Small Business IT Firm Marketing Strategy Mistakes

As a small business IT company, you may not need a full-blown business plan. But don’t let that stop you from thinking through the major portions of one, including the marketing section. The U.S. Small Business Administration website advises you to think of marketing as essentially, “How are you going to create customers?”

There is no one way to create a marketing strategy. But whether you formalize one in a business plan or just have one in mind, there are two common mistakes to avoid:

1. Doing it all at once – From your experience in the industry, you may have all kinds of ideas how to generate customers for your small business IT firm. Don’t try to do it all at once. Consider designing your marketing strategy in phases – either in scope, or geography. Define your first target market, and then identify potential secondary and tertiary markets. You can always re-evaluate this plan later.
   
   

2. So high-level as to be meaningless – A lot of companies rush through the planning and just make generic goals that really have no meaning. For example, they imagine they’ll do some Internet marketing, without a real plan to execute that. Set specific goals: get the website designed and SEO optimized; How will you market the website? Email marketing, or writing for online sites? Do you need to hire or contract someone to help you with this?

One reason to create a marketing plan for your small business IT company is that a year or two out, you may suddenly realize you’ve tapped out all of your direct contacts and the work is drying up. Take some time to evaluate the direction you want to go so you can make concrete steps in that direction.

Do you have a marketing plan for your small business IT company? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.  

And to follow-through on the tips introduced in this short article, be sure to download your free copy of the special report on the Top 10 IT Marketing Strategies For Consistently Attracting New Business Clients to Your Small IT Business. 

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