How little things matter

I am currently working on a project with a couple of SMEs and I have found this experience quite enlightening and rewarding from an experiential standpoint. Most of these businesses have toyed with one element or another with respect to providing marketing support for their businesses; they have however been held down by the belief that without money, you can’t do marketing. The general notion is that SMEs cannot afford to market their businesses and are such focus on what they consider vital to the survival of their ventures! The truth however is that there are many aspects of marketing that can be executed with little or no funds.

There are so many “low hanging fruits” – in terms of opportunities that SMEs can leverage on even before they think of committing funds to marketing:

Visibility: In an instance with one of my clients, a simple re-arrangement of her showroom/store and ensuring that good visibility is given to her stock immediately gave the business a new lease of life; just as simple as re-arranging and making identification and location of items easier for the customers.  Sometimes, you find that the store layout hinders accessibility which can discourage people from accessing the store. Good product display is a good lead for customer purchase. Often, customers have bought items they never intended to buy just because it was “starring them in the face” which resulted in a sale.

Business & Product knowledge: A lot of times, the business essence and products knowledge resides in the head of the business owner and there is no deliberate effort to transfer this knowledge to every member of staff. Where the staff do not understand the business vision and mission, it is difficult to see how their role fits into the success of the business and the accomplishment of the vision and mission. In most businesses, the depth of knowledge of the business is quite shallow where members of staff are concerned. This situation places a lot of strain and pressure on the owner as they have to do a lot as some customers will insist on being attended to by them alone;  such customers only feel satisfied when they are attended to by the owner.

A critical aspect of product knowledge is how a staff can sell their products in a way that customers will be convinced to buy. Most staff members act as if their responsibility is just to state the obvious without demonstrating a knowledge of their products and services and convincing prospects to buy from them. In an ideal situation, every member of staff must be able to talk about their products and services just as the business owner would do. Members of staff should be knowledgeable on product design and what differentiates them from competitors

Customer Relationship Management: Most of the time, when a deal is closed, it signals the end of the transaction and other future correspondences until the customer finds himself/herself wanting the item again. A follow up on a customer after sale to check how satisfied they are would resonate and go a long way in making them come back for a repeat purchase. Everyone likes to feel important and relevant; and a business that makes you feel valued for being yourself and not only for the business that you bring would most likely get more businesses in the future. Maintaining a database of customers with relevant details will provide the information that can be used for a follow up post sale, customer satisfaction and to inform the clients when new products or services are available.

Social media presence: Owning social media spaces is free! Any brand or SME can create their online presence and maintain it according to their brand identity and architecture. Creating the visibility for a small business is easier now than ever and relevant contents and promotions can be deployed on these sites. Free online presence can be managed without incurring huge costs associated with traditional media buying. An online exhibition of your offerings leading to a better interactions with your customers 

There is really no excuse why SMEs are not able to support their products and offerings, basic marketing tactics are free to use; it only requires a conscientious and deliberate effort to make it.

Bolajoko Bayo-Ajayi