Sean: What are essential marketing strategies for a small business?

A lot of people think that marketing, actually that's, you know, we don't need that so much as long as we have inventory and we have salespeople, that’s already fine. But one of the most important things actually is marketing. Because when you have something good going for you, marketing will be the bringer of momentum. And you need momentum because momentum makes you look better than you really are. And if you're a small business, you need to look better than you really are.

But I would say the essential marketing would be word of mouth strategies because it's free. It's the best form of marketing. It's the most authentic form of marketing because people will share who you are and your story and your product and service with other people only if they really believe in it and only if they really have a positive experience with it. So not a lot of people think about that, “I need to have a word of mouth strategy.”

Like one of the best restaurants that I find does this. Not that's in a strange place, meaning they're not super popular, but they're also not, you know, they don't have like super few brands. One of the restaurants that I love doing this is Yabu. Because when I went to Yabu and had to wait for like 45 minutes for my food and I didn't complain. Like I didn't complain because I'm used to waiting. I don't mind waiting unless I have a meeting or I’m in a rush. But during that time, I was just winding down, meetings were done. This was a long time ago. And I waited 45 minutes for my food. I was with my wife, Apple, and she was also very patient. We didn't complain at all.

And what they did out of the blue is just tell us, “So sorry, your food is served late. We're so sorry and you can have this and it's free.” And I'm like, I didn't even tell you that it's taking too long. I didn't even follow up on the order. They just knew that it took a while or I don't know, maybe the waiter forgot about us and then he got embarrassed about it, I don't know. I really don't know what happened, but what I do know is I didn't say a word to them. And I told them, “No, I want to pay for it. Cause like, if one of you guys are going to pay for it, I'd feel bad.” So I even said that I want to pay for the food because I don't mind waiting, but they insisted for me not to pay for it and said, “None of us here are going to pay for it. It's in the goodwill of the company.” Which is amazing because they empowered their people to be able to make decisions like that. And I’m talking about it right now in the podcast. Right?

That's word of mouth marketing. So I think that is an essential strategy. It doesn't take a lot, but not a lot of people think about it because it's nothing sexy. It's not sexy at all to have a word of mouth marketing strategy. It's sexier if you have a viral FB campaign or viral this, whatever. Right? It's sexier to have that. It's more in. It's more hip. But if I'm going to choose, it's always going to be word of mouth.

JM: Ask yourself, what do I have right now that won't take you to spend money because you're still starting? So what is that one thing that you can do that won’t take too much financial effort, right? And it's really word of mouth. So it's really important that you give value to what you do. It's so important to focus first on what you can give to the people around you or the market that you want to reach. It will stick to your memory and you have nothing to do, but to share that experience because you were able to really find value in how they serve you. So be unforgettable and people will just, that’s free marketing. Right? People will just share about you.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/leadershipstack

Join our community and ask questions here: from.sean.si/discord

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leadershipstack