I originally saw this article from Forbe’s and it caught my
eye with the title “The Future of Small Business Marketing.” Seeing as I am planning
on owning my own small business, this piqued my interest. I know my father who
currently runs the business, has no website, no social media, no marketing at
all and I hope to help by changing that. The author, T. Maxwell simply divulges
some helpful tips for small business owners to take simple steps towards
successful marketing. He first recommends redesigning your website. It is
critical to have a website that is both easy to navigate, and guides your
visitors towards action points while maintaining aesthetic quality. He
recommends having a professional do this to save you both time and eventually
money as it proves more effective through their expertise. Next, he recommends
understanding your local SEO or search engine optimization. I believe especially
for the business my family is in, this is critical. If we can’t make it into
the top 5 for local searches of our service, I believe we face extinction in
the years to follow. Lastly, Maxwell suggests turning your advertising campaign
over entirely to a professional. He points out that as the business owner, what
you do best if run your business and there are very reliable and effective
agencies out there that are professionals in running advertising for good
reason.
Maxwell is ultimately vying for the advertising giant relatively new on the
scene, eMaximize in Los Angeles. Their value proposition is in providing expert
digital marketing services to small businesses. To elaborate more, Maxwell
really focuses on a problem faced by many existing small business owners. They
are working from outdated, often analog systems for everything, especially
marketing. Simultaneously, 66% of millennials say that they would like to start
their own business and will be entering the competition with other outdated
advertisers, understanding the importance of digital marketing. Maxwell
proposes businesses like eMaximize as a viable and strong solution. While
business owners rarely have time to invest in things like starting websites or
managing social media, there are businesses that specialize in doing just that
and they will understand the nuances even better than the competition.
Ultimately this makes it worth the chunk in the budget. I think of companies
like my father’s in the small town of Roseburg in the custom cabinetry
business. He is not alone in this field and faces a lot of competition.
However, he does not have a website, social media profile, billboard or
anything. Even worse, because he is so busy keeping up with the work flow, he
has no time to put effort into marketing. I think this marketing approach
uniquely fits businesses in his situation. I think they did a great job in
using this article to, in living color, point out the problem small businesses
face in a world that has shifted and continues to shift towards digital
marketing. If I was the brand product manager selling this service, I think it
would have gone a long way to include several testimonials and real world
examples to cement people’s ideas of this company’s effectivity. I think in
this article, the marketing approach for this service was great. Their location
in Forbe’s where they know small business owners turn for advice and solutions
was key. They did lack in selling why they do what they do. They made a great
case for the what of their business but didn’t so much as list one value of
their business when I think it would have gone a long way for them to even say
something about their commitment to supporting small business owner’s has
driven them to create this product. I really learned that for me, as I head
into the business world, owning my own business, that it can be highly valuable
to have at least pieces of my marketing done by professionals.
Link to article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/01/14/the-future-of-small-business-marketing/#2e054841649b
Link to eMaximize: https://emaximize.com/
