Small Business Marketing – How to Make Your Message Unique

As a small business owner or independent professional, you perform a vital function in the economy. Small business is a significant contributor to the economy and a potentially vibrant source of ideas and employment. But how do you get your marketing message to stand out?

Small businesses can be divided into (admittedly arbitrary) categories:

Familiar business category/significant competition – these are the businesses that are commonly found at chamber of commerce meetings and heavily represented in referral groups. Examples include: Insurance agencies, financial planners, Health and Wellness, Lawn care companies.
Unfamiliar businesses/limited competition – less familiar businesses you may not understand when presented with a label. This lack of awareness may be due to unfamiliarity and/or the complex nature of the business. For example: Life coach, mergers and acquisitions specialist, HR specialist, Social Media guru

The challenges of getting your message out exists in both cases.

The cause of confusion may be different, but the means of addressing that confusion is essentially similar. It is worth considering the challenges of each type of business before considering the solution.

Familiar Businesses

The advantages of running such a company is the terms you use are well understood. This is a two edged sword however. When you label yourself your audience will recognize the words and ASSUME they know what you do. This opinion may or may not be accurate. For example banking. Most prospects will have a bank and their reaction to you will depend on their experiences, history, opinions of bankers and so on.

When people understand what you do they may well stop listening, ESPECIALLY if they think they are already covered in that area or have a provider of that service already.

The other problem with being in a familiar business is that there are many people saying essentially the same thing as you. That is not a good thing because, despite the understanding that may exist, there is little to differentiate you from your competition.

Unfamiliar Business

The challenge here lies in getting your message over quickly, and in a way that is immediately understandable. Labels don’t typically work since they create confusion. If the words are unfamiliar there is a good chance the message will be dismissed. The advantage is that these businesses tend to be less common and therefore less competition exists which can be advantageous in it’s own right.

Tips to putting together an appropriate message

Despite the different challenges, the aim for both businesses is similar – find a message that is immediately understandable, stands out from the crowd and, most importantly, resonates with the intended receiver. The following points apply to both situations:

Define and understand your ideal client/prospect – these people are the intended audience for your message, be it verbal or in print. You need to understand who you ideally want to work with and critically, their challenges and issues
Identify how you help them – not in detail, but one specific improvement they will get. Simply listing your services is what most people do. It relies on your audience to figure out how it applies to them AND it doesn’t make you stand out.
Have your message address these concerns – avoid labels and tell people who you work with, what you help them with (their struggles) and what they get from working with you

In this way you cover the bases regardless of which category of business you run. If you are in competition, you will sound different and relevant over your competition, who will all sound the same. If you are a unique business, people will understand a) what you do and b) how it applies to them or people they know.

In both cases you will stand out quickly and effectively.

The dynamics of business always put in front of new entrepreneurs a series of obstacles – or challenges if you will – that are not always easy to overcome. One of those obvious obstacles is usually the money to start.

Yes, starting a business often demands a lot of startup capital and let us face it, not everyone can afford to risk their life savings on a business venture that, as such, is never free of risks and success is nothing but certain.

Therefore, the best way to do business if you are not rich and have little or no money to spare, is to seek for ways to start small, and from there build up your financial freedom.

Now, how can you start a small business that will enable you to have a steady income from which you can make a living fast?

Well, for starters, you must change the way you envision a business. Forget about locations, employees and complicated operations, and start thinking about simplicity, flexibility and profitability.

It sounds good, and it does for one reason: it is good. Approaching the idea of a business differently, through a non-traditional business model, can mean the difference between wasting a lot of time -and money- and doing a lot with very little, but most importantly, doing a lot without risking a lot.

What business models can you approach that will not entangle you in the usual web of problems the usual business model will?

There are many, but in my top 3 list you will find internet or affiliate marketing, online trading, and e-commerce. All of these businesses have one thing in common: they have unlimited profit potential, they can be up and running in record time and they demand little to no money to kick start them.

These are business models that will enable you to start really small (microscopic small) but profit big, and one of the reasons for it is that you will hardly incur in any expenses, which translates in a ROI that no other business can offer.

Add to that the fact that all you need to start is a PC and an internet connection, and you can perfectly understand why I say that you have to (and can allow yourself to) start thinking about simplicity, flexibility and profitability.