quiz

Many SMB owners find that their business is lacking proper (professional) marketing. This makes sense, as many business owners are not marketing professionals and have focused their business on selling their products or services. Often they do not have an internal resource to handle their marketing and rely on their sales team, administrative assistant or themselves to conduct their marketing. Recently, with the advent of online marketing, the challenge for many SMB owners is that their customers have become more sophisticated and therefore demand a more sophisticated approach. For example, a few years ago I may have only had a handful of appliance repair companies to choose from, but today I have literally hundreds just in the GTA available at my fingertips thanks to the Internet.

The point is that demand is dictating supply, and therefore many SMB owners need to step up their “game” in order to compete.

Sounds simple, unless you’re like many SMBs who have never done any professional marketing and do not understand what professional marketing really is and how much it will or should cost. This is the predicament many SMB’s find themselves in because what they don’t know is that they are likely to hire a marketing agency that isn’t really a marketing agency (which I blogged about two weeks ago – “What Do You Mean It’s Not a Real Marketing Agency?”)

Test yourself and see how many questions you answer “no” to. If you find that is the majority, it might be time you consult with a professional marketing agency.

Do you have a marketing strategy?
Do you know what your unique selling proposition is?
Do you know exactly who your target audience is?
Do you target your audience with regular communication?
Do you have a company vision or mission statement?
Do you set yourself apart from your competition?
Have you ever conducted a customer survey? Do you have customer testimonials?
Have you ever conducted a competitive analysis?
Do you have a professionally designed website?
Do you change the content (images or text) on a frequent basis?
Do you engage in any online marketing?
Do you engage on your social media sites regularly?

How did you do? It’s amazing how a simple looking quiz can potentially change your entire business.

I hope these questions raised a few questions of your own and help you on your journey to be the best at what you do in your industry. If you have any more questions of your own, please feel free to engage with me in the comments below. I look forward to chatting with you!