In my last piece, The Great Marketing Lie, I explained why traditional marketing theory is failing small businesses. Now let's look at what actually works.
Tom runs a web design agency from his flat in Nottingham. Last month, he secured his biggest client ever – a £15,000 project that came through a recommendation from his accountant. The month before that, he landed a £8,000 job because a past client moved companies and needed his services again.
Tom doesn't have a social media strategy. He's never run a Facebook ad. His website gets maybe twenty visitors a week, and his LinkedIn posts are sporadic at best. Yet he's booked solid for the next four months.
Meanwhile, his friend James, who runs a similar agency, spends two hours every day creating content, managing multiple social media accounts and optimising sales funnels. James talks constantly about marketing metrics and growth strategies. He's also struggling to pay his bills.
The difference isn't talent, pricing or market conditions. Tom accidentally discovered what works for small businesses, while James is trying to implement strategies designed for companies fifty times his size.
Introducing the DIRECT Method
If you are running a small or micro business, most marketing advice out there wasn't designed with you in mind. I created the DIRECT Method specifically for you. It acknowledges your constraints, leverages your advantages and focuses relentlessly on activities that generate revenue.
Each letter represents a principle that contradicts conventional marketing wisdom but reflects how successful small businesses grow.
D – Direct Response
Every marketing activity you undertake must have a clear, measurable call-to-action that leads directly to revenue. This sounds obvious, but most small business marketing violates this principle constantly.
Corporate brands can afford awareness campaigns that build recognition over time. You can’t. Every blog post, every conversation, every piece of content must move someone closer to hiring you or referring you.
Instead of writing about "industry trends" or "thought leadership", create content that solves specific problems your ideal clients face right now. Instead of posting inspirational quotes on Instagram, show evidence that demonstrates your expertise.
Tom's biggest client came through his accountant because Tom had spent twenty minutes explaining exactly how he could help the accountant's other clients improve their online presence. That conversation had a direct purpose and a clear next step.
I – Individual Relationships
Mass marketing assumes you need to reach thousands to find customers. Individual relationship building means you need to connect meaningfully with far fewer people.
Your competitive advantage isn't your brand or your marketing budget. It's your ability to form personal relationships with clients, referral partners and industry contacts. Large companies can’t replicate this advantage because they operate through systems and processes, not personal connections.
Focus your marketing efforts on activities that strengthen individual relationships. Personal emails to past clients. Coffee meetings with potential referral partners. One-to-one conversations at networking events. Direct outreach to specific prospects who fit your ideal client profile.
James spends hours creating content for hundreds of followers who may never need his services. Tom spends the same time having conversations with people who can hire him or refer him work.
R – Realistic Resources
Your time and money are severely limited, and this constraint should drive every marketing decision you make.
Instead of struggling to maintain a presence across multiple marketing channels, choose one or two that directly connect you with your ideal clients and execute them consistently. Rather than using complex marketing automation systems, use simple processes you can manage yourself.
This is the pragmatic mindset of working with what you have rather than what marketing gurus assume you should have.
Most successful solo businesses generate the majority of their work from referrals, direct outreach or search-based discovery. These approaches require minimal financial investment but consistent personal effort.
Before starting any marketing activity, ask yourself: "Will this directly lead to conversations with people who might buy from me within the next three months?" If the answer is unclear or no, don't waste time with it.
E – Expertise-Led Positioning
People hire small businesses for expertise, not brand recognition. Your marketing should demonstrate your knowledge and competence at solving specific problems.
Instead of trying to appeal to broad audiences, become known for handling particular challenges exceptionally well. Don’t offer general business advice, but specific solutions to precise problems.
Tom doesn't market himself as a "web designer." He positions himself as the person who helps established local businesses modernise their online presence without losing their existing customers. This specific positioning makes him memorable and referable.
Create content that showcases your expertise. Write about the problems you've solved for clients. Share insights that only come from hands-on experience. Demonstrate your thinking process, not just your results.
C – Community-Centric
Your ideal clients gather in specific places – industry associations, local business groups, online forums or professional networks. Instead of broadcasting to general audiences, go narrow and participate meaningfully in these communities.
This isn't an opportunity for self-promotion. It's about being genuinely helpful to people who might need your services or know someone who does. Answer questions. Share experiences. Offer assistance without expecting immediate returns.
Tom found his accountant referral partner at a local business networking group. Not because he pitched his services, but because he helped several group members with technical questions over several months. When businesses in the group needed web design work, the accountant recommended Tom.
My own most lucrative web design client came from me advising a fellow marketer on a web forum on how to build their own site. Eventually, he threw in the towel and asked me to do it for him. That project turned into designing three more websites for his employer’s group companies.
T – Trust-First Selling
People buy from businesses they trust, especially in service industries. Trust comes from demonstrating competence, reliability and a genuine interest in solving problems.
Lead with value in every interaction. Offer useful insights during initial conversations and provide helpful resources before discussing your services. Show potential clients what working with you would be like by helping them during the sales process.
This approach takes longer than aggressive sales techniques, but it's much more effective. It generates higher-quality clients who pay premium fees and provide more referrals – and it feels much better too.
How This Differs from Traditional Marketing
The differences are fundamental. Traditional marketing tries to persuade large numbers of people to buy, while the DIRECT Method focuses on being found by people who already need your help and building relationships that generate ongoing business. Corporate approaches separate brand building from lead generation, but here, every activity contributes directly to your business development.
Where conventional wisdom says you should compete on price and features, instead, you compete on relationships and expertise. And while traditional marketing demands significant budgets, this approach requires minimal spend but consistent personal effort.
An Implementation Strategy
A good place to start is with one relationship-building activity and one expertise-demonstration activity. Tom emails five potential referral partners every week and writes one detailed case study every month. That's it.
James, on the other hand, maintains accounts on four social media platforms, runs two email newsletters, manages a blog and tracks dozens of metrics. He's exhausted and broke.
Choose activities you can sustain indefinitely with your current resources. and build consistency before attempting expansion.
Another practical way to start is by conducting a 'relationship audit.' Set aside 30 minutes tomorrow to list your last ten clients and how they found you. Then identify the three people who have referred you the most business. Schedule personal check-ins with these valuable referral sources within the next week – not to ask for work, but to genuinely reconnect and see how you might help them.
This simple activity can generate new opportunities within days while strengthening your most valuable business relationships.
Measuring Success
Track activities that directly correlate with revenue: conversations with potential clients, referrals and enquiries received, proposals sent and projects won.
Ignore metrics that make you feel productive but don't generate business: social media followers, website traffic, email open rates, link clicks or content engagement. You can’t buy groceries with this stuff.
The Reality Check
Successful solo businesses operate using many of these principles without realising it. They focus on relationships, demonstrate their expertise, respond directly to client needs and build trust through consistent delivery.
The businesses that struggle are often those trying hardest to implement traditional marketing strategies that weren't designed for their situation.
The DIRECT Method isn't revolutionary. It's simply an acknowledgement of how small businesses can grow when they're not distracted by marketing advice designed for corporations.
In my next piece, I'll look at why social media marketing has become such a time-consuming distraction for small businesses and what you should do instead of posting your way to prosperity.