Often it’s the little things that matter the most

You are marketing your business far more than you think you are. Good or bad, you are constantly creating impressions about your business to others.

This includes your business cards, phone manner, email signature, staff uniform and other seemingly small aspects of your business. They all have the ability to impact decision making when it comes to people:

• forming an opinion of you and your business,
• considering to do business with you,
• putting a value to your business (this is important when it comes to discussing how much your offering is worth), or
• feeling confident about referring you to others.

When it comes to making your business stand out (hopefully in a good way!), the little things really do matter. Think about the following, for example:

• The way you present your quotations and invoices
• Staff uniform or meeting attire
• The cleanliness of your company vehicle
• Business cards
• Punctuality
• Answering machine message
• Customer service
• How quickly you respond to inquiries
• Email signature
• Your spelling and tone in written communication
• Your packaged offerings
• Social media use
• Your reputation
• How polite and courteous you and your staff are
• Reception area
• Ease of sales process
• Signage

As you can see, more facets of your business fall into the category of marketing than you might think.

Many people make the mistake of only focusing their marketing resources on a few more obvious tactics such as advertising, your website or email campaigns with little regard to all the ‘little’ aspects that make up the big picture and influence your clients and potential clients.

For example, I have a client that provides a medical service and typically has uncomfortable, impatient or worried patients sitting in the waiting room. What those patients see, hear and feel in that waiting room makes a huge difference to their perception of the business and their overall experience. A simple kind gesture from the receptionist and the offer of something to drink and/or read while they wait may seem small but it has a big impact.

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When you consider that you have just as many opportunities to create a fantastic image for your business as you have to create a poor image, you can see why it is so important to have a well thought-out marketing plan that takes into account all of these opportunities in a logical way. You can also see why it is important to regularly assess the ‘little’ aspects of your business.

If you get just one of the ‘little’ things wrong, it can take more than one big, obvious marketing tactic to repair the poor impression made of your business.
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The little things really do count. What are some ‘little things’ that you are proud of in your business?