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Does Small Business Marketing Need Much Planning?

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:48:32 +0000

Nate Stockard asked:

Small business marketing is small, as noted by the name, but too many times business owners think that small business marketing is too small for planning, budgets, or strategies. Since small businesses usually have little or no marketing budget and are concentrating on just keeping the doors open, owners, more times than not, neglect their marketing planning. No business should exist without marketing planning and strategies!

Actually, small business marketing requires planning and strategy more than major companies.

When the marketing manager of a large corporation has a $20 million marketing budget just for print ads, they have room to make mistakes, produce the wrong ads, and even scrap the marketing plan half-way through completion. Small businesses don’t have such freedom and liberty. Small business marketing should contain a plan before anything else happens in the company in the area of sales and marketing. There should be budgets and strategies created as early as possible and reviewed as often as possible.

Create a marketing plan as soon as you decide to start a business.

My company specializes in helping small businesses with marketing and design, and we encounter many of the same problems, and they all stem from lack of early planning. Once you decide to start a business, start creating a marketing plan.

Who are your customers?

What are their needs and wants?

How will you acquire new customers?

What kind of customer relationship management systems will you use?

What do your customers expect from you?

What are your products’ benefits?

What are your strengths?

What are your weaknesses?

How will you advertise?

How much will you budget for marketing?

This list is actually very small when it comes to creating a marketing plan, but you must answer all of these questions and more. Small business marketing must be precise, have a defined strategy, and contain at least a rough budget. Figure out who your customer is, how you will reach them, and why they will buy from you. Starting with these three areas will give you a plethora of other questions to answer in figuring out the maze of small business marketing.

How You Can Boost Your Profits With Business-To-Business Marketing Online

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:50:57 +0000

Jeffrey Houdyschell asked:

Business to business marketing online Internet style. This is not a new marketing technique. In fact, the design of having two or even more businesses help to endorse one another products and services is a tried and true method that has provided profitable results for most entities involved. Knowledgeable business owners and webmasters recognize the enormous value brought to their company by business-to-business marketing. Marketing online offers another dimension with enormous reach that will allow businesses to continue their networking efforts in the virtual and viral world that the Internet provides.

Lets say for example that a brick and mortar company like a dog grooming business will benefit and gain customers from displaying advertisements at the local veterinarian offices. Dog owners, who trust these veterinarians are more likely to take their pets for a professional grooming to a business recommended by an already trusted establishment, like their local vet. On the other hand, the clients of the dog grooming business will be most likely those who need a veterinarian for their pets, and they will most likely trust the vet suggested by the professional grooming business who already has an reputable relationship with them. The same concept applies to business-to-business marketing; The Internet simply adds a new aspect to this method.

If the local pet grooming business and the veterinarian both have a website it will permit for further business-to-business marketing, Internet style. Since the services provided by the pet grooming business and veterinarian only tangentially overlap, they are not in direct competition with one another, but instead will be able to do business-to-business marketing online in the truest sense of the term.

These businesses could then continue with this business-to-business marketing method with other related businesses. For example the Pet grooming business could establish a relationship with pet magazines, animal shelters and other groups that are not in direct competition with each other.

This form of business-to-business marketing has become commonplace online and savvy webmasters and business owners have been taking advantage of this viral marketing method in many different forms. Website owners will cross promote each other’s products, services and business opportunities to each others subscribers lists in an email marketing campaign. Or just place ads on each other’s websites.

Finding these business-to-business marketing opportunities are not as hard as you would think. Perhaps you are starting a new website promoting your own type of network marketing opportunity and need a professionally designed website. The design company you hire to design your website could benefit from new people you recruit into your new business. Just as you could benefit from people looking for website design that need a business to promote on their new website.

So now you have your new network marketing website designed and need to add content to it. You then hire a ghost writer, establish a relationship and before you know it they are sending you prospects and you in turn send them back to first the website design company and then to the ghost writer. All of related but non-competing businesses start benefiting from the viral nature of business-to-business marketing online. Next you need your site optimized for the search engines, OK, OK, I’ll stop now, but you get the picture right?

These are highly viral and lucrative methods that all involved can benefit from. The next time that you do business with another business remember to look for the business-to-business marketing opportunity.

5 Small Business Marketing Ideas

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:08:22 +0000

Alvin Jay asked:

Small businesses are the mainstay of the global economy and their presence helps to drive the fiscal year forward. Their presence alone contributed to over 60% of the economic international pie in developed and developing countries, a number that runs into several trillions of dollars. Starting a small business gives you an added advantage over the larger corporations in a sense that you are much more mobile, you don’t have to micro manage so much, you are not bound by international laws and business processes are don’t much easier internally. While this takes care of the mechanism of your company, we now have to look at the marketing ideas that small business have to churn out to ensure the floating point of the company remains above water. A small business is limited in a sense that it has a smaller budget and a much smaller share of the market, so it needs differing strategies. A small business cannot spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on large advertising campaigns or massive scale PR events, they have to be smarter in the way they market themselves and here are some of the best 5 small business marketing ideas there are.

You are limited by costs and thus the first thing you have to do is to make use of the cheap and the free. All your marketing strategies should have the word internet, virtual and cyberspace in them because with more than 6 million people logged in at any one time, you are missing out on the largest, cheapest marketing pie in the world. Using forums, websites, affiliate marketing (online), digital fax and email marketing, these are the prime real estates online that you should twist to your own ends. As long as your marketing efforts are above board then you have the best platform that has levelled the playing field for companies who are pumping huge amounts to get to a lot of people very fast. Word of mouth is also very important – however the methods behind getting that machinery to work is varied and can be quite vague. Also, using below the line forms of marketing like flyers and brochures are also a great way to market yourself – they cost a fraction of above the line collaterals and can be just as effective, depending on where you place your distribution choke points. Get a plan up and going and make sure that its budget closely matches what your small business can afford. Using alternative forms of advertising (in Japan, advertisers even sell the back ends of tissue wrappers) and guerrilla marketing as well as viral online campaigns. Look into having small scale events to get the word out.

Having a small business means you need to be smart when thinking of the appropriate strategy to use when formulating your marketing plan. Budget, budget and then budget some more, you would be surprised how effective some of these low cost methods are in getting your product known in the market place.

Would You Use Meat Loaf in Your Targeted Small Business Marketing

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:15 +0000

Paul Flood asked:

Entrepreneurs know the importance of a targeted small business marketing strategy. Many make the mistake of doing what big advertisers do. Rock icon Meat Loaf is in a great commercial but the product and company selling it are easily forgotten. Learn a lesson on how not to advertise

Remember Meat Loaf (born Michael Lee Aday)? His album Bat Out of Hell, released in 1977, has sold nearly 40,000,000 copies and was on the charts for over 9 years. He is also featured in a new commercial that is running pretty frequently on TV.

The ad features Meat Loaf as a dad whose son is begging him to get him a cell phone. He’s singing about how he won’t run up the minutes. Personally, I am a fan of Meat Loaf and I like the commercial. He includes some lyrics and riffs from Paradise by the Dashboard Light, which I’ve always thought was a cool tune.

The other afternoon, I heard the commercial and started singing the tune in my head and realized I had seen the commercial several times and could not think of the company or brand of the phone! Now, I’m thinking this was a fairly expensive production because in addition to Meat Loaf, Tiffany is in the commercial and they are probably fairly expensive talent to hire.

After all of this expense, I couldn’t relate a brand or a product to the commercial! I kept an eye out for the next airing and saw it was for the AT&T GoPhone. Think of all the money spent on the ad. They did a lot of things right like using celebrity endorsements, a good tune and an entertaining spot. But it really made me wonder, why couldn’t I think of the company or the product?

What could you do differently if were considering a similar TV ad as one of your primary small business marketing tools ? For one thing, a bit more focus on the product instead of the production. You could easily think of special offers that would give prospects a reason to buy soon. I’ll bet a contest to have dinner with Meat Loaf or win a free “Bat Out of Hell” concert DVD would attract buyers. You would have a tracking mechanism to see how many inquiries and sales were generated. What if they had a toll free number, 1-800-MeatLoaf, to call and get a special offer and find out how to download the song to iTunes or even a ring-tone? The marketing folks could track response and the ROI on the ad. What if there were a contest to be in a commercial with Meat Loaf?

But instead, the focus was all on creativity and entertainment. I’ll bet the ad will even win an award but I still think ads should be written to sell the product now, not build a brand or win awards. My guess is that you can’t afford Meat Loaf in your ads but remember, when you do advertise, it’s about making money, not building your brand. Brands don’t put food on the table, sales do. When you spend money on marketing, either do it yourself of find a professional whose goal is to increase your profits and is willing to guarantee results, not just earn a commission.

The commercial may not be on TV too long but you can catch it on www.youtube.com. Search for Meat Loaf AT&T. This version is a 90 second commercial that does a better job of naming the product than the spot on TV but it still could have soooo much more potential as a source of REVENUE instead of a brand. When you think about branding as a strategy, ask yourself if you want to get your name out there or sell as much of you product or service as possible and build a strong and loyal customer list as quickly as possible.

For the small business marketing tools to add to your toolbox, go ahead and think about branding. However, your brand needs to be strong and you should strengthen it with incredible products and service or with your Unique Selling Proposition. Build your brand using marketing that creates prospects and leads. It is just as expensive to get your name out there with a compelling offer and reason for a client to buy from you now as it is to just get your name out there. The difference is the ROI. The Meat Loaf commercial offers no way to measure the ROI and small businesses can’t afford to throw scarce marketing dollars up against the wall and guess at the ROI.

Here is a powerful small business marketing tip when it comes to a brand-building strategy: If your financial planner came to you with an idea to spend $10,000 on marketing as an investment, you’d think, “What will my return be?because she is a trusted advisor. Use the same standards with your marketing, advertising and media reps. Ask the question: “What is my projected return and how does it compare to other marketing investments?When the rep tells you the value of impressions, ask for some statistics from other advertisers regarding the ROI of the ads and spots they are running?

After you watch the YouTube video, see if you can help me out. Why is Tiffany holding a leg of lamb when she enters the commercial set? Maybe there is some reference I don’t remember from Meat Loaf’s earlier days. He was quite a theatrical talent!

Business Marketing – Essential for Survival

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:19:24 +0000

Sunil Punjabi asked:

If you are considering an online business or implementing an online side to your business you will need to ensure you have a fully comprehensive online marketing campaign and that it is carried out professionally, efficiently and effectively by quality professional services.

Business Marketing online can create online traffic, customer sales, customer retention, and instil your brand identity into potential customers so you can ensure business longevity. Marketing requires commitment and focus for your business plan and the way in which your business evolves will depend on the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. Business Marketing is not only for brand recognition, it is also required to maintain customer sales, bring in new customers, introduce potential customers to your products or services and create long term customer relations through techniques such as a high quality email marketing campaign.

Business Marketing includes a large variety of techniques, email marketing, SEO content creation, back links, discount vouchers, directory submissions, adverts, banners and leaflets are all part of a comprehensive marketing campaign. Marketing needs to include diversity and long term commitment. If you stop and start your Business Marketing and are not consistent with your marketing developments you will not have an effective marketing campaign and the results will not reach their potential. Many businesses make the mistake of only advertising certain special events or promotions when their business is low, this fails to create a full business presence either offline or online and will not produce the overall business growth the company needs. It is not enough just to create a full marketing campaign, it also needs to be implemented on a regular basis and managed effectively to build online presence and customer relations.

Some key Business Marketing practices you should be using include email marketing and SEO services. Email marketing is only effective when it is a high quality marketing campaign. A poor quality email will produce a negative effect on your business as customers will take a negative view on your marketing and thus the products and services you provide. A good Business Marketing email campaign will include a high quality design, a balanced feature of imagery and textual information and will contain promotional material that relates specifically to the customer as an individual. SEO services will involve not only SEO content creation but also relevant and profitable keyword identification, article submission, a regular and consistent back linking program, website building, advertising and a regular link building strategy in general.

These are just some of the key areas your Business Marketing plan should encompass. Marketing needs to be consistent and regular so the chances are you will not be able to complete thus task on your own. Many companies have enough to deal with as it is with all their time being consumed by meetings, development projects, sales, invoicing, taxes, finances and much, much more. This is why you should consider hiring a Business Marketing professional to manage and direct your marketing plan leaving you free to concentrate on the important day-to-day activities of your job. It can be difficult finding the right professional for you whatever your marketing needs are and again it is time consuming to complete the research to find a company, obtain a quote, investigate their services and the quality of their work as well as find one that is situated in your area.

The easier way to obtain a high-level quality Business Marketing company is to utilise a Business Services finder. All you have to do is submit the project details into one form online and your project will be sent to all marketing professionals in your area. You can then choose the service you prefer and give them a call. This will ensure all your marketing needs are taken care of with none of the hassle.