I’m an Fractional CMO to Small Business Owners — Here are 3 Insights About Them

In 2012 I started a marketing firm, Indispensable Marketing that works with service-based business owners to approach marketing as a process and develop and define the strategic elements of their marketing before we ever consider the tactical elements.

During this time my firm has had the privilege to operate in a strategic marketing role and me as a fractional CMO for our clients in different industries. I've worked and continue to work with organizations from accounting, training, tradeshow services, staffing, home repair services, commercial repair services to consulting.

Whenever I meet with prospective fractional CMO clients I'm struck by how similar the challenges are across industries. Yes, they are usually focused on growth, bright and passionate, protective when it comes to their company. But they are also some other things I notice across the board:

#1. They've been burned by ineffective marketing or a bad marketing approach

Because the resource of time is scarce in a small business they often get hunted down by marketing service firms, salespeople, and consultants all looking to sell under the heading of marketing one tactic or some outsourced element, whether it be social media, SEO, graphic design, SEO, content, web design, etc. The sea of these different types of offerings and service vendors means it's very likely they have been burned by ineffective marketing or a bad marketing approach.

I personally think this is a learning curve for a growing small business owner. It's sort of like dating. You never know what a good date looks and acts like unless you've dated some bad ones. I've had clients admit the decision to work in a process way and hire me in a fractional CMO capacity took so long because the whole "diagnosis before prescription" approach didn't appeal to them as much as the let's go do (without proper research) some SEO, website work, message creation, branding, advertising, etc.

Read this: How to Build a Marketing Engine That Gets Results

#2. They view marketing as an important investment

Using the dating analogy here: The great thing about our small business clients is that even though they've had some bad dates with marketing it doesn't stop them from getting married. Yes, they view (good) marketing as an important investment — something they spend on now for the betterment of their business over the long haul.

In some ways, because we work with service-based business owners they see marketing as an extension of their current efforts - building the know, like and trust needed to speed up sales cycles with prospective and current clients.

They also view the development and maintenance of marketing assets critical to their marketing success. These assets come in different forms based on the businesses core strategy but can be:

• Website
• Keywords
• Business listing and/or Preferred vendor list
• Newsletter
• Proposals
• Email List
• Process, Methodology, and Point-of-view
• Materials and Collateral
• Marketing Training
• Employee marketing education
• Articles
• Brand - logo, guidelines, graphics
• Marketing Technology

These assets are not a silver bullet, and they will not deliver instant results. Marketing should deliver slow, steady and often incremental results, but it only will when business owners commit and invest in their marketing.

#3. They seek geometric growth not just linear growth

This can translate to my small business clients seeking to create happy customers through personalized and great client experiences. They want long-term relationships that will grow over time and understand marketing doesn't end once the sale is done. To them, the end of the initial service is only the beginning of the relationship. They keep in touch with clients from that point forward in a manner that nurtures and further develop relationships.

This results in strategic conversations around growing geometrically with more sales to current clients through:

• enlarging the size of each transaction
• having more transactions per year
• tapping the referral motivation of current customers

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