It just doesn’t have to be that hard. Marketing your small business, I mean.

You get your message in front of the (generally) “right” group of people and then keep getting in front of those most likely to desire or need what you offer.

Over a period of time, you establish trust by revealing how you can serve your customer.

It begins to get “personal” when your ideal customers understand how you help them reach their goals or solve a problem.

And finally, your marketing pays off. You make a sale.

That’s how marketing works, basically.

Unfortunately a lot of marketing-speak sends the small business person into a tailspin, thinking you have to do everything all the time. You’re convinced you must attract the attention of millions of people every day, when maybe all you really need are a few new clients each month.

Have you ever seen those home improvement shows where they take a high end designer room and show you less expensive options for each element of the room? The handmade designer lamp is replaced with a similar looking one from Target. The furniture arrangement is replicated exactly so the space is used the same way. The palette and style is kept similar across both the high and low ends. The look and feel of both rooms are almost indistinguishable from each other.

If you don’t have a huge marketing budget, look at your marketing strategy with the same eye. “Splurge” on the stuff that gets a big result, and cut costs elsewhere.

Marketers can get pretty wonky. Sometimes when I start thinking about marketing as some big complicated animal, I take a step back. I hate to think that a busy entrepreneur or small business owner could start buying into the idea that before you can start to tell people what you do…

first you must research
then survey
then study
then get everything lined up just perfectly
then come up with a HUGE budget — before you can truly connect with the people who have money and inclination to purchase something from you!

That’s just not true.

“Use What You Have” Marketing

The best way to start is to just use what you have.

Here’s what set me off today. See, I’ve been learning about buyer personas. More than a profile or a demographic, a buyer persona tells a story about the specific customer who would be most likely to buy from you and benefit from your products.

It’s kind of like a fictional character development an author might do. Just like fleshing out a character, creating a buyer persona requires you to you fill in details until you have a detailed picture of who your ideal customer is.

Most of the information you’ll find about buyer personas involves getting input from scads of sources: people who somehow fall into the market you serve, your current customers, even the people who don’t like your product. Only when you’ve pulled enough information out of all these diverse people will you start to see some similarities among your most likely customers and how to present your offer to them.

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it?

One slide show I viewed about buyer personas even went so far as to suggest that creating them should be the exclusive practice of certain professionals: “This poses a real dilemma for senior executives to choose the right people to be involved in buyer persona development efforts with the intent to inform strategy and one they must get right.”

Does that mean you need highly qualified and trained people to ask these questions? In other words, “Don’t try this yourself at home.” Yikes!

I don’t know about you, but as a self employed small businessperson, I’m as highly trained to ask questions as the next guy. So are you, especially if you’re the one standing behind your services. You just decide what you genuinely want to know, and you’ll figure out a way to ask the right questions.

That’s just how micro-entrepreneurs and small biz folks roll…we jump in. Sink or swim. Try again.

You probably already have what you need to market your small business on an effective (but small) scale.

One thing to remember about marketing online: A lot of information is geared to larger businesses where part of the challenge is getting messaging right across a lot of departments, from the top down. But a marketing process for a large company probably doesn’t make sense for the small business or entrepreneur.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t take advice and learn all you can from marketing professionals. Just that you don’t have to stand in one place if your budget is small.

Here are FOUR marketing elements a small business can rely on:

Establish goals — that’s crucial. Decide what you want: 100 new followers on Facebook next week, or 50 new sign-ups to your email list, or 10% more traffic to your shop, for example.
Follow your intuition, based on your experience; always a great guide, at first.
Identify trends that others are using, especially in a similar business. If you’re in direct sales, watch what successful leaders are doing, even outside of your company. If you’re in the retail fashion business, follow your competitors successes and failures. Envision similar marketing tactics for your business. If you think it might apply, try it.
Test what you just tried against something similar. If you spend $100 on Facebook ads, try $100 on Google Ads. If something isn’t working, change it up. If it delivers, try to improve on it by tweaking one small thing.

Just don’t let anyone tell you a marketing tool or strategy is beyond your means. Use what you have and start there.

After Labor Day, most business schedules start to even out.

Clients who were in and out for weeks over the summer start to keep regular hours. Autogenerated “Out of the office” reply emails are less frequent. People seem more serious about digging in and getting back to business.

In addition, many small business owners with children frequently work out of their home offices during the summer months. This week they are now experiencing the calm that comes with the start of school. With a deep breath, they are ready to tackle new projects.

The Back to School season signals a new year for many businesses. Labor Day is the official “stroke of midnight.” Click to Tweet.

As a result, during this first week of September your emails — especially B2B emails — may get more attention than they have all summer! The week after Labor Day is a great time to reach out to clients and contacts who have drifted away over the past few months.

Reconnection Emails: Some people find house cleaning is in order when the air starts feeling a wee bit crisper. Clean out your office and your email list at the same time. See if there are contacts who should be contacted again now. You might send an email to re-engage this segment. Depending on your relationships, offer to call or visit again at a near date. Follow up in a way that works best for your business.

Back to Business Emails: maybe you’re the one who’s hung out the “gone fishing” sign more than your clients last summer. Now is the time to let them know you are back and ready to commit at a higher level. What do you want your customers to know about your business now? Tell what’s new in your industry or within your specific organization.

Goodbye Emails: You may find it’s time to prune your list of dead email addresses (ones that haven’t been opened within the last 6 – 12 months). The subject line of this email must employ some words to resurrect your customer’s interest, if indeed they have any intention of acting. “Last Chance to Act” or “This Is Your Last Email From [Your Business]” may inspire your reader to open and read. Then you can offer these folks new susbscription options: receiving email only about certain subects, less frequent emails, or the chance to opt out.

However you choose to reach out, the Post Labor Day week is a prime time for higher email open rates among small businesses. Click to Tweet.

Make sure you take advantage of this “back to business” vibe and deliver renewed value to your customers.