Making a success of your business as owner-manager requires a can-do attitude and the willingness to be involved in all aspects of operations. Echoing this sentiment Jason Nazar describes the typical owner-manager as follows:
"Do Whatever Needs to Be Done – We are responsible for everything. There can’t be any hubris or ego about a job too small. Growing up I saw my father work as a bookkeeper, handyman, salesman, broker, financer and even pretend manager of his own apartment buildings. Whatever needs to get done, we do."
The Catch-22 of Owner Managed Business
While this attitude certainly testifies to an admirable level of dedication and a high standard of work ethic, owner-managers are bound to get stuck in a particular dilemma:
how to do it all and do it well at the same time.
Personal Approach is Everything
Marketing, in particular, is one of the many tasks that owner-managers take on as part and parcel of their roles. In their book Small Business Management & Entrepreneurship, Stokes and Wilson points out that also in terms of marketing, entrepreneurs prefer to take a personal approach. The reason is twofold:
“A desire by the owner-manager to stay in touch with the market. The competitive edge of some small enterprises is their rapid response to individual customer needs which is facilitated by the owner-manager’s regular contact with the customer base. As most small firms are in service industries, where a more flexible response is possible, this can be an important competitive consideration over larger organisations, whose reaction time is longer.
A belief that personal contact is the most effective method of promotion. This may or may not be valid, but because owner-managers frequently do not cost their own time into the equation, this can often appear to be the case. However, as cash flow is usually the most important financial consideration of a young business, and the owner manager’s costs represent a fixed overhead, personal selling by the owner-manager is often the only available option during the start-up phase.”
Multitasking Makes You Less Efficient
Apart from the fact that a hands-on approach by owner-managers doesn’t take into consideration the value of their time, research points to the fact that multitasking dilutes the operational efficiency of individuals.
In plain language: Multi-tasking makes you stupid. In an article published on Inc.com, Jessica Stillman reports on the scientific perspective: “Doing many things at once isn’t only distracting, it actually takes points off your IQ.” Vanessa Loder, in her report published on Forbes Entrepreneur, shares the details of the research study that lead to this conclusion:
"Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London studied 1,100 workers at a British company and found that multitasking with electronic media caused a greater decrease in IQ than smoking pot or losing a night’s sleep."
How Inbound Marketing Helps Owner-Managers
Just because owner-managers are willing to do anything, doesn’t mean they should be doing everything – from sales to admin and marketing. This doesn’t mean that owner-managers have to give up on their desire for personal involvement in business. At least not in terms of marketing.
By following an Inbound Marketing methodology business owners are able to implement a personalised approach to marketing, even in their absence. Here’s how inbound marketing solves the Catch-22 of owner-managers:
The 24/7 Marketer
As the owner-manager you are probably the most qualified at providing buyers with pre-purchase information on your products and services. Nonetheless, it’s simply impossible to be on call all the time. In comes inbound marketing:
Inbound marketing takes a content focussed approach. This entails a process of creating useful content with the purpose of educating your ideal buyers, answers their questions and offering them guidance as they search for solutions and products such as yours.
By creating high-value content pieces (blogs, white papers, website pages etc), owner-managers are able to make their expertise available around the clock and to prospective buyers from all around the world.
Keeping Your Approach Personal
Owner-managers prefer a personal approach to marketing, and here’s why they’re right:
- The results of the 2013 Online Personal Experience study released by Janrain shows that nearly three-fourths (74%) of online consumers get frustrated with websites when content (e.g., offers, ads, promotions) appears that has nothing to do with their interests.
- People are much more likely to convert to leads and customers when they see relevant content. One HubSpot study managed to achieve a 20% higher conversion rate by making use of personalised marketing tools.
Inbound marketing puts buyers first, from start to finish. The content creation process is focussed around buyer personas (fictionalised representations of your ideal customers) to answer the particular questions that they might have throughout the duration of their buyer’s journey.
In addition, implementation of personalisation tools such as smart content allows you to create a personalised user experience that:
- shows different content to different users to ensure relevance
- display new content to return visitors.
Inbound Marketing for Personalised and Efficient Marketing
While personal promotional methods may be the preferred route the danger in this approach is that it might reduce marketing efficiency and burden owner-managers with undue pressure. Inbound marketing allows owner-managers to maintain a personal approach to marketing and to keep abreast of market response, without being on call 24/7.
