Networking is something that most small businesses know about and understand its importance. It can help you build relationships, gain new customers, and sometimes it can set you off in a completely different direction!

But what if you’re not sure where to start? Do you know what type of marketing networking will suit your business? Do you know where to start looking for those networking connections?

The aim of this article is to answer some of those questions and more…

What is networking?  

Networking is about interacting with other small businesses, your target audience, and potential customers…in fact interacting with anyone for mutual benefit. This might sound a bit harsh but let me explain. If you are struggling with something in your business, or you have a challenge you’re not sure how to solve, networking within groups on social media, or joining face to face networking groups can help – someone will be able to give you advice or provide you with an answer.

In the same way, you’ll be able to share your knowledge or skills to help other businesses in your network. This will help to strengthen relationships with those people.

Networking plays an important part in any marketing strategy, as it’s an inexpensive and very powerful way to find opportunities with customers, suppliers, mentors, marketing experts, investors, and other sellers or service-based businesses.

It can also help you to raise the profile of your business, share new ideas, increase your sales, find out information to see how your business is doing against competitors and helps you keep up with any latest trends in your particular niche.  

Networking is a skill like any other. Many small businesses feel very anxious about it, but like anything else, the more you do it, the more you get involved in group discussions and take the time to get to know people in the groups you belong to, it’s a skill you can fully develop. The more you do it, the easier it is.

What are the different types of networking?

Networking is one of the best ways to grow your business and your brand. It’s important to help you reach people you wouldn’t otherwise have met on your own.  

The four main types of networking are:

• Business to business (B2B) – the exchange of products, services, or information between businesses – simply put, one business selling to or supplying another business. This can be products or services or could be a manufacturer selling goods to a business, so they can make their products.   
• Business to consumer (B2C) – this type of marketing targets the consumer, so businesses selling directly to individual buyers.
• Social media networking – this is probably the most well-known way to network for small businesses. Social media helps you engage with your target audience and your customers. You can find out information about what people like, attract new customers, get feedback, and build customer loyalty. You can also use it to advertise, promote giveaways, do market research, increase traffic to your website and develop your brand.   
• Professional association membership organisations – this would be joining professional groups where you must become a member, such as the Chamber of Commerce for example, and are largely face to face groups. They usually incur a fee, but often professional groups run networking evenings where they have guest speakers or training sessions to help you with your marketing.  

Networking as a tactic for your marketing plan

Most small businesses know that networking is important, especially at the start of a business, but it is also important no matter where you are with your business. It’s about creating relationships that in turn could turn into a collaboration, sales or create advocates for your business. So, it is important to add Networking as a goal on your marketing plan.

The goal could be broken down into the skills you need to develop for networking, (all kinds, not just on social media), such as:

• Listening skills
• Self confidence
• Person skills
• Making a good first impression
• Maintaining eye contact
• Patience
• How to show passion for your business

I’ve talked about this before, but an ‘elevator pitch’ helps make networking easy. An elevator pitch is a short paragraph that takes you 30 seconds or less to say, which describes what your business does. It should include what you do, what makes your business special, what sets it apart from others in your field and why someone should do business with you. Check out the blog I wrote about this.

Having an elevator pitch would be part of your networking goal.

Common mistakes

Networking might not come easily to you at first, but you soon get the hang of it. Practice makes perfect!

These are some of the things to avoid when networking:

• Don’t focus on sales – networking is about building your brand and reputation. Instead ask questions about other peoples’ businesses and focus on building a rapport that will eventually lead to a sales conversation. But that might not be for weeks or even months!
• Don’t talk more that you listen! Yes, it is good to have to opportunity to tell your business story but listen to and show a genuine interest in other businesses.
• If you’re attending a face-to-face networking event, think about dress code. Sometimes formal dress is a requirement, sometimes it’s just casual, so always worth checking.
• If you’re attending an event, be prepared. Decide what you want to achieve – is it meeting potential customers? Getting referrals, or do you just want to build connections with people who might be able to help your business grow? Knowing what you want will enable you to decide how you will approach people.
• Not following up – if you say you will get back to someone, make sure that you do. If you exchange telephone numbers or email addresses, drop them a mail just to say hi and remind them who you are, or give them a quick call to do the same. If it’s someone you’d like to work with or get to know better, suggest a coffee, and catch up – or a Zoom call catch up.

There are lots of different ways to network, so it’s just about finding the ones that work best for you and your business.

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