Is your business feeling the crunch of a slow economy?

Last week a client of mine, Kim (name changed to protect the innocent) told me that her business had slowed almost 40% over the past 18 months. As we talked, she explained that she’s doing nothing different with her advertising and marketing - “what worked 18 months ago just isn’t working as well now,” she said.

The reason, Kim felt, is that people have less money to spend.

That certainly makes sense. All our living expenses are on the rise. Groceries cost more, utility bills have increased - in some places dramatically - and the price of a gallon of gas is through the roof. So it only makes sense that consumers have less to spend on what they may perceive as ‘non-essential’ services.

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Word-of-mouth is certainly the most powerful form of marketing.

You know how it works, you find some amazing product or use some stupendous service and you can’t help but tell people about it. It’s as though you’ve found something unique that you have to share with others.

As a small business owner, word-of-mouth marketing can be your best friend. The cost is low and the affect can be huge.

But on thing that always gets in the way more effectively using word-of-mouth marketing is the idea that you have to create the greatest product or service in the world. If it’s even possible, it’s not necessary.

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Simply put - no, they don’t! Your audience doesn’t care a lick about what you do. They’re too busy caring a lick about what they do, what they need and what they’re interested in. It’s likely you’re not even on their radar. And with every business in the world vying for their attention, they just simply don’t have time to search you out and learn about what you do.

Unless…they need what you do. It’s inside their need that your audience may, possibly, perhaps, give some of their valuable time learning about what you do.

As a business owner and marketer, you’ve probably heard the adage that the customer is always asking, “What’s in it for me?” Many people focus on trying to understand how the customer will see this question in your products and services. And they’re right, of course.

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I have a friend, Larry, who’s a pretty amazing woodworker. Larry apprenticed with a woodworker in Seattle for seven years and then struck out on his own. As Larry had an eye for detail the master woodworker he apprenticed with convinced him that he should build highly customized, one-of-a-kind kitchen and living room tables.

Larry’s work was extraordinary. But while he managed a few customers in those first couple of years, he was barely making a living. It was just too hard to find people who really wanted a custom table.

Yet, for Larry, his heart wasn’t in it. He enjoyed the design and the crafting of these pieces of art, but he wasn’t sure this was his calling.

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Owning and operating a small business is pretty easy, in all honesty.

Think about it for a second: you find something you do well and offer it to people who you believe need it. That’s it. That’s all you have to do to have a semi-successful business. Doesn’t matter whether you’re selling toothbrush holders or marketing advise. It basically comes down to what you do well and who needs it.

Most small businesses get this - at least partly. They almost always understand the ‘what’ part of the equation They know what they do. And they can go into great detail explaining it to you. But most forget the second part of the equation - the ‘who’ part.

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I’m certain that you market your business. But, do you advertise your business?

I’ve heard so many web-based small business owners do their best to avoid using the word advertise that I’ve begun to wonder why. I’ve worked with enough clients offline to know that it’s not small business owners in general. Offline businesses use advertising constantly to get the word out about their business.

But it seems different for online small businesses. Somehow it seems that the word advertise is unclean or dishonest or something. While I haven’t quite put my finger on it, it is obvious that online small business tend to look at advertising differently. They often don’t consider placing ads - even Google Adwords.

This strikes me as odd because a few, well-placed advertisements can often drive far more than business than their cost.

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Is your business creating a community that people want to be a part of?

Among the mass of things that you need to consider in running a small business on the web, this question is seldom asked. We spend our time with target audience, branding and marketing strategies. We focus on the design of our website and spend hours editing the copy we put on it. Yet how often do we consider the whether our product or service is something that people really want?

Yet in today’s online marketplace, what is it the people want?

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