Marketing To Small Business Owners

Guest Contributor: Michael Hepworth
Michael's Posts - Michael's Website


If you were at a cocktail party and were introduced to someone who did little but talk about themselves, you'd soon become bored and wander off to find more stimulating company. So it is with business owners are disinterested of marketing approaches that are self serving. i.e. marketing that is all about the vendor and little about the buyer.

If you look at the marketing from big corporations in most cases it does little except scream; "Buy my product, buy my product!" This does not cut it with the average entrepreneur, so what can one do to get their attention and win them over?

They generally don't care how good you are until they know how much you care!

Unfortunately most corporate marketing does little to put business owners at ease because it often misses these vital ingredients.

Let's assume you sell a commodity like stationery. If you are totally focused on your category, about the only thing that distinguishes you from your competition is the paint on your walls and your signs; hardly compelling reasons to choose a supplier!

A number of firms have discovered that most business owners feel the need to educate themselves and their teams on various aspects of business success. However they feel they lack the funds and the time to get this done.

One of the most important skills is marketing.

Intellectually business owners know this is one of the most important skills to master, but most spend precious little time on this critical element of their business. In these competitive times they all share a common desire to upgrade their marketing skills but unless helped along few do anything about it.

This presents suppliers with a great opportunity to provide value added service in the form of marketing education for small business. It fulfills the old proverb; "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

A supplier that claims the high-ground by investing in a long term relationship and showing business owners how to grow through cost effective marketing, will be long remembered for their added value.

The challenge for most corporations will be to switch from the corporate mindset of brand marketing to the concept of local marketing and lead generation for small business. Small business needs low cost creative ideas that bring customers in through the door, gets them to buy more often and gets them to buy more each time they buy.

Concepts like branding and using mass media, the staples of big corporate marketing, generally do little to help small business succeed. And too much attention to these can result in sub par performance for small business.

Cisco Bolsters SMB Efforts

Cisco Systems has announced a new channel partner program to promote its Linksys division products to small businesses. Most of the technical equipment buying decisions for the SMB market are made through outside consultants which forces the Ciscos of the world to sell through a network of partners. The company that does the best job convincing parters to push their products wins.

To encourage its partners, Linksys will be offering a new program that offers lead-generation support and market development funds. Cisco will also be trying to convince their resellers to take its higher priced competitors like HP, 3Com, Netgear and D-Link off their roster and focus solely on Linksys. How the company plans on executing this strategy is still unclear.

A challenge facing Cisco is that Linksys is seen more as a consumer or SOHO play. Despite having a full roster of products, Linksys solutions are not usually considered as options for SMBs. It will be an uphill battle to get SMBs to look at Linksys as a viable alternative to the more entrenched players. By the same token, the Cisco brand is seen as being for big business only. Can Cisco narrow the gap and get some SMB market penetration?

The answer will lie in an effective partnership strategy. Their new channel program is scheduled to be announced on June 5th at their Connected Office Day event. Time will tell if they new incentives are good enough to propel them forward.

How HP Is Targeting The Hispanic Market

Denise Marcilio, marketing director for small and medium business (personal systems group), was the keynote speaker at the 14th annual DMA Directo Days conference.

In her speech, Marcilio discussed how to effectively target the two million Hispanic-owned SMBs which generate $270 billion in annual sales. Here is some of her advice:

• You have to have a genuine and long-term commitment to the Hispanic community
  
  
• In 10 years there will be eight million Hispanic-owned SMBs
  
  
• The growth will be driven by women business owners
  
  
• According to HP surveys, Hispanic business owners prefer doing business in English
  
  
• Closing a deal, however, is done in Spanish
  
  
• Build a Spanish language website to highlight your products and services
  
  
• Use a Spanish language direct mail piece to drive people to the website - "Direct mail is just the tip of the iceberg. At HP, the direct mail pieces have to drive people to the Web. The mail pieces have be so strong, so compelling and so perfect that it drives the person to the Web. The Web is where you can tell your entire story. Call volume and lead generation is most likely to happen through the Web."
  
  
• An English catalogs with a one page Spanish insert generated more results than a catalog written entirely in Spanish
  
  
• The median age of the Hispanic market is 27 versus 41 for the general population
  
  
• > 50% of Hispanics have white-collar jobs, are middle class or higher, own their own homes and are married