Author: Camilla Parsons

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A Marketing Agency Won’t Fix Your Business!

fix your business

Outsourcing your marketing to an agency or freelancer is a great idea for a small business looking to grow. Doing so will free up your time and you’ll benefit from the valuable insight of a professional marketeer who can help you steer your business in the right direction and generate those important leads. However, it must be said – a marketing agency won’t fix your business!

Strong performance-focussed marketing is one of the fundamental requirements when growing a business. A marketing professional can give you lots of insightful advice on what can work to project your business forward and achieve the revenue you crave.

But, essentially, the success of your business comes down the decisions you make, your internal processes and communication.

Collaboration is Key to Marketing Success

Many small businesses make the mistake of believing if they employ a marketing professional, the sales will fly in, and all their problems will be solved. But in fact, the key to driving growth is collaboration between the marketing team, business owner, and the other departments. Keeping those lines of communication open is vital, as the marketing team can greatly benefit from gaining insight to:

  • What is and isn’t working 
  • Your opinions on the quality of leads
  • Updates on the business that can be communicated to show your business in a positive light.  
  • Changes in your business plan that can affect the marketing strategy. 
  • Customer profiles of successful leads
  • Customer feedback
  • The source of leads
  • Industry news and trends to ensure the messages shared are relevant

This is just a taster of the kind of information marketing teams feed from to deliver your marketing strategy. Essentially the more information you can share with them about your business, the more inclined you are to see results. 

However, it is important at this point to note, marketing teams should have a filter. They are trained to know what sort of information should be shared and how it can be used to engage your target audience.

Listen to the Advice to Stay Ahead of the Competition 

If you are serious about growing your business, it’s important to listen and consider the advice you’ve been given by your marketing team. There are many good reasons you may choose not to follow the advice, such as budget restrictions, or it doesn’t suit the direction of your business. However, keeping an open mind could lead to opportunities you had not considered and a higher ROI.

Widen the Net

The old saying, ‘widen the net’ means to use a larger range of options or consider other possibilities. This is especially true for marketing methodologies. While there are some businesses that are solely successful from implementing TikTok shop or Google Ads, the majority of businesses need to use a range of marketing methods to provide their customers with a seamless brand journey and achieve that all important conversion (a conversion can be a sale, lead, contact, essentially it’s the ultimate goal).

A mistake many small businesses make is to employ a marketer to only do their social media. Don’t get us wrong, social media is a powerful tool, but try not to limit your business, and instead think about what happens in the customer journey. 

For example, a customer has seen your social media post, they now want to purchase your product, so they head over to your website using the link in your post. If when they reach your website, it’s not easy and straightforward to complete the purchase, the customer will give up, you’ve now lost a sale.

For a successful conversion, you need as few clicks as possible to get that customer to complete their conversion.

Look at your Sales & Marketing Processes

So your marketing is great, you’re getting regular leads come through your website, you’re top of Google and your social media followers are growing. Now it’s down to you to turn those leads into sales. How will you manage this, what are the expectations of the wider team?

To ensure a hot lead is never missed, you need to establish an inhouse sale process whereby the sales and marketing are working together. 

Here is an example of a seven-step sales process:

  1. Approach the contact 
  2. Qualify your lead 
  3. Present your offering 
  4. Nurture your lead
  5. Overcome objections
  6. Close the sale
  7. Follow-up

A reliable CRM system will help your sales team record leads and follow up. It will also empower the marketing team to push communications at the most opportune time.

Communicate and Feedback 

The most successful small businesses communicate and feedback to their departments regularly. By doing so, there is a natural flow of information, and no one is left in the dark. You can empower your team to communicate too by simply sharing ideas on a group chat or sharing weekly company news with the team in an email or a meeting.

For more suggestions and advice, speak to the Little B team.

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Small Business Marketing When to Use an Agency or Freelance Professional?

There are several stages in a small business’s lifecycle when they may require the services of a marketing agency or freelance professional. The first two most common reasons for outsourcing your small business marketing are:

  1. When a small business has grown and can no longer carry out the basic marketing services themselves. 
  2. When a small business needs to take their marketing to the next level in order to scale. 

Let’s dive into these reasons a little deeper and discuss what options are available. 

When you can no longer rely on reputation alone

In its infancy, a small business often operate on reputation alone. Construction companies are a fine example of this. They start out by winning a few jobs off the back of another. Then they land larger contracts, which causes them to invest in more people, equipment etc. 

Suddenly they have gone from a one or two person operation to a company with employees and a large wage bill each month. Not to mention the other costs that have increased for equipment, vans, storage facilities, tools. Before they know it, they have grown and there is this added pressure to keep those contracts coming in. 

In order to win the projects, the business need to focus on providing a great service. However, you also want a steady flow of enquiries to keep your business going. Its at this point, reputation remains key, yet extra marketing support is required to generate leads. It now time to seek out a marketing agency or freelance professional.

Small Business Marketing Helps You Grow 

While there are formulas every small business can follow to keep their brand alive, the focus of any professional marketing strategy will always be:

  • Your goals and what you want to achieve
  • How to you reach your target customer
  • How to turn those target customers into sales

Any small business marketing is trying to appeal to the target customer’s likes, wants, needs and preferences. These are all unique, so you need a clear marketing strategy that will focus your marketing efforts in the right direction. 

What is a Small Business Marketing Strategy?

You’re small business marketing strategy is your very own instruction manual for growing your business. It needs careful thought, background research and a methodology that will target your core customer. A typical marketing strategy will include:

  • Brand messages – clear and brief descriptions of your business, its USPs and why customer will benefit
  • Target customer details – who they are and a brief profile
  • Your services – an overview of what you offer
  • Competition – who are your rivals and why are you different
  • The methods for reaching your target audience to market your business. Some examples include: 
  • Social media – choose the right platform for your target audience. You can research this using various metrics supplied by the platforms, such as ages, gender, demographic and interests.
  • Website showcasing your business to generate leads, or an ecommerce website where customers can instantly purchase a product or service.
  • Search engines. Use paid advertising or organic SEO to put your business in front of your customers at the most opportune moment; when they are search for your business activity or a similar.
  • Direct mail– target your existing or lost customers with email updates of new products and services, or send them news and offers in the post depending on their GDPR preferences.
  • Events and networking where you meet your target customer face to face.
  • Print advertising – billboards, signage, leaflets, posters etc.
  • Broadcast media – advertise your business on the TV, radio or stream online.
  • Public relations – share news of your business with the regional or national news agents or popular entertainment platforms.
  • Influencers engagement can promote your business.
  • How you will measure your success. Examples include revenue, ROI, engagement with audience using analytics and other insight/measuring tools.

What a marketing agency or freelance professional will do for a small business?

Small businesses use marketing agencies and freelance professionals in different ways. It will depend on your goals and your available marketing spend. 

Here are three ways a small business can ask for marketing support from an agency or freelancer:

1. Request a marketing review and strategy

    You may have someone who is already carrying out marketing activities in house, but you just need a push in the right direction. An agency or freelancer can provide a detailed review and strategy to help your inhouse team/employee reach your desired goals. 

    2. Request ongoing marketing support

    An agency or freelancer can usually offer some level of ongoing marketing support to help you reach your goals. Through regular communication, they will act as extension to your team and follow marketing plan that comprises activities, such as social media posts, blogs and email campaigns, that align with your strategy.

    Ongoing marketing support is usually charged on a retainer basis and is budgeted to meet your affordability. Not every agency is suited to small businesses, so it’s best to do some research in advance.

    3. Request adhoc support

    As a small business marketing agency, we have clients that simply want a one off marketing project so they can generate leads or promote their business. The adhoc projects might include: 

    • Artwork for a leaflet, poster, exhibition stand, brochure or business cards
    • Press release to announce some news
    • Case study for their website
    • Email campaign to existing customers 
    • Video or animation for social media or POS
    • Website 
    • Social media revamp and post templates
    • PowerPoint for a new business pitch
    • Copywriting

    There are many adhoc projects that a marketing agency can offer, you just need to ask the question.

    Why Choose Little B Marketing?

    At Little B Marketing we are the same as you – a small business taking those steps to growth. We understand how precious your time is and how you seek value for your investment. That’s why we focus on delivering genuine support. 

    To find out more say hello to Little B Marketing