Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops

Balance Your Marketing Presence

By

Balance

Photo (CC) by Alex Holyoake, on Flickr

To many business owners, marketing feels like a numbers game. Too little and no one knows you exist. Too much and your potential customer feels bombarded.

So business owners are forced to look for balance in their marketing.

Yet balance is not something that can be readily achieved. It begins with knowing your customer base. Questions on where they might see your message come into play. Also, every individual will have a different levels of tolerance for how often they want to see your business message. But even that item is not static as if I, the customer, am in the market for something, I am willing and even anxious to gather more information than if your message is just one more ad I see in the daily jumble.

Tolerance also depends on what you are sending as a message. Is it just about selling or do you include other types of messages in your marketing mix? Might it add some humor to my day or touch some emotion. Yet other people just want the facts.

Also, trying to attract new customers requires more messages than when you are retaining existing customers. And the messages may differ with focused, directed messages for existing customers and more broadly distributed messages when trying to attract new customers.

Thus balance becomes necessary.  Having sheer numbers or certain ad types or placement in the right media will not guaranteed business success.

And remember that what works for marketing today may not be the answer tomorrow.

Don’t focus on just one goal or assume that one customer represents all of your market. Focus on your marketing goals. Identify your general customer and some of major sub-categories of customers. Do more than just a sales pitch in your effort.

Marketing brings success if you can find the balance.

 

About Glenn Muske

Glenn Muske is an independent expert on rural small business, working as GM Consulting – Your partner in achieving small business success. He provides consulting, and writes articles for county extension agents and newspapers across North Dakota. Previously, he was the Rural and Agribusiness Enterprise Development Specialist at the North Dakota State University Extension Service – Center for Community Vitality.

Wondering what is and is not allowed in the comments?
Or how to get a nifty photo beside your name?
Check our commenting policy.
Use your real name, not a business name.


Don't see the comment form?
Comments are automatically closed on older posts, but you can send me your comment via this contact form and I'll add it manually for you. Thanks!

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Shop Local

Buy local buttonReady to set up a shop local campaign in your small town? You'll need a guide who understands how we're different and what really works: Shop Local Campaigns for Small Towns.

Best of Small Biz Survival

More of the best of Small Biz Survival