Basic Marketing Strategies for Small Business

The importance of effective marketing techniques is often downplayed by many business owners. With dozens of other things involved with running a small business, marketing plans and advertising tends to slip in importance. This is unfortunate, as the development of marketing strategies is just as important as having a well thought out business plan. As a business owner, you should put a high value on effectively reaching out to potential customers. Creating a marketing plan doesn’t have to be time consuming or complicated. Below we’ll discuss some easy ways to create a simple, yet effective plan.

Who are you trying to sell to? Determining who your potential customers are may be the most important step in writing a marketing plan. You should hone in on the customers who are perfect for your business, even if there are numerous types of people who could utilize your services. Finding the “ideal customer” will help you to narrow your focus and succeed faster. Why would someone choose your business to fulfill their needs? What solutions are you providing? What reasons would they have to go to the competition?

Knowing your competition is also very important. You should study your competitors closely and identify their strongest qualities. You definitely can’t afford to dismiss your competition. Figure out what they are doing to attract and retain customers. Devise ways in which you can improve or highlight your services in a better light compared to your competition. Also be prepared for how competitors respond to the things you bring to the table.

Solidify your image. In order to best serve your customers, you need to be able to strongly identify your image and what it represents to your clientele. What will you do that makes your business stand out from the rest, representing yourself as an example of the very best that your industry has to offer?

It helps to think ahead. Thinking ahead about your marketing strategies will help keep you on track to achieving your goals. Determine what you want to do and when. Establishing these goals will help you manage your time and resources to get the most out of a marketing strategy.

Market through multiple channels. Develop strategies for marketing through different mediums. How effective will social media be in reaching your targeted audience? What advertising media would reach your target customer? Consider adopting email marketing and mobile marketing strategies as well. Each of these channels offer benefits in reaching your intended customers. Knowing your target audience is crucial in establishing a solid web presence. You must discover which platforms are used most by potential customers and then create a plan that can best utilize that medium.

Create a detailed strategy to follow. How much are you willing to spend in different marketing spaces? What are you hoping to accomplish? What do you need to do to accomplish these tasks? You should be asking yourself all of these questions while you devise an extensive list of goals, action items, and budgets. Decide how you will measure the success of your plan. As certain aspects excel or underperform your plan will need to evolve to meet your changing needs.

Be proud of your strategy. A detailed marketing plan will help immensely when dealing with advertising agencies. Both parties will be able to better understand each other’s goals when there are clear objectives outlined. Let them voice their opinions and be open to ideas that could tweak your plan and potentially grab the attention of even more potential customers.
Outsourcing the work.

Often businesses are so wrapped up in their day to day business, they do not have the time to write a marketing or sales plan. In addition, when it comes to purchasing a service, resources are costly to provide professional competitive analysis, vendor research and budget-solution analysis when it comes to making a decision. Integrative Consulting Group (ICG) helps companies focus on their core business by optimizing vendor and partner relationships and doing the leg work for you. ICG Consultants consist of former C-Level executives and corporate management experts that follow best practices to select cost effective quality resources and solutions.