SME Business in UAE, Smart Thinking

Dubai, UAE, March 24, 2016:   Marketing your SME in UAE is vital and not expensive. Be your own ad agency and turbo-charge sales using that all important strategy. For SMEs to succeed, the two fundamental requirements are access to small business loans, and well-developed business skills.

No matter what the product, from hot pickles to international freight, for a small business to succeed it must utilize one thing; a strategy. Most SME owners are too busy to think about this let alone implement it, spending every minute manufacturing, improving and shifting their product, running the day to day mechanics and chasing new leads as well as their tails, but a SME with no strategy is a walk in the wilderness with no map. To get ahead they must stand still for a minute, work out their strategy, and then work it in. 

Small business is big business these days - 94% of 300,000 enterprises in the UAE are SMEs; employing over 90% of the nation’s workforce. So important are they that the Middle East's leading bank, NBAD, hosts SMEs workshops on budget marketing - it's tough to make a splash in such a big pond. Courses like theirs will help you create that all important strategy by researching the market, narrowing it down to 1 person - then presenting that 'ideal customer' with your USP - or Unique Selling Point - for your product to shine. 

A look at your sales' demographics should reveal your customers' age, sex, lifestyle, interests etc. Now you need to put a face to the figures - is there someone you know personally that fits - is it Great Aunt Sally - or the annoying kid next door that is always kicking his football into your tree? Whoever it is they are about to do you a big favour by being your target audience.

 Now for the USP. Ask any advertising agency what their biggest challenge is and they will tell you "Getting the client (that's you) to stick to the USP". As the proud perpetrator of your product it's only natural you want to tell the whole world (not just Aunt Sally) - about its many and varied facets and the myriad ways it will improve their life -but this way leads to a slow death in the market place. Confusion spells dilution - instead, your product will be known for nothing. So, find your product's USP, one that has not been used by your competitor, and then tell Aunt sally, or the kid next door, all about it, in the language they speak. Don't worry if the message doesn't appeal to you, or to your husband-slash-wife either, if it's single minded and it appeals to the kid next door, then it's on strategy. You have the ball out of the tree at last and now you can run with it.