Someone has told them they should “try everything” and by spreading themselves so thin they get not much in return. You can't market effectively using a buckshot approach – you may hit a few targets but not precisely and not very deep.

A marketing campaign is a series of activities that help promote one of your products or services. An effective campaign has three components:

1. You know what you want to accomplish (set a specific objective)
2. You select ways to market (marketing channels) that make sense for you
3. You set up measures of success for the campaign.

Notice #2. Not all ways to market will make sense for your business – and this is what I often see go wrong. Biz owners pick the wrong way to market, or use too many ways to market, and get a bad result.

Here are some campaign types that might work for you (depending on your situation):

• Welcoming new customers, clients, or members with additional information and a special offer
• Creating opportunities to educate prospects about what you offer
• Special offers and promotions based on the calendar or a special event
• Membership drives
• A special event for prospects or for existing customers
• Information sharing through social media
• Announcements of new products or services
• Goodwill campaigns (holiday cards, birthday cards)

This isn't a comprehensive list of every campaign type there is, but it's a good start. Think about what type of campaign makes good sense for you. Put specific, measurable goals to it. Maybe you want to increase your list of prospects by 25%. Write out a plan and implement it, sticking to it all the way to the end, then measure your success. Don't jump ship in the middle of a campaign and go off to try something else. Bright shiny object syndrome will ruin your marketing efforts!

Just remember that you want to be opposite from my grandfather. He preferred buckshot to bullets, but you want a bullet that hits your target and goes deep. My grandfather would be shaking his head.

Do you need help sorting out the best marketing for your business? I'm hosting a free, open access Q&A call on Tuesday, May 7th, you can call in and ask me any question. No pitches, just questions and answers. You can register for the call at this link: https://confidentmarketer.com/may7opencall/. Hope to see you there!