Small Business Marketing Matters:
Involve Your Team
- Amanda Cullen
We've been exploring my five small business marketing rules. We've arrived at the fourth rule, "Involve your team." Many people are surprised that this item would make it into a marketing list, but internal marketing is more important for customer satisfaction and loyalty than external marketing ever could be.
Before we go on, here are my five rules for review:
- Be easy to do business with.
- Communicate with your customers in ways that are meaningful to them.
- Know where you want to go.
- Involve your team.
- Keep at it.
No matter what marketing initiatives you plan, you won't acheive success alone. Even a sole proprietorship needs relationships with vendors to succeed and grow. If you have an aggresive growth strategy for your company, effective partnering and delegation is the only way you will be able to reach that goal. I've seen many small businesses stagnate because their owners weren't able to communicate, delegate and relinquish authority to their teams.
Marketing to your team: Get them on board with your strategy
Once you know where you want to go, your team will be the implementers and face of the business strategy. Their success at implementation depends on your ability to communicate the strategy to them. Hence, marketing your strategy to your team is key.
To create a team that shares your vision, you must involve them in the big picture. Share appropriate revenue and other financial information to show why you've developed a certain strategy. Too often, small business owners shield employees from data, fearing what will happen if the information is made public. Employees view this secrecy as a lack of trust, and it negatively affects job performance.
Once employees understand the big picture, you must make it personal to their job roles. Show each employee or partner how his work contributes to the company's success. When an employee realizes everything she does affects the company's future in an important way, she will take more pride in her work and work harder to reach the company's goals.
Periodically give your team updates on the progress that's been made towards success (or lack thereof). Many small businesses have the bad habit of starting initiatives and never finishing them. Assure your employees with your regular updates.
Beyond Marketing: Involve your team in strategy-making
Beyond internal marketing, I advocate involving your team in the creation of your business and marketing strategy. The best way to get your team on board with your vision is to make them feel part of its development. And when you involve your team, they will think of ideas related to their job roles that you never could have.
Small business owners are notorious for micro-managing. It’s the sense of pride and attention to detail that has allowed them to become successful in the first place. But be careful. Often it is better to delegate decisions that are outside your area of expertise. When an employee approaches you with a great idea, resist the urge to pick apart the details and take ownership. You hired her for a reason. Let her take responsibility- and credit- for the implementation.
Credit for an idea also implies reward. Do your employees have an incentive to help the business succeed? This incentive doesn't always have to involve money - it could be special, public recognition or giving an employee more authority each time an idea is proven (Of course, monetary incentives are important, too).
Granting all of this trust and freedom requires that you make excellent hiring and partnering decisions. What hiring guidelines do you practice? Your hiring guidelines should be custom and specific to your business - generic interview questions like, "What is your biggest weakness?" are not enough. Determine the personality types, work experiences and attitudes that fit best with your company vision. The best cadidates also expect the best compensation - research to make sure the pay and benefits you're offering are competitive.
By having a team you can truly rely on, you will develop better strategies and implement them faster. Implementation carries its own challenges, and we will address that issue in the next and final installment of this series - Keep at it.
Want to talk about your small business' marketing? Feel free to give me a call or email me with your questions—513.833.4203 or amanda@zooinajungle.com
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