As 2011 draws to a close it is worth reflecting on how productive or successful this year has been for your business. Did you achieve all that you set out to? Were you more profitable than previous years? Hopefully 2011 has been a good year for you rather than annus horribilus. The arrival of December has us in reflective mode – we have identified 10 SME marketing lessons of 2011 that are listed below.
1. You are probably wasting your time marketing your business on Facebook.
2. Old school ‘face to face’ networking still trumps anything else.
3. Loans, venture capital and Angel investment are wonderful but largely unattainable for most.
4. Government pledges to help small businesses have not turned into tangible results yet.
5. You do not need to follow every marketing trend to market your business, for example – Google+ and QR codes could both have been avoided without damage to your business. Mobile marketing you should investigate, though – it’s a development rather than a trend.
6. You’re doing alright but you’re not doing enough to retain existing customers and attract new ones – act as if you were starting from scratch and up the ante.
7. Take heart from the fact that no-one is perfect even Apple get things wrong as they demonstrated by the non-appearance of the iPhone 5.
8. Partnerships will increase your marketing ‘footprint’ without costing you money. You should devote more time to establishing them.
9. When marketing your business online there is no substitute for great content and you must blog regularly.
10. PR and internet trends offer huge potential to market your business – you have not capitalised on this yet.*
Do you have any additional SME marketing lessons of 2011? We would love to hear them. Are you an SME owner or entrepreneur in need of marketing expertise? If so, give us a call on
+44 845 2264247 or drop us an email via mail@marketingfundamentals.com
We hope you find this information useful.
Kind regards,
Marketing Fundamentals Team
* Look out for our forthcoming YouTube video tip on this specific point. http://www.youtube.com/user/MFundamentals?feature=watch
