3 Small Business Marketing Buzzwords that Shouldn’t Scare You

By Craig Klein, SalesNexus.com CEO

It seems like everything is changing faster than you can even become aware of the

change…much less adapt your business practices to fit the new way of doing things. It

seems easier to simply dismiss it all and continue to do things as you have done in the

past. That would be a big mistake.

Unfortunately, most of the buzzwords popular in the marketing realm are explained in

terms of BIG business. It takes time to extract the juicy goodness from their tactics and

boil it down to something you can use in a SMB.

Let me make it easy on you. I have picked three of the most popular marketing

buzzwords and translated them into actions you can take today to increase the number

of sales leads you can convert to customers. All you need is an online CRM that is

integrated with email automation. The rest is pretty easy.

Marketing Automation

In this slide presentation about marketing automation, Doherty White claims, “If you

increase automation in Marketing, you can generate more sales leads, make more sales,

and earn more money.” While I will not deny the truth in the statement, it leaves a lot of

space between the claim and what it takes to make it true.

Big business will have eight or more metrics they have automated to develop, track, and

maximize the use of marketing automation, but, it does not have to be that complicated.

Instead, simply use your online CRM software that is integrated with your email

marketing program this way:

Look for steps that are taken on a regular basis within your sales process. As you
discover them, drop the action required into your CRM along with any emails you

send related to the action taken with the sales lead.

2. Ask customer service staff to share their most requested information. Use the

emails sent in response to requests to build email campaigns to be sent to all new

sales leads.

3. As you build this library of automated marketing and service communication,

be on a constant look out for other ways to save time with email automation and

combine it with online CRM.

Inbound Marketing

This is a buzzword that can cause a small business owner to scratch his head in dismay.

Anyone will quickly admit that traditional marketing is ineffective. Inbound marketing

sounds good, but it sounds like a pipedream.

In his article about inbound marketing for small business, Gavin Llewellyn describes

inbound marketing as “any tactic that relies on earning people’s interest rather than

buying it.” The principles of inbound marketing are more similar to businesses 50 years

ago than to the traditional advertising practices of recent years.

Inbound marketing uses social media, blog posts, events, and anything personal that

focuses on the customer relationship. Instead of interrupting your potential sales leads,

you entice them to contact you and use automated lead nurturing communication to

build trust. Again, you easily accomplish this goal when email campaigns are integrated

within the CRM.

Content Marketing

The concept of this buzzword intersects with the other two. It starts with focusing on

your current ideal clients. Spend some time to figure out what your best customers

want, need, and worry about. Then, because you care about them, create content to

educate them about solutions that are available to them. Send them an email campaign

of informative content they value.

NOTE: Content marketing is NOT about you, your company, your products, or your

services. If you talk about those things, you are simply digitizing traditional advertising

methods. This type of marketing is repulsive to today’s decision makers. They could not care less about what you have to offer.

Focus all your content on the sales lead. They expect you to educate them well enough

that they can make their own decision about whether you are the right solution for

them. Give them information that is vitally important to them – even if they never

consider your company.

Thankfully, marketing automation enables you to furnish educational content to lots

of sales leads. These three popular buzzwords reflect the changing buyer environment

and you can’t afford to ignore them. Those companies that have implemented these

marketing buzzwords are pulling ahead of those that are doing things the old way.