In today’s digital world, the hot topics in the small business marketing industry tend to be things like SEO, responsive web design, pay-per-click advertising, and of course whatever the latest fad in social media happens to be in any particular week. Of course all of these things are important and have a role to play in successfully marketing a small business, but while all of these constantly changing and evolving areas have been dominating the conversation, one time-tested marketing tactic has continued to quietly provide good results for those relatively few small business owners who have truly mastered it.
I’m talking about good, old-fashioned networking, which—especially at the local level—is still one of the most cost effective marketing methods available to a small business. Unfortunately, it’s also something that very few people are good at. Just visit any chamber of commerce luncheon and in no time you’ll quickly see numerous examples of bad networking. I’m talking about the guy who passes out business cards to everyone in the room and yet couldn’t tell you the name of a single person he talked to an hour later…or the woman who is clearly more interested in the desert tray than in any meaningful business-related conversation. It’s no wonder many people concentrate on other marketing tactics when their “networking” experiences involve examples like these.
Just to be perfectly clear, this superficial type of networking is not what I’m recommending as a way to grow your business. What I am recommending is developing long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals who are ready and willing to help you accomplish your business goals. If that last sentence sounded familiar to you, it might be because it’s taken from the mission statement of the world’s largest small business networking and referral organization, BNI (Business Network International). By participating in local business networking groups like BNI, business owners can not only improve their networking skills, they can also meet strategic partners and get referrals—lots of referrals. In a second, I’ll give you five specific ways that local networking groups can help grow a small business, but first I want to define exactly what kind of groups I’m talking about.
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