Awareness In the Market: How Do Small Companies get It?

Small and Medium Enterprises, this segment of the business ecosystem is a class of their own! Why? Well, SME's represent that emerging segment of the business ecosystem which is slowly becoming the backbone of the growing Indian economy. There is a new scale emerging in the economy and that due to entrepreneurs who are rising to the occasion of building new enterprises, coming up with innovative solutions to problems being faced by consumers.

Entrepreneurs: challenge of reaching out for them
Entrepreneurs may be solving many challenges, but one the most heard of challenge which we hear of, from every SME is that of Go To Market/ Outreach/ Reaching out to the relevant target audience.

Why is it a challenge?

• Budgets
• Cost of marketing
• Does it generate ROI in terms of increasing business for the SME?
• Who does it for me, I don't have the bandwidth?!
• I am not a marketing professional, where and how can I seek trustworthy help?

Our experience in the Indian SME space has provided us many insights, which have led us to compile this list of ways in which the SME can create effective outreach campaigns, which lead to results, if leveraged effectively, driven by the right people.

Your Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy should be a good mix of various media, which help you satisfy and align with your business objectives. But before you create your marketing strategy, ensure that your business objectives are absolutely clear and set, with defined results that you are looking at achieving from them.

• Learning: Define and Set your business objectives before creating your marketing plan

Your Customer/ Consumer

The next and one of th most crucial steps is to understand your target audience. Lets set this expectation that its not the fact that only the people you want to reach out to, only they will be seeing your marketing messages and the rest will shut their eyes to them. Hence understand, that all you are doing is "communicating" and you need to do it very well!

You must understand your customers and what are they talking about/ communicating/ looking for/ searching for, when they are searching for your/ your set of services/ parallel services.

"Understand the context" this is crucial to understand what the various set of your clients are meaning of your proposition.

"Where is your customer searching you": online/ offline media

• Learning: customer understanding has to be powerful with trends and insights

Lets Talk: Communicate Now

We know well, the fact that you understand your business very well. But its a different ball game to understand what "perceived value" are your target customers/ audience putting on what you are "trying to create"

We all like expressing but we all do it in our own way and manner and hence expect the same. Thus you must not set a one size fits all rule in your communications to all your clients!

• Learning: create powerful and targeted messaging and communication

Cost effective tools/ methods to use?

There are many ways you can bring down your marketing cost drastically. And low cost marketing does NOT mean low engagement. Infact you can powerfully drive your communications and measure the results generated as well.

• Use the Internet
• SEO
• SEM (Google Ads)
• behavioral targeting to your evolving customers
• Blogging
• Social Media Marketing
• ensuring strong content
• innovative engaging propositions
• making your brand an "Experience" to engage with
• Leverage events
• be quick to reach out to editorials with your thoughts on various events happening across the industry and how do you see business being affected and solutions being generated
• *an editorial space is worth many more paid ads

Talk: Literally

Why don't you talk to your customers each month by creating a video of your's and communicating the various wins and instill confidence in them about your emerging initiatives. You will see word of mouth happening by its own self. 

And don't forget to talk to your first customers: the internal customers. Keep them updated and engaged with your messages and you will see a team building up with as much excitement, sharing the same vision as you!

Marketing today has evolved as a discipline and in scope. There are innovative go to market methods and methodologies which if leveraged well, can give your business the energy and excitement and engage your target audience in your conversation.

Leave a comment to this post, to know more about going online and leverage the Internet powerfully for your business, from our team of experts!