Many small business owners are finding it difficult to market effectively and strategically with a limited budget. Although marketing may not always have immediate returns, it is essential to your presence in the market place.
1) Define your goals: Create specific objectives you wish to achieve by marketing.
2) Define your market: Marketing is the most effective when you have chosen a specific market to target your product or service to. This will allow your marketing strategies to be more decisive and strategic. Make sure that your market is aware of how you can be of benefit to them.
3) Find strategies that get results: Base your marketing on accurate information. Find what works in a company similar to your own and consider what worked for you in the past. However, keep in mind what worked in the past may not work today. Today the internet is a marketing vehicle you can’t afford to ignore.
4) Define your competition: Be aware of your competitors and how they market to design ways to differentiate your business from theirs. Specifically market the key factors that make your company unique.
5) Budget your marketing: Before you commence your marketing for the year, define the amount of money you can allocate in order to be successful. Plan to succeed – succeed by planning!
6) Act on new opportunities: It is essential to be open to any sort of change. If a marketing strategy is not working, be flexible and change directions. Try new marketing approaches.
7) Track your results: If you don’t put a system in place to monitor the results then you could be marketing in an area that is no longer working and wasting resources.
“For a business not to market is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but no one else does. ”Stuart H. Britt, US advertising consultant