Small Businesses Need Many Products & Services
Accounting, office furniture and supplies, technology, and advertising are vital to a small business’ success. Insurance, shipping, telecommunications and website design are also critical needs.
Marketers who order our Enhanced Small Business Owner List can receive telephone numbers and email addresses in addition to the mailing information. This gives you the ability to reach small business owners using all the top marketing channels – direct mail, telemarketing, email marketing, and social media marketing.
This robust file has a low minimum, allowing marketers to target their specific geography.
Because this is such a great market, small business owners are inundated with solicitations. Your responsibility is to stand out from the crowd. This means you need to develop a well-rounded approach for reaching these prospects. After all, your goal is to turn them from prospects into warm leads for your business.
To get your name and message across, target your prospects wisely. Then, market to them as often as your budget allows and through as many channels as possible.
Top Channels to Reach Small Business Owners
- Telemarketing
- Email Marketing
- Social Media
- Direct Mail
Telemarketing
It starts with the cold call. Don’t get overwhelmed by the expression cold call. Think of it as an introductory call. This call identifies whether the business owner is a potential customer. Your call also tests the demand for your product. Use it to get some valuable information. You can use the call to get a feel for what price a customer will pay for your product or service. You will also be able to find out what kind of objections a potential customer may have. And, you will find out whether your prospect might consider a follow up meeting.
Prepare a 30 second script that includes your greeting and why you’re calling, Remember, you are not trying to sell them during this call. You are gauging their interest. Your goal is to turn a cold prospect from your small business owners lists into a warm lead.
Businesses, especially small ones, rely on warm leads to establish a certain level of trust with possible clients until they are ready to purchase from them. Establishing trust is an integral part of the sales process because the warmer the lead, the higher chance there is of converting it to a sale.
Once you have generated that warm lead, then it’s time to start the nurturing process.
The more the lead becomes exposed to your name and message, the more it begins to trust your brand over time. Warm leads are primed this way so that closing sales becomes easier to do.
Email
According to MarketingSherpa, email is the preferred source of business communication for 72 percent of small business owners. Email can be a wonderful channel for sales prospecting. But business owners get tons of emails. Your email needs to stand out. This starts with an attention grabbing subject line. This line should clearly tell the purpose of your email in only a few words. Eliminate any filler words and place the most important ones up front. You want to make sure that your email’s importance is prioritized.
According to Wiki-How, the thing to remember is that the reader should be able to know everything that’s going to be in the email, without ever opening the email. That means:
- If you’re following up on a meeting, say you’re following up on a meeting.
- If you’re marketing something, specify the reader’s takeaway and how you’ll deliver.
- Are you applying for a job? State the job and your name.
- Make sure your subject line counts. There is nothing worse than replying to an old email without changing the subject line. Your prospect can look forever to find what they need unless you have a current subject line. That is not the way to impress your prospect.
What about emojis? Test – test- test. Statistics show that they may increase the open rate. But, on the other hand, they can also appear spammy. Remember, you are emailing to small business owners. Professionalism counts. But never negate a little fun in marketing.
Social Media
LinkedIn has proven very successful for business people to connect with each other. If you are not on LinkedIn, you should be. Linked In is a social networking website designed for business professionals. It allows you to share work-related information with other users and keep an online list of professional contacts.
Through LinkedIn, you have the ability to research the small business owner you want to do business with. You can invite them to connect (link in) with you by sending an introductory email through the LinkedIn system.
I am not going to talk about the other social media platforms on this page, since we are talking marketing to small business owners – not consumers. However, if you think your prospects are active on a particular social media platform, then consider a branding program on that platform.
Direct Mail
If you really want to make an impact, use great direct mail. Of all the marketing channels, it is the only one that guarantees delivery to the small business owners you want to reach. But guaranteeing delivery isn’t enough, you need to make sure your mailing gets opened.
Use over-sized pieces, crazy shapes, bright colors. One of the most memorable pieces that sticks in my mind was a huge lumpy bright purple padded envelope that begged to be opened. You bet I opened it. It had a Frisbee inside with a note inviting me to learn more about a new list. This piqued my interest and I called in.
There are great print resources in the marketplace for great stand-out-in-the-mail pieces. These companies offer video mailers, dimensional mail, exploding pages – all sorts of get attention grabbers. Their mantra is that you need to break out of the norm in order to break through the clutter.
Final Comments
Market away. Our Enhanced Small Business Owner lists are very accurate. For your best pricing, get all the contact information that’s available on the list when you order it. This way you don’t have to “go back to the well” and append that data afterwards.
Make sure you explore all the options available to you. Be creative. For example, you can order UCC data on our Enhanced Small Business Owners Lists if you are offering banking, finance or credit programs.
And remember, you are marketing to the small business owner. Personalize. We know that personalization ups response dramatically.
