Writing to Sell to Small Business

My project for today was re-writing a client brochure that their sales reps are using to sell advertising services to small business.

My first draft was to shorten the original up, make it less wordy, less of a "wall-of-text". I made sure to use the right words and feelings, such as "You are focusing on your business, your services and your customers: We focus on writing the content on the Internet to bring them to you" (that's a paraphrase; I'm not quoting directly from material written specifically for a client) . The right words are used, the clients' expertise was highlighted and the benefits stated.

So I re-read my work and then (finally) the thought that should have been first came to mind:

"I am a small business owner: Perhaps a mechanic or a flower shop. I know I have to and want to do some advertising, to grow my business and it has to be online, because my competitors are doing so and doing so with success."

There is small business and there is REAL small business

Where the wording - and the thought process changes is the realization of the difference in selling to real small business; Not the governments' definition of 'a business that earns less than $2,000,000 per year' - but the real-world definition of a business that brings in anywhere from $50,000 - $150,000 per year. (There are of course, smaller, but they most likely simply do not have an ad budget, yet)

In essence: Asking a small business to spend $200 - $500 per month is, in some cases, asking the business owner to cut into their grocery money for the month: When you are writing for this target market: If you were in that same position: Would you do it ? Is what you are reading making you confident that it is worth the potential belt-tightening for the month or two it might take to ramp up, to see the benefits ? Can you read this and be confident you could explain to your spouse why the household kitty is going to be smaller for a while ?

I've been writing sales copy for a long, long time; As it turns out, writing B2B content, urging the expenditure of hundreds or thousands of dollars to companies that are already quite profitable is comparatively easy: Writing sales copy for a business owner that, while knowing what you are selling is a Good Thing, also knows that he or she is going to take a pay cut until it takes effect: That's a whole different ball game.

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