For most SMEs, marketing is not high on the priority list, which causes them to miss out on growth opportunities. The gym and the local bike rental company usually do little in the way of 'product innovation' and often limit their marketing to the occasional door-to-door flyer or advertisement. Startups have it better in terms of marketing, often at relatively low costs. What can SMEs learn from the marketing of startups?
The 2015 TNS NIPO MKB Online Monitor showed that less than a third of the SMEs surveyed consider (online) marketing important. When marketing was done, it was largely ad hoc in nature. 70 percent of entrepreneurs did not or hardly plan their marketing activities and the same percentage did not reserve a budget.
The NIPO monitor does not really go into the why of hosptial ceos mailing list these figures. Through my marketing consultancy work for SMEs, among others, I have the idea that there are two causes for the low enthusiasm for marketing. Firstly, there is a lack of knowledge. That is not so strange. The baker usually knows about baking bread, the bicycle rental company about renting bicycles; both usually have no marketing knowledge and experience. A second cause is, I think, related to the supposedly high costs that marketing would entail.
Startups are also SMEs in terms of size. The interesting thing is that they regularly demonstrate that marketing, or ' growth hacking ' as startups prefer to call it, does not have to be expensive. Startups are used to achieving maximum results with limited financial resources.
But there is more that SMEs could learn from startups. Startup organizations are used to looking at their product (which in many cases is 'disruptive'), the customer and the way they approach the market in a fresh way. The way they do this can be a source of inspiration for SME organizations.
Below is a top 5 of inspiring marketing practices from many startups.