Small and Medium Enterprises challenges are faced every day in this new Digital World of information overflow. The challenge is to be heard in an ocean of complete “noise” and get new customers to their businesses.

This isn’t an easy task, you might think. You’re probably right if you don’t have the necessary skills and knowledge to contradict this idea.

However, there hasn’t been a time so interesting and so democratic for every one stand out not depending so much in the marketing budget. Google’s Power has born with this new frontier. Google has become a huge player and has so much revenue because of companies like your own. It has become the epitome of business democracy and has placed almost every company in the same racing car. The only difference now is still the budget that you have facing other big companies that invest a lot and make many ripples in the pond.

Our advice is: Don’t worry about what you don’t have! Think and Act with what you do have!

So, you’ve got access to the same tools, the same media and the same channels. What you have, and they don’t is independence and the ability to make fast decisions. You’re leaner, faster and agile. You don’t have to attend board meetings to decide how you will play in this market. You make the informed decision at the moment you need to. And above all, you’ve got a STORY. Your business, your product/service story to share with your market.

So focus on what you do have and make it work for your small or medium business.

Best Practices to Tackle Small and Medium Enterprises Challenges

The main and prime advice is to surround yourself with good professionals. People that really understand how to take advantage of the new media. Read and learn a lot about these tools and the best practices. There are many examples of simple and candid people that think that these tools work the same way that the offline media. To mass-market everyone with spammy messages by email and blog comments, forums, social networks, and so on. This is not the way to do it!

Case Studies

There’s nothing better to learn than by case studies. This is because you see how other businesses have done to achieve success or failure. We can learn much by the winners, but most of the times, we learn more by mistakes.

One thing is theory and someone talking about what works; another thing is really learning from real experiences. However, don’t take it as a Bible. These case studies were done in a different time period, in a different environment and with a distinct brand and story. You can learn from it, but you must invent yourself and make your personal marketing plan to succeed. Adapt to your scenario!

Best Tools

There’s a huge array of tools at your disposal online. Some tools aggregate almost everything in just one system. Others are best at one or two situations, but less efficient in another. When choosing a tool to help you spread the word about your SME (Small and Medium Enterprises), you must research a lot about each one’s features and capabilities, making special attention to reviews by other people. See what other people said about the customer care, functions and effectiveness of those tools.

There’s also a huge variety of pricing. You can find from “free” to highly paid tools in this market. What you must find is the Best Value for Money compromise to choose from. Remember that there’s nothing free. You’re paying with your work, data or even your effort and investment loss. So, take special attention to that and don’t choose only based on price. Most of the times pay off to choose a professional paying feature than to go for the cheapest one and then find out that it’s useless for what you’ve aimed for.

Community

Having a community around your brand is ideal. To make such, you also need to join other communities with the same focus and interest and really actively contribute to that community. So join Facebook Groups, Reddit Communities and the such, and forums and so much more. Search for communities with the same focus of your brand and start providing value.

Do so, by delivering great tips and tricks, content or even being there to help any way people need. Remember, this is the oldest trick in the sales department. When people think they owe you something since you’ve given them value, they tend to answer. And the exchange currency, in this case, is giving you the attention and welcome your story. So, give, give and give some more. Then you can say something about you. But only when you have their permission and attention to do so.

Create Advocates to overcome Small and Medium Enterprises Challenges

After creating a community and a group of delighted customers make them your advocates. To make this happen, you must give them tools. What kind of tools may you ask? Well, there are tons of ways to empower them to refer you to a friend or a colleague in need, from simple business cards to small referral kits that include some way to entice the sharing. For instance, you give your special customers a sweepstake rewarding them for their loyalty and ask them to share the news with their network as well. Imagine the great referral reviews and viral communication coming from it.

But you must, above all, respect your customers. Please don’t be pushy or even lame asking them to do that. You must only ask them kindly if they don’t mind doing something if you provided so much more value that they feel just welcomed to do that.

Be Amazing

This is where you can really make a difference from the Big Boys. One thing is doing something right, but when you really start to stand out from the great noise is when you have an awesome product/service, and people become complete fans of it. It’s not a cliche, you know? You must amaze your customers by providing something worth remember and talk with their friends. If you don’t have this… you must re-invent yourself!

Have more suggestions to add to the article? Feel free to do so and share your thoughts. Remember, we learn from other peoples experiences as well.