Download Be Careful What You Ask For! Business Sense

Be Careful What You Ask For!
By Heather Woods
Many small business owners are
so busy running the day-to-day
operations of the company that they
have little time to devote to planning
for business growth. Owners know
that they want sales and profits to
increase, but they don’t have a clear
plan to achieve those goals. Usually,
throwing some money into marketing
is the first step they take.
Often, small business marketing
efforts are guided by outsiders who
have a commissioned interest in
advertisements – the media sales
representatives. Business owners
place ads in publications because their
reps offer them a spot in a special
section or sign up to participate in
coupon mailers because the sales rep
is either likeable or aggressive. These
types of decisions, made on the fly,
usually result in advertisements that
are directed to the wrong target
market or present mixed messages
regarding your business. Sure, your
business may get exposure, but are you
reaching your potential customers?
Some business owners decide to
try a new marketing angle without
thoroughly assessing the possible
consequences. Recently, a friend who
owns a retail business read in a trade
publication that e-mail marketing was
a cost-effective way of reaching the
market. He didn’t have e-mail
information for most of his existing
customers, so he decided to run an ad
in the local paper offering a $25 gift
certificate to everyone who sent him
an e-mail asking for his electronic
newsletter. The first day that the ad
ran, he received 590 e-mail responses,
and received over 1000 in the
following days. This marketing
campaign dramatically increased his email list, but it was also immensely
expensive. A large percentage of the
gift certificates were redeemed,
resulting in a huge direct cost.
However, many of those who
purchased with the gift certificate were
not his typical customers and had little
potential to be returning shoppers.
Additionally, the business owner didn’t
set up his e-mail account to
automatically respond to requests, so
it cost him employee time in
responding to over 1600 individual emails.
Business owners are often poorly
prepared to evaluate the actual costs
and benefits of any marketing efforts
that they implement. They send out
mailings — using outdated mailing lists
— that don’t ask for a response of
any kind; they don’t track sales
increases or decreases in relation to
advertisement placement; and they
gather information from customers that
they don’t use to generate additional
sales. Most frequently, small business
owners don’t really know where their
customers are coming from because
they don’t ask!
A marketing plan is a tool that can
help small business owners avoid
many of the mishaps that occur when
they use a “fly by the seat of your
pants” approach to marketing.
Marketing plans help business owners
establish goals and give a road map
for implementing and evaluating
marketing programs. All marketing
should create sales opportunities for
your business. Developing a plan
allows small business owners to define
who they are trying to reach, decide
on methods to communicate with that
market, map out a calendar to
schedule and coordinate marketing
pieces, and set up means to evaluate
the effectiveness of each marketing
piece.
The Georgia Small Business
Development Center Network can
help small business owners develop
marketing plans. Contact your local
SBDC center – a consultant is ready
to help!
Business Sense
Heather Woods is a business
consultant in the Augusta office of
the Georgia SBDC Network. To find
your local SBDC, call the state office
at 706-542-2762 or locate it on the
web at www.sbdc.uga.edu.