Small businesses can avoid common pitfalls

Sales are down at your small business, and maybe you’ve lost a couple of customers. Time to get out there and do some marketing, right?

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG
Associated Press Billings Gazette

Well, yes, but you mean you haven’t been marketing all along?

Consultants say that failing to have an ongoing marketing program is one of the most common mistakes small businesses make. Although company owners understand that marketing is critical, many don’t make it an integral part of the business. And many don’t understand some marketing essentials, such as being sure their company delivers a clear, cogent message to prospective customers.

Greg Stine, president of Polaris Inc. in Oakridge, Ore., said this is particularly a problem for companies that were doing so well during the late 1990s that they never bothered with marketing. Then the recession hit.

"Suddenly, the money isn’t there, and they don’t know what to do," he said.

Trying to throw a marketing program together quickly isn’t a good idea. The panic that follows the loss of several accounts can lead to more missteps by business owners. Among them: failing to formulate (even in their own minds) that message that tells customers what a company is about and what it can do for them.

"The first thing they have to do is know the purpose of their own business," said Barbara Findlay Schenck, author of "Small Business Marketing for Dummies." "We usually tell them to come up with one sentence about what they do well."

Panic may also motivate a business to keep changing its message, another bad idea because it will only confuse customers and even drive them to look elsewhere.

Stine said a lack of focus is a problem for newer companies.

"When they’re in the development stage, it feels more secure to be selling everything, because something will work. The reality is, the reverse is true," he said.

He pointed to FedEx as an example that small businesses should follow – the company made its reputation on overnight package delivery, period.

Both consultants said a marketing program means maintaining contacts with customers – they are the greatest source of information about what does and doesn’t work for a company. Without that feedback, an owner is working in a vacuum.

Stine recalled a client that performed services for contractors; its executives thought their biggest assets were their computer system and Web site. But the reality was quite a surprise. "When we did research and talked to customers, their answer was, ‘They load our trucks fast,’ " Stine said.

"A lot of times as companies grow, they get off track of what makes them special, and it’s no longer reflected in their marketing and identifying their brand," he said.

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