I’ve worked for more than a decade with plumbing and HVAC businesses, and I can tell you the most important marketing lesson I’ve learned in four words:
“Start with your trucks.”
Big whoop-ti-doo, right?
(Right now, you might be thinking: “If that’s the whole point of this report, I’m sure glad it’s free!”)
But there are some strategic reasons why I say this. Let me explain.
“Don’t talk to me about branding! It’s a waste of time and money,” a small business owner told me. Was he right? Is branding only for big corporations with buckets of money to spend on marketing?
Well, I want to kick that bucket right now!
The truth is, branding—when it’s done right—is a cost-effective way for a small business to spread its reputation further and faster. And what business wouldn’t benefit from a stronger reputation?
Actually, the smaller you are, the more important branding is to your business. Smart branding will help you get more mileage out of your limited marketing dollars and even help you look bigger to prospects and customers.
“If they only knew.”
Do you ever find yourself saying this about your target audience?
“If they only knew how good we are, how hard we work.” “If they only knew what we do that our competitors don’t do.” “If they only knew that we can do just as good a job as larger, more well-known, more expensive companies.”
But the problem is, they don’t know. We have a saying in marketing: perception is reality. If your prospects don’t know how good you are…well, to them, it doesn’t matter, does it?
So what can you do about that? How can you change that perception?
If you’re a very small business with a very small budget, this idea is pure poetry. And I mean that literally.
But to explain, I need to tell a story.
I was talking with Vermont Yarn Company, a charming store full of knitting and crocheting supplies near the small town of Middlebury, Vermont.
Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of life is just showing up.” Vermont Yarn’s problem was that they were not showing up. The store is located on a highway, a couple of miles outside of the downtown where most local people do their shopping. As a result, many people didn’t even realize they were there.
The Power of Marketing Ice-breakers
Suppose you are having a social gathering in your home, but people are not talking much. There’s an awkward silence. What do you do?
You might use an ice-breaker. For example, you could tell an interesting, engaging, or humorous story, then ask questions about the story to get people talking. Once people open up and the conversation gets going, you could move on to other topics.
Did you know that you can also use ice-breakers in your marketing? With a marketing ice-breaker, you find something interesting, surprising, or delightful to talk about that makes people want to pay attention to your advertising. It gets the conversation started.
