Increase your market share with a focused online strategy!

Owning a small business is no piece of cake, or pie for that matter. Pursuing the American dream and building a successful small business does take hard work. By using a focused small business marketing strategy, you can bring results that increase your market share and create, what we call, a passion and provision company.

How much time, energy and resources does it take for your small business to gain one new customer? Since it takes 6 to 7 times more resources to gain a new customer than to retain an existing customer, it makes sense to invest a portion of your resources towards delighting current customers so they become repeat customers and your brand promoters.

Happy Customers = Better ROI

But what exactly does a small business do to continue to market to current customers?

Whether you are a small business owner, managing a department, or working on a project with your team, time management is an important part of running a successful small business full of passion and provision. Keeping the plates spinning and knowing who’s on first and what’s on second is essential in keeping up with the demands of your role as well as your needs as a human being- like sleep and rest and free blocks of time to use your creativity to solve problems, envision the future, and build something bigger and better.

Messaging. Conveying. Transmitting. Sharing. Informing. Communicating.

Messaging is a critical part of running a successful small business, but how exactly should you do it? Well, this is not a simple process if you are seeking a unique meaningful message, but it can be broken down into 3 essential steps.

Craft it. Tell it. Live it. 

Let's dive deeper into all three steps:

You may have heard us, here at Half a Bubble Out, talking about what it means to create a Passion & Provision Company. We understand that building a company is more than just “business” and when it all boils down, people generally start companies for one of two reasons:

They need to “earn a living” or “provide for their family”

They have a passion, an interest, or a talent. They have found something they “enjoy.”

It is an awesome thing when both Passion and Provision are nurtured within a company. It is even more awesome when a company lives out the values it claims to have or the “face” it puts on to the world. These are the stories we don’t seem to hear about as often as some of the stories that hit the news.

Inbound 2014 at HubSpot has been a success! One of the great things about connecting with others in the same field as you is all the learning that goes on! Sharing ideas and teaching everything from the basics to the newest strategies, looking at marketing from a different perspective… If you are listening, you will learn something new or at least get a new view of something you didn’t quite see before.

That’s why we want to share a bit from Kieran Flanagan’s “The Art & Science of Content Promotion” presentation at Inbound 2014.

There are days when the tasks and to-dos of the day fade away and the important things come into focus. Today is one of those days for Americans. Whatever your age, job, religion, or hometown, we are all stopping to remember today. We are remembering 9-11 and the 2,977 who lost their lives that day, 13 years ago.

Do you want to be in a business that you enjoy, brings you a profit and doesn’t suck you dry in more ways than one?  We have your solution: You need a Passion & Provision Company.

Running a successful small business can sometimes be exhausting, overwhelming and just plain NO FUN. That’s not why you started this business in the first place! You want a business that provides for your needs but also feeds your passion. You want to do something with your life that is life giving, not life sucking. You started because you LIKED doing what you were doing. You were passionate about it. You were fueled to be creative, motivated and fulfilled.

The things involved in starting and running a successful small business are not secrets, but so many small business leaders struggle. Why? Why do 50% of small businesses fail in the first 5 years? If you can begin to understand and put a name to the important pieces of a business and name the challenges, this will be a good start to the future of running a small business. A great investment to running a business for the long haul!

So I am not here to tell you that creating a marketing plan is so easy that anyone could do it. But there are steps that you can learn to create a plan you can implement to market your small business and increase your profits.

We know Inbound marketing is a very effective long term marketing strategy for small business to use when marketing online. Building your online presence with customers who rarely turn off their electronic devices is a smart marketing plan.

But where do you start? How do you reach all those googlers?