Did you know that there is a taboo word in business? That word begins with "M" and it’s a word that every small business owner knows they should do, but so many don’t. That’s right, you’ve guessed it, the word is "Marketing". Small business owners don’t really like that word. It brings up too many bad thoughts like "where do I start?" and "I’m not sure what to do". And let’s face it, there’s plenty more stuff that a business owner could do rather than the "M" word…

So, how do you take the headache out of marketing? Is there a way of getting away with doing as little marketing as possible and still getting all the business that you want?

Well, yes there is – if (and only if) you’re prepared to put in a bit of hard work at the beginning. Are you ready for that? Then sit back and read on because I’m about to tell you the secret of marketing.

Put a system in place.

Yes, that’s right. That’s the secret. Put in place a system so that when you turn the handle, it works for you everytime and pops out the results you want.

The hard work is getting a system in place so that it does work for you consistently.

Here’s how you do it. Firstly, go and look at where all your customers are currently coming from. Are they coming from networking events; because they’ve seen an advert; or is someone referring them to you? Get specific here. Which networking event are they coming from? Who is referring them to you? If you don’t know or you’re not sure, your first task is to ask people – from now on, every person who comes into contact with your business, ask them how they heard about you (even if they don’t buy from you). Pretty soon, you’ll have built up a picture of what marketing is working for you and what’s not.

Now’s the time to concentrate on the marketing that is working for you and put in place a system to make it work more. In your system, you want to have a method of getting people to know about your business, capturing contact details and following up with those people so that they buy more.

So, if you were running a pub for instance, you might find out from asking customers that some local adverts you’d done were working for you (getting people to know about you). You might then run competitions and comment cards to capture people’s contact details. You might then send out a newsletter to keep building up a relationship with those people and offer them special discounts or treats if they refer other people. Pretty soon, you’ve got a system in place that doesn’t take a lot of time to do, but that keeps new customers and repeat customers coming in through the door.

What if you run an alternative therapy business and you found out leaflets were working well for you? You could change your leaflets so that people could enter a competition to win a free session if they filled their details out and returned the leaflet to you (capturing contact details). Once you’d built a database, you could send them a loyalty card or regular tips sheet to build a relationship with them.

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