“If you don’t put yourself in a position to be noticed, you never will be”.
This holds very true for the SMEs, especially for the start-ups, who wish to make their presence felt in a strong & influential way. With the business world becoming ever-competitive, there is a need for SMEs to generate that “X” factor. However, this is not possible unless you have a clear understanding of who your target audience is & what appeals to their buying instincts the most.
1.Social Media Strategies/E-Marketing – Referrals and viral marketing can accelerate your lead generation initiatives in a fun, fast & free way. Use sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc to develop interactive & niche groups & create a buzz about your products & services within minutes & in the most cost-effective way.
With more than 770M users on FB worldwide and a whopping 38M in India itself growing at a mnthly rate of around 8% we cannot ignore this medium for our own marketing.
2.Print and Radio Advertising – A well-crafted advertisement placed time & again in the right publication or broadcasted repeatedly on the radio is an effective way to generate leads & help build brand awareness in today’s competitive business environment.
Eg: People of all ages, regions, castes & creeds enjoy listening to radio. The youth is especially fascinated by the new-age radio channels like Mirchi, My FM, etc. This automatically turns the youth into brand ambassadors of a product or service.
3. Brand Building and Emotional Benefits – People buy benefits rather than features. What appeals to people are not just the features of a service or product but the benefits that tag along.
Eg: Taglines like – Dissolving tablets allow us to take medicine on the go.
Another recent eg is that of Fast Track. The company knows that owing to their own durable watches, people would not be looking to buy another watch soon. Hence, to instigate people to buy multiple watches, they have come up with taglines like – “How Many Do You Have?” And “Move On..”
4.Direct Mail / Email / SMS Marketing – Sending out direct emails to your customers gives your strategy a personalized touch & also it is extremely cost effective. Our common human tendency is such that we enjoy reading mails & SMS’s addressed directly by our name. This tendency can easily be enchashed upon by the SMEs.
Eg: Most people must have received a birthday or anniversary wish message/card from a company at some or the other time. Such messages tug at the emotions of customers & pave the way for a strong & long-lasting customer-provider relationship.
5.Partnership Marketing/ co-branding/ strategic partnerships – Such type of swap branding can enhance the visibility of SMEs & also help strengthen identity.
Eg: An advertisement for tie on a website selling formal shirts. A customer looking to buy formals may most probably be interested in buying a tie along with the shirt. What better a deal for the customer to buy both the things through one single site.
6.Provider-driven Brand Image – This kind of branding serves to build credibility for the provider. After all, customers are always on the lookout for businesses they can blindly trust.
Eg: A punchline of Allstate’s: “You’re in good hands,”
7.Word of Mouth – One of the most potent, viral & cost effective marketing communications is the word-of-mouth. If you can create a buzz about your products & services amongst the common man, your battle is half won.
8.Content Marketing – The use of blogs, forums, newsletters, whitepapers and e-books are some of the best cost effective ways of content marketing.
Eg: Post open end questions about your products & services on blogs & forums & let people do the talking.
9.Active Participation in Social, Community, Business events – This is the best & most cost effective way of creating leads in your niche market. Showing active participation in such events not only supports your brand image but also brings you at par with prospective co-branders.
Eg: Attend Tradefairs, Business Gatherings, etc.
10.Youtube Video for a Product – For the tech-friendly SMEs, creating innovative youtube of your products & services can enhance your brand visibility. Unlike the TV commercials, this kind of branding is absolutely free with the same or most of the times greater response than TV ads.
It is important for SMEs to remember that, “When there is an original sound in the world, it makes a hundred echoes.” Thus, unless & until SMEs start ‘thinking out of the box’, they cannot take the lead.
Contributed by Sushmita Kalashikar
For any of the above requirements pls send a mail to media@smejoinup.com
SME JoinUp Blog (2012) 