Marketing for a small business

A small business rarely loses because of the wrong colour scheme. It loses because nobody can say, in one sentence, who it is for.

Start with who it is not for

Positioning becomes easy once you name the customers you are happy to lose. A plumber who serves only commercial buildings can say things a general plumber cannot, and gets chosen faster because of it.

One channel done properly

Most small budgets are destroyed by spreading across five channels at once. One channel worked consistently for a year beats five tried for a month.

• PositioningHow to define who you serve, what you replace and why it matters more than design.
• ChannelsSearch, referrals, local presence and paid ads: what each is good at and what each demands.
• MeasurementWhy leads and revenue beat impressions, how to attribute calls, and the vanity metrics to ignore.
• AboutAn independent primer on small business marketing.