Spotlight on Marketing and PR Buzzwords: What To Do With Them As a Small Business Owner

Buzzwords are thrown around a lot in discussions about building a business strategy. As the meaning behind the buzzwords develops, without big company big budgets, how are you supposed to compete as a small business owner? Have a look at a few of the most common buzzwords used in the marketing and public relations world and the things you should take into consideration when strategizing:

Brand Experience

With the introduction of extravagant public stunts and innovative branded content, the challenge as a small business owner is how to differentiate your business and stand out from the crowd using the resources you have available to you. Focusing on grassroots and guerrilla tactics will allow you to create maximum impact with fewer resources than your more established competitors. With a focus on the right messaging and targeting the right audience, your efforts don’t necessarily need to be as polished as the big guys, but they need to be creative and well-executed.

Content Marketing

Where marketing used to focus on traditional and direct methods, many organizations are jumping on the content marketing bandwagon. It is all about generating owned media that encourages audience engagement while getting the brand message out. With so many large organizations hiring content gurus, smaller businesses need to focus on creating an overall strategy that will allow for content to be used across multiple channels to get the most for the resources allotted to content generation. To get the most out of your content marketing strategy, your content should focus on what your audience wants to see. It is all about building trust and brand awareness through carefully thought out content.

Digital strategy

Building an online presence is essential. Some business owners look at social media separate from their online strategy, but it is important to integrate and see it as one unified digital strategy to find efficiencies. A website is essential to showcase an organization’s strengths and capabilities. The next step is social media. Any small business owner who has tried to get social media going will know that this takes a deceptively large amount of resources. For small businesses, the challenge is to streamline and select channels wisely. You can’t be all things to all people – you need to be where your audience is and focus on building an online community that way.

Innovation

This is a term that is thrown around a lot and with it comes discussion of research and development that is associated with extreme budgets just to try to stay ahead of the competition. Small businesses need to first understand who they are before they can even attempt innovation. Once an identity is established, innovation can happen in a niche market with least competition. The other challenge is that of resources. Often, innovation comes from collaboration. Find a group of entrepreneurs to brainstorm with. There are existing groups that meet already, or start your own.