Note: This article was originally written for the August 2024 Issue of the High Country News. It has since been repurposed and expanded for our blog to provide even more insights on thriving as a small business in your community.
Why The "Rules" Are Different For Small Businesses
Running a marketing agency out of your dorm room isn’t ideal. Freelancing for less than minimum wage when you should be studying is probably worse. But, you learn fast.
Every day, I get sketchy emails promising to boost sales or remove “toxic backlinks” (utter nonsense). Do these people forget what it’s like being broke, or are they still slumming it with the rest of us?
Sure, I sometimes abuse the ‘spend money to make money’ mythos. But secretly? I build everything from scratch using the unspeakable evils of Open-Source technology.
Because it’s cost-effective. DIY marketing is completely valid when you can’t afford the alternatives.
But I know the look it gets from professional marketers. The “everything about this is trash and you should have hired a professional” look—because I used to do it, too.
I was also 19 and an idiot.
Now, as a much-humbled adult with my own business, I’m realizing the trick isn’t to fake it “better.” The rules are actually just different for small businesses.
1. Marketing Solutions Need to Fit Your Life
Every agency will insist their solution is the best and, maybe its true. But, I see big names lose small clients all the time because they don’t understand small business owners.
When normal people invest real money in a long-term strategy, expecting immediate results, (common misconception), and it doesn’t happen they are gutted. But that kind of money is a drop in the bucket for a multi-national.
Larger companies can afford to train staff on new systems.
But business owners who still use a fax machine are probably going to see minimal results from even the most intuitive CRM systems if they’re the people who have to learn to use it.
2. Money Is Tight: So, You Need to Start Small
Forget ‘more followers’ or ‘increased traffic.’ These might be the metrics people push, but there’s probably a better solution in your price range when what you really want is to be an authority in your niche or boost in-store sales.
Especially when building a local following is more accessible than you’d think.
Most of my clients started small, sacrificing months of precious family time to leverage positive word of mouth and making do without any formal marketing training.
And sometimes, that’s all you need to get a weekend business off the ground.
Sure, not all the lessons learned were ‘right,’ but they were good enough to get these business owners started.
And, a ‘good enough’ Canva graphic is something until you can afford a real logo or a killer website. Once you’ve got the money. Call it a rebrand, and thank me later.
3. Community Engagement Is Your Life Blood
Forget about competition and rankings. Bypassing the whole feud by niching down is your new best friend. The weirdest stores thrive for years in Bragg Creek, while others don’t survive the winter for one very important reason.
The smart owners engage with their communities and think small.
Business owners here see networking as symbiotic. They “store hop” to double-check they’re not carrying products that won’t cut into the profits of other stores.
The storefronts experiment with holding stock for local startups. And all of it is completely genuine. Which is the perfect basis for strong branding.
And I Have the Examples to Prove It
The current owner at Moose Mountain General Store loves dogs. So, he keeps treats behind the front counter. Which tourists and locals love because it’s one of a handful of pet-friendly stores in town.
One of the owners at Turkey and Pistols likes cars, so they ran a promotion inviting car owners for a test drive and a free t-shirt. And it worked. There was a noticeable wave of unusually cool cars for days.
They’ve also hosted their fair share of open mic nights and other interesting community initiatives. Often based around their interests and personal hobbies.
Bragg Creek Distillers started posting fun, one-of-a-kind cocktails to their Instagram shortly after opening. Each recipe celebrating established local businesses.
Which, given their awkward location, away from the main mall area, was a smart way to let people know they were open and ready for business.
All of these are fun, genuine ways local owners found to connect with their communities and each other in a town of less than 600 people.
4. You're in a Unique Position to Leverage Those Killer Instincts
Small businesses have a lot of great things going for them. Fewer stakeholders mean faster approvals, turnaround times, and the ability to respond to community events with smart, small hyper-local campaigns.
The owners know their businesses, their customers, and their workflow by heart. So, the hours needed for research and development are significantly lower than large accounts that tend to be out of touch with their customer profiles.
Occasionally, municipalities like Rocky View County even make their consumer demographics available for small businesses to use, as well as community profiles and overviews of current growth opportunities.
And while corporations have to buy goodwill with fuzzy feel-good cause marketing, if you’re local, you get it for free. Even if customers complain about high pricing (hello, Bragg Creek import costs), people still want you to succeed.
There are tons of directories and curated Instagram accounts, all dedicated to supporting locals, that small businesses can use to build backlinks and boost their reach.
Right here in Bragg Creek, we have the Rocky View County Shop Local directory, the Bragg Creek Business Directory and several collectives that make a point of showcasing local businesses on their social media accounts.
And, if you’re in agriculture there are initiatives like Alberta Open Farm Days specifically designed to encourage local agri-tourism and rural sustainability.
It’s convenient to have quality, home-grown businesses. It keeps the money in town. And it’s just nice to know the person baking your cupcakes or sharpening your chainsaw blades.
5. You Can Learn From Your Mistakes Faster
While mistakes feel costly because your $50 budget is the equivalent of a million-dollar Coca-Cola campaign to a big corporation, it also means there are fewer eyes on you. If an ad falls flat, it’s a teaching moment, and you can try again.
Bad logo design? Awful website? You have plenty of time to iterate and get it right before you’re a household name. No one’s expecting you to hit it out of the park every time. They just want strudels.
Conclusion
As marketers, we talk about building a memorable brand, creating compelling content, and all the ‘we hit it out of the park on the first try’ case studies to impress you. But the truth is most companies aren’t built in a day, even if they could afford the greatest ad execs in the world.
It’s a process. You will fall down, get back up, and try again because you’re honing killer instincts.
I should know how hard it is to find your ‘thing.’ I’ve been doing this since 2019, starting with a crappy gaming laptop to cover rent. And I’m only just now hitting that feeling of “wow, maybe this wasn’t a terrible idea.”
It's All About the Baby Steps
Small, smart businesses leverage what they have. They build everything with blood, sweat, and tears, learn fast when they mess up, fend off hucksters, and most importantly, they try.
They experiment, network, and eventually get to the place where they can hire the big fancy ad guys. But for now, if you’re down here in the dirt with the rest of us, you’ve got options.
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