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.

Massimo Damico asked:

Which small business marketing tip do you use to expand your business?

You may want to outsource part of your work because you don’t have the space, you have periodic busy periods, or you need more production to get orders out on time. Get these suggestions:

You could expand your market share by becoming a

middleman and offering your subcontractors products or

services. This will increase your business profits and

give you multiple income streams.

You won’t have to do time consuming tasks like

adding on new equipment or learning new software to

complete certain tasks. This will allow you to spend

more time testing your advertisements.

You won’t have to take the time to train employees.

This will allow you to spend more time working on your

marketing and advertising campaign.

You won’t have to interview employee candidates.

This will allow you to spend more time improving your

customer service, in return you will get more repeat

purchases.

You won’t have to buy extra office or work space to

complete certain tasks. You can use all the money you

save on other business expenses.

You won’t have spend money on employee costs like

taxes, medical, vacation time, holidays, workers comp.,

unemployment costs, etc. (These may vary depending on

which country you do business in.)

Give other businesses the option of selling your

product. It could be a simple joint venture deal or

an affiliate/associate program.

Learn sales ideas from reading and studying other

business’ advertising and marketing material. It

could be ads, brochures, tv ads, sales letters, etc.

You can speed up you order and delivery system with

the extra help. Your customers will appreciate the fast

service and you’ll have a higher chance that they will

buy from you again.

You can take on extra or large orders your business

couldn’t handle before. This will expand your market

share and you could also offer to take the work your

competition can’t handle.

You could get end up receiving orders from your

subcontractors. Your subcontractors may also tell other

people about your business.

Give your customers a surprise bonus for buying.

When you give customers more than they expect,

there is a good chance they will buy from you again.

Follow-up regularly with all your prospects and

current customers. When people see your ad more

than once they are more likely to buy.

The best small business marketing tip to make more orders is staying in touch with your current customers. Make more profits within your customers, do not invest your total resources and time to get new clients.

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Massimo D’Amico is an Italian computer teacher. He has invented a way for any website owner to get Google AdWords pay-per-clicks for free. Google AdWords | For Free

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