Marketing basics for small businesses

Marketing is everything you do so that the right people know about your business, trust it, and choose it. It is not only adverts. Your shop sign, the way you answer WhatsApp messages, your prices and what customers say about you to their friends are all marketing.

Start with one customer

The most common mistake small businesses make is trying to sell to "everyone". When you talk to everyone, nobody feels you are talking to them. Pick the customer you serve best and describe them as one real person:

• Who are they? Age, where they live, what they do during the day.
• What problem do they have that your product or service solves?
• Where do they spend time? Taxi rank, church, campus, Facebook groups, TikTok, the school gate.
• What makes them trust a business? A friend's recommendation, photos of real work, a physical address, fast replies.

This description is called a customer profile. You can have more than one later, but start with one.

The four questions of marketing

Every marketing decision answers one of these:

1. Product: what exactly are you selling, and why is it better or different for this customer?
2. Price: what will they pay, and does it cover your costs (see B4)?
3. Place: where and how do they buy: at your stall, by delivery, online, through a reseller?
4. Promotion: how do they hear about you and why do they act now?

If sales are slow, check all four. Often the problem is not promotion. It may be the wrong price, or buying is too hard.

Small budget, big effort

You do not need a big budget to market well. You need consistency. A spaza shop that posts its daily specials in the same WhatsApp status at the same time every morning will often beat a business that runs one expensive advert and then goes quiet.

Free and low-cost channels that work in South Africa include word of mouth, WhatsApp, a Google Business Profile, community radio shout-outs, posters at the right spots, and partnerships with businesses that serve the same customers but don't compete with you.

A South African example

Thandeka bakes cakes in Pietermaritzburg. At first she advertised to "anyone who likes cake" and got a few orders from friends. When she focused on one customer, busy mothers planning children's birthday parties, everything changed. She posted photos of party cakes every Thursday, joined two local parents' groups, and offered a free name topper with orders placed a week ahead. Her orders doubled within three months, without spending money on adverts.