Article one: Social Media Marketing in a Small Business: A Case Study
This article recognizes that marketing is an important activity that is crucial for the success of business. Small businesses rely more today on exploiting marketing opportunities that are oriented more through the word of the mouth. In particular, when small business enterprises want to acquire new customers, they rely on establishing relationships with customers through recommendations. This was an effective way for small businesses in a business environment where technology had not taken root. However, with today’s changing business environment, small businesses need to leverage technology capabilities that have been enabled by social media so as to create powerful networks and relationships with the customers. Through social media, businesses can achieve a better understanding of their customer’s needs and hence tailor a marketing message that will respond to their concerns (Cox, 2012). In the present world, customers are now more than ever hanging out on social networking sites with the intention of finding information of whatever nature they need. Understanding how customers use social media presents multiple opportunities for a small business organization. In particular, small business organizations that take advantage of social media best practices promote positive consumer relationships that enable the businesses to thrive, even with little monetary costs. This article also argues that social media has changed marketing strategies so as to incorporate consumer generated content in marketing messages (Cox, 2012). The article also argues that in the social media era, business owners have diminished control of the timing, content and frequency of the marketing message, and this is left totally in the hands of the customers.
This article is critical in analyzing the use of social media as a better alternative means of marketing for small business organizations as compared to an earlier form of relying on words of mouth from company customers for marketing purposes. However, this article is limited in that the arguments represent generalizations across companies in all locations and industries. This article fails to recognize that the use of social media as a marketing tool does not cause a uniform impact on the overall business performance for all business areas. In some business areas, the use of social media tools is not an effective tool for marketing.
Article two: Marketing Strategy for Small Business
Marketing can be described as a process of satisfying a business organization’s stakeholders and creating value for them. This article identifies the stakeholders as persons or organizations with a relationship with a business unit. The stakeholders are affected by any marketing action that is taken by a business organization. For small business organizations, the responsibility of the management is focusing their marketing efforts to create value for customers, employees, suppliers, owners and the community. This article argues that a company’s success levels are determined by how well it manages and satisfies the relationship it has with its stakeholders. In this article, the authors argue that marketing operates under a set of assumptions that include knowing what the stakeholders want, knowing who they are and their needs, having knowledge on the forces that impact these customers such as competition, and having an efficient way of delivering the satisfaction (Jensen, 1996). As such, marketing for small business organizations can be viewed as a set of carrying out things, a state of the mind and a view of the way business ought to be conducted. Therefore, marketing efforts should incorporate views of all business players so that some are not harmed at the expense of others.
This article is important in understanding the role of every employee and manager in marketing for a small business enterprise. In particular, this resource acknowledges that in the age of diversity, marketing should recognize the fact that small businesses should recognize that marketing is not just the responsibility of the marketing manager but all the workers in the organization. While the article makes a legitimate claim that marketing should be viewed as a way of doing business that recognizes all stakeholders in the creation of value, it fails to state explicitly how a balance should be achieved for the benefit of all stakeholders. This article also seems to be shifting the responsibility of marketing duties from the business owner to other employees in the business. This poses great risks for small businesses in assuming that no one in particular will be held directly responsible for failing to achieve the marketing objectives in the business.
Article three: 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success
This article argues that small businesses have a big disadvantage in doing multiple things at the same time. Small businesses will target multiple clients and customers at the same time. This article suggests that for small businesses to be effective in their marketing efforts, they must narrow down and focus consistently on one ideal client. It argues that small businesses should not try to be all things and do all things but rather should be focused in succeeding to serve a narrowly defined market segment by differentiating its efforts from those of the competitors. This article recognizes that targeting a new customer who is not ideal for the company through marketing strategies will hinder real growth for the company (Jantsch, 2011). It actually creates detractors to the growth of the small enterprise. Therefore, this article suggests that small business owners must discover what ideal clients look like and then build a marketing strategy that will aim at attracting more ideal clients into the business. A perfect customer for a small business organization could be a group of 6-8 long term clients or companies which the business should be concerned to create others like them through their marketing efforts. To differentiate the business products and services from other rivals in order to keep and attract new ideal customers, small businesses have the responsibility of creating educative content on digital and print media. This will create awareness about what products the organization offers for its target customers.
This article is only limited in its emphasis on ideal customers. This article seems to suggest that business organizations should ideally limit their marketing efforts to only a limited group of customers who only are likely to bring economic value to business organizations. Marketing strategies in business organizations were meant to arouse interests among potential clients. Focusing on particular clients and customers who possess certain characteristics limits the scope of the marketing efforts by business organizations. This, in turn, denies business organizations opportunities to create new more customers.
References
Cox, S. (2012). Social media marketing in a small business: a case study.
Jantsch, J. (2011). Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide. Thomas Nelson Inc.
Jensen, K. B. (1996). Marketing Strategy for Small Business. Concept Press.
