If you are a small business owner who is struggling to grow their business, you may need a fresh pair of eyes to help bring back your focus and that is where a Marketing Mentor steps in.
As small business owners we know how hard it is to keep on track with running every element of your business. You’re the accountant, the buyer, the networker, the website manager, the list goes on.
When it comes to Marketing it’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that I’ve posted on social media today so tick box, Marketing is done.
I often see businesses which have a great product or service yet are treading water or have lost their mojo and are at a crossroads as to whether to continue.
As Tony Robbins says “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten”
You need to change it up
So, what can a Mentor bring to your business.
A Mentor is someone who acts as an advisor, guide, educator, and shares wisdom from relevant experience to help develop others.
What are the differences between a Coach and a Mentor?
Although there are similarities to a Coach one of the main distinctions is that a Mentor is more Directive with their approach, providing step-by step guidance and advice to help you with day to day challenges. A mentor is great listener, advisor and wants to share knowledge and expertise.
“A Mentor is a brain to pick, an ear to listen and gives you a push in the right direction”
John C Crosby
A coach tends to be more Participative in their approach. Rarely offering specific advice or their opinions to influence individuals. Asking powerful questions so that people come up with the answers themselves. Believing that the client has all the answers inside themselves and what is holding them back is their own limited beliefs.
So how can a Marketing Mentor help?
1. Fast Track your Marketing Skills and Knowledge
If you’ve limited Marketing experience you can spend a lot of time trawling through all the “free” advice and webinars that are out there and at the end you may have found 1 or 2 snippets of information but then struggle to apply it to your business.
A Marketing Mentor will help you learn by applying their experience and knowledge to your business and situation.
A Mentor can help you understand how to shape and direct your Marketing activity matching the right channels with your product or service, so you stop the scatter-gunning approach that often happens.
2. Brings a fresh pair of eyes on your business
Sometimes you’re so close to your business, your “baby” that you struggle to think out of the box. A new idea, a different approach, a focus on the products or services that are really working and the confidence to drop those that are not.
A Mentor can be that sounding board, will challenge you and be objective but also help you focus and prioritise, so you feel less overwhelmed.
3. Takes you back to the foundations and provides a checkpoint
We’ve seen so many new businesses launch over the last couple of years but how often have they launched with a product or service without having the right foundations in place.
- Have they really looked at the market to make sure their product or service is needed and what solution does it bring?
- What pricing strategy is in place?
- Who are their best customers and segments to target and how are they going to reach them on the budgets that they have?
- What is their USP that they can leverage in their communications and storytelling?
- How do you measure your success?
The list goes on. But without these foundations in place, it makes Marketing so much harder, and leads to a broad-brush approach which can waste time, money, and energy.
With our Marketing Programmes we take you back and revisit those elements to make sure that you have that solid base in place to craft your Marketing proposition.
Once you have your proposition nailed then you have confidence and clarity to talk about your business and the direction you need to take it.
4. Shares their experience and knowledge to develop others
A mentor is also someone who thrives on seeing others develop and grow from the sharing of their expertise and knowledge base. I know from my perspective, I’ve had over 30 years of Marketing experience from large scale corporate with multi, million-pound budgets and large teams to running my own small business, wearing all the hats, and working on a shoestring budget.
I am now at a stage where I really want to help others where they feel “stuck”
Getting back to the basics and re-visiting their Marketing foundations, working through a strategy, and creating a Marketing plan that is focused, achievable and delivers the results.
5. Helps you see future perspectives and belief in yourself
Once the foundations are secure, it’s all about looking forward and finding the gaps and opportunities for business growth.
Business owners can easily be diverted moving from one thing to another without really stepping back and considering is it right for the market, do customers need this, you may think it is but what do they think.
With limited time and budget how do you know which of these great ideas has the strongest legs for you to focus on.
A Marketing Mentor will listen, advise, and challenge you to really hone down the “biggest win” Instead of scatter-gunning, they will help bring focus and direction so that the future planning is secure, and you grow your business in a manageable and sustainable way.
Do you need help?
With Market Explorers, I’ve set up a series of workshops and programmes to help you put together the pieces of the Marketing Jigsaw.
Whether it’s small group learning options in a face-to-face environment or more of a deep dive in a bespoke 1:1 session, I’ll help you get “unstuck” giving you focus and direction.
We’ll help cut through the “Marketing Jargon” so you can ask questions in a safe environment and then focus on the bits that are relevant to you.
With practical tools and workbooks, we will go back and revisit the Marketing foundations, home in on your customer needs and wants, identify your USP and set out your goals and objectives for your Marketing.
Once these are in place we can work on your strategy and planning, opening your eyes to opportunities in the offline world as well as the online world. It’s not all about social media!
We’re not talking about “silly” numbers that you often see in these marketing programmes online. This is face to face, expertise and support bringing a focus on your business and you.
