What It Takes For Small Businesses To Overcome Marketing Roadblocks

Small- to medium-size businesses (SMBs) often struggle when it comes to marketing. With lean teams, minimal budgets and cobbled-together technology, it seems like an achievement to simply push out an occasional email blast or social media post. Despite their best efforts, these small businesses are not getting the most out of their marketing and, as a result, are wasting valuable time. SMBs can overcome these roadblocks by adopting innovative marketing approaches that allow them to work smarter, not harder, and reap significant benefits.
The challenge is getting SMBs to break bad habits. Many think a one-size-fits-all newsletter sent out monthly is a marketing program. What they don’t realize is that even with decent email open rates - say, an average of 20% - they aren’t connecting with 80% of their customers. Social media is even less effective. According to an Ogilvy study, posts on Facebook Business Pages with more than 500,000 likes only reach about 2% of fans, which leaves some 98% of people in the dark. With such a small percentage of customers seeing their messaging, small businesses are also failing to leverage the potential for referrals.