How many are you guilty of?
A modest, local business used to be a staple of every community. Now, they are small fish in the global, interconnected pond of commerce.
These owners usually establish their business through passion and hard work — rarely through a deep understanding. They learn as they go.
This inevitably creates a glass ceiling to increased scalability & further success.
After coaching, both formally & informally, a lot of small businesses, I’ve collected the 3 biggest mistakes I see them all making.
#1. They spend on irrelevant Facebook ads
I was at a local car wash recently and got chatting to the owner. He asked me what I do and where most people would switch off at the word “marketing”, he immediately got interested.
“What do you think of my Facebook ads? How can I make them perform?”
My response: “Facebook ads for a local car wash? Really?”
Facebook ads convert for impulse buys or lead generation. You need the commitment of a sale or a warm lead to make them worth the money.
Aka. you need it to instantly convert in a sale or collect an email address/ telephone number.
Nobody sits at home, in their pajamas, aimlessly scrolling and sees an ad for a local car wash and thinks “thats it, I’m gonna go wash my car right now.”
In my view, a total waste of money for businesses like this.
#2. They assume great products alone guarantee organic or viral reach
We’ve heard it all before from that guy down the pub.
“Wow that’s a great product! You should put it on TikTok, people would go crazy for that.”
The problem is many products are great products. But great products alone don’t guarantee reach or virality.
For something to go viral, audiences need to compound. Either someone with a big audience shares it, and starts the snowball, or lots of little audiences upvote the sh*t out of it on Reddit.
The mere existence of a good product or service isn’t enough. But small businesses especially assume that their products will go viral or be “big” online.
The issue is everyone thinks that. So you’re all drowning in abundance & competition.
To truly stand out, you need to do be doing something different to everyone else.
#3. They confuse views with customers
Small businesses seem to advertise in the local newspaper or monthly magazine for £500 per ad — and are then disappointed when nobody buys.
“But they told me that the publication had 10,000 readers per month.”
Yes, they may print 10,000 copies… But how is it distributed?
If it’s given out free:
How many of the 10,000 copies delivered get chucked into the recycling, completely unread?
How prominent is your ad within that publication? If it’s 1% of the product, you can’t expect 100% of the attention.
If it’s a paid publication:
How prominent is your ad?
Is it lost with many other ads around it?
Was it worked in cleverly, with a sponsored story?
Are the readers likely to be the right customers for you?
I ask these questions, not to be contrary, but to sever the connection between views and customers.
Most small business owners aren’t aware of the scarily low conversion rates of online retail — let alone brick & mortar stores.
You need to make your efforts count, or you’ll be throwing valuable profits away chasing the promise of more.