Register now or log in to join your professional community.
Small business marketing strategy
Small business are more prone to get closed as entry and exit in the business is bit easier due to less approvals , small investment , small place as well as fewer manpower.
Normally first year of business becomes more critical because of less professionalism approach and practical planning.
We should pay attention on below mentioned points while planning our marketing strategy for our business.
# We should know our fund limitation for marketing.
# Think how to market our business with little money or no money.
# Use Social media, Facebook, Twitter for promote your product.
# Use your local network, contacts to promote your product.
# Increase your network through current network
# Host small events at school, colleges
# create opinion groups within your network.
# Use leaflets, handbills paper insertions.
# Be part of local events, functions.
# Share your expertise freely.
# Maintain good relationship with clients.
# Blogs, LinkedIn can also help a lot.
# Celebrate with people and customers.
# Surprise your customers with small gifts, greetings.
Be persistent and generous our marketing activity result into success.
When you build a business, the first thing you want to secure is a customer base. With a decent printer, an answering machine and an average computer, you can put together a fairly extensive advertising campaign without having to pay for space.There are numerous ways in addition of ad campaign and it would take some creativity and research from you to really devise tailor made marketing strategy looking at the business you are in and the what is your domain and customer needs and how effectively you can connect with your customer.
Flyers:This carpet bombing method of cheap adverting.
Posters:Most supermarkets, public spaces and malls offer free bulletin board space for announcements and advertisements.
Value Additions:Not having a site means not having a point of access for the growing number of people who Google first when they want to make a buying decision. Add to this a social media presence (Facebook page, Twitter account) and the need for good SEO, and it can appear overwhelming. However, the technology has evolved to the point where Wordpress – just one example of a free HTML editor – can meet all these needs.
Referral Networks:This does not only mean customer referrals, which are encouraged though discounts or other rewards per referral. This includes business-to-business referrals. If you have ever found yourself saying, "we don't do/sell that here, but X down the street does," you should make certain that you are getting a referral in return.
Follow Up:Follow-up questionnaires are one of the best sources of feedback for how your ad campaign is going. Why did the customer choose your business? Where did he or she hear about it? Which other companies had he or she considered? What was the customer most satisfied with? What was least satisfying? Also, if your job involves going to the customer, make sure to slip a flyer into the nearby mailboxes, as people of similar needs and interests tend to live in the same area.
Cold Calling:Cold calling, whether it is over the phone or door to door, is a baptism of fire for many small businesses. Cold calling forces you to sell yourself as well as your business. If people can't buy you, the person talking to them, then they won't buy anything from you. Over the phone you don't have the benefit of a smile or face-to-face conversation – a phone is a license for people to be as caustic and abrupt as possible (we are all guilty of this at one time or another). However, cold calling does makes you think on your feet and encourages creativity and adaptability when facing potential customers.
Internet:Not having a site means not having a point of access for the growing number of people who Google first when they want to make a buying decision. Add to this a social media presence (Facebook page, Twitter account) and the need for good SEO, and it can appear overwhelming. However, the technology has evolved to the point where Wordpress – just one example of a free HTML editor can meet all these needs.
By marketing through social media and e-marketing
Small business are more prone to competition. In essence, they should use differentiation focus or cost focus strategies depending on its target market to help avoid direct competition between them and the larger ones. This should be followed effective and well customer aligned branding, e-marketing, promotion and distribution strategies.
Do not think you don't have enough money or resources to start a business. Just start anything you want and build it with the revenue you earn.Bring something new and creative, don't drag previous ideas of other people. Focus on advertisement and customer experience so that you can establish your firm in an early time.
For small business marketing, First go for SEO based web content it will help to save the cost of digital advertising. In next step create an interactive engagement plan through social tools mainly focus on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Linkedin is most recommended for business identity. On digital platform, blogging helps alot to raise voice about your product or service by using targeted keywords. Blog syndication is important. Forum commenting and blog networking keeps you live among your audience. In traditional way, flyers and cold call also helps...
The5 Keys of Marketing StrategyWho is your narrowly defined target customer?In which category does your business exist?What is your unique benefit?Who is your real competition?How are you clearly different from your competitors?
Maintain Relationships With Clients The difference between a successful company and a mediocre one often boils down to an owner’s commitment to building (and sustaining) relationships with clients and prospects. While it’s important to keep up traditional communication and PR, business owners should also be extending their relationships through online forums – website, blogs, and social networks. Conversations are happening all around you – are you listening, are you participating? Are you a thought leader? Be visible!
Listen. Tweet. Listen. Listen Again.
According to me, Small businesses should focus more on promotions and advertisements.
First thing they should do is set a goal and a budget.
As they are new in the market and they might have tough competition from top competitors who are there in the market since long, so they should first create a market for themselves and they can do this by more and more advertisements.
For promotions and advertisements they can use free online media or social networking site like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn for creating their presence in the market and they can also carry out E-mail and Mobile marketing strategies, this will really going to help them to create market for themselves.
Business does not happen in the offices, business happens everywhere. Mobile is not future it is now.. Thus using mobile technology integrated with cloud computing is the only fastest way triggering small business values into the market.
