With more and more small businesses getting started allowing India to be a home to 14 million SMBs, brand recognition becomes a huge challenge. Consumers are surrounded with a lot of options to choose from which makes customer retention and brand loyalty really difficult. A popular myth that most small business entrepreneurs carry in their minds is that Marketing of a product is always expensive. Many businesses consider marketing budgets as conglomerations of expenses rather than investments.

In reality, marketing is actually an investment because the chances of succeeding for a company are very low unless one gets the word out to their customers. Effective marketing can be done by various cost-effective ways too. Digital marketing is one of the cost-effective marketing tools that generates good results. But there is a wide gap in mapping the marketing need of the business with the digital mediums used for achieving it.

Understanding the profile of the customer is again integral for cost-effective marketing. Knowledge of whether the SME is in the manufacturing sector and the products are commodity centered or if it is from service sector plays a significant role in the determining the marketing strategy of that particular SME. Without a thorough understanding of the objectives and expected results from social media for the customer it is highly difficult to map those expectations with the desired outcomes. Marketing also needs to be targeted upon intangible factors like Good Will, Reputation, etc. to communicate the essence of the organization and tools and platforms like Digital media help in building brands.

Many people also hold this belief that technology is purely technical, which may not be entirely true. Technology also refers to being updated with the advancements happening around. As far as the technical part for technological advancements are concerned there are specialized people present to help around. The primary focus area for SMEs should concentrate on the application aspect of any advancement.Also ensuring the effective utilization of these advancements in the product enhancement and spreading awareness about the product in the minds of its targeted audience.

You may look for “The Legendary Series of 7 Hats”

Hat 1 – SMB/MSME Specific,  Sprint 2 – Cost Effective Marketing for SMBs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-W0Icezyvg

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