I had a conversation with a fellow small businessperson today who had one of those "good" problems to solve. As he put it, he has never done better with his business. However, he anticipates some critical changes in his industry and is giving a great deal of thought as to his next move marketing his business. He asked me for my thoughts.
Indeed, what a wonderful problem! Most businesses are anxious to fill their pipeline. This one wants added insurance to keep it full.
There are two courses that suggest themselves. First would be to set in motion a strategy to derive more revenue from existing sources. Second, new revenue from a new segment of the market. I think the second, in his case, is the true "low hanging fruit."
Is there a challenge? absolutely. In my friend's industry there has not been a great deal of creativity marketing to the proverbial next generation. The bigger players have not been especially good at departing from the older forms of advertising and promotion. Having the gift of time and money (in the sense that his current revenue goals are already met) gives him the space to experiment. I am fairly certain the answer is going to be found in mobile form. I am further of the belief that he will want to get there with some kind of affiliations. That is, a consumer's desire to learn more about a topic X will (if we do it right) connect to more information from related topic Y.
Can my friend get to the finish line early enough? I think so. And for all of us, the time to develop our "next generation" marketing strategy is now.
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