The closest thing to a small business marketing magic bullet

I recently asked the following question to several LinkedIn groups I belong to: As a small business owner, what are the top three marketing challenges you face that need to be addressed within the first quarter of 2009? Even though the method is highly unscientific, I wanted to take the marketing pulse of small businesses, not just in northwest Ohio, but around the country.

As you can imagine, the things that keep small business owners up at night are varied, from the economy and branding to time management and referrals. While I believe that there is no “magic bullet” to marketing, almost without exception, the answers that were given can be boiled down to one thing: finding and communicating the core difference of their business, product or service .

If you remember one thing from this post remember this: if you can’t find a way to differentiate your business from every other business that does what you do and if you can’t communicate that difference in a way that really matters to a narrow target market, then you’re basically in the commodity business. If I can’t tell how one business is different than another then I will use the only thing I can measure – price. Yes, the driving force in the commodity business is always price.

Marketing is about creating know, like, trust with your clients and developing an ongoing relationship - this doesn’t happen quickly and there’s no magic bullet. It takes hard work, time and consistently communicating your core difference to build your reputation and loyal customer base.