business

Question

What marketing venues does a small business use to target other small-business owners? Small businesses have a problem that they don’t know they have. Google has changed search to include local. But many small businesses don’t understand the impact. We want to help, but want to use the highest ROI methods.

Randy Parker, CEO, PagePart , pagepart.com

Answer

Reaching what you call on your website “very small businesses,” more commonly referred to as micro-businesses (firms with fewer than 10 employees), can be problematic. In your case, you are attempting to provide a technology that leverages changes in Google searches to help small, locally focused businesses compete. In particular, by helping transform existing Web content to make it accessible via mobile devices.

Because, like many B-to-B offerings, this product can be used by nearly any type of small business, a broad marketing communication strategy would call for a channel that reaches all such businesses. The problem lies in the fact that the sheer number of such businesses (tens of millions of micro-businesses in the United States) makes it impossible to target cost effectively using a shotgun advertising approach.

So do your best to define the categories of businesses that have proved most likely to adopt your offering or indicators that show a business is primed for your offering. This may be pushing ads toward results of search terms you know small business owners use when exploring adjustments to accommodate mobile devices. From a social media standpoint, it may be about creating buzz through presentations at Web-televised small-business events or online chatter.

It will be far easier to persuade those who have already acknowledged a need than to educate all small businesses.

About the author

Mike Porter,

director,

Master of

Business

Communication program,

University of St. Thomas, Opus College of Business