Small Business Marketing at Low Costs
Develop Marketing Plans Based on Prospect Interactions
Dec 25, 2008
Small businesses have to produce results at low costs. This can be done best if they start with sales activities. The resultant interactions with prospective customers will give them a good idea about the market. It will then be easier to identify effective marketing tactics.
Small Business Marketing Strategy
Developing a marketing strategy involves having a clear idea of what you want to achieve. You must also be aware of typical marketing tactics. You can then select those tactics that are appropriate for your prospective customers and will achieve your specific goals.
The broad marketing objective of increasing sales and profits can be achieved in different ways:
- Get new customers through appropriate business promotion tactics
- Induce customers to buy more from you through, say, in-store product promotion
- Get them to buy more expensive products by, say, offering incentives
- Get the customers to buy the more profitable products by, say, attractive and prominent displays
The above outline illustrates some common marketing tactics. Broadly, tactics include:
- Creating awareness about your business through everything from signage and vehicle ads to press releases and media appearances
- Making a sales pitch through advertisements in local newspapers and radio stations, direct marketing campaigns and TV spots
- Offering free giveaways to induce new prospects to become your customers or to reward current customers
- Offering coupons that entitle bearers to a discount, free shipping or other incentive
- Asking for referrals from satisfied customers and using these in ads and direct mail
- Participating in trade shows and exhibitions
- Public relations exercises such as sponsoring a charity event in your business' name
- Competitive pricing
Use your familiarity with prospects to select tactics that will work with them.
Lowering the Costs of Marketing
Taking the trouble to interact with prospective customers, and then to select the right kind of message, media and incentives, is in itself a major cost-reduction measure. You can avoid wasting money on obviously ineffective campaigns. Other ways you can reduce your marketing costs include:
- Use all outgoing documents, including envelopes and invoices, to gain publicity for your business. Include your logo, name, contact details and slogan on these documents.
- Use other lower cost publicity media such press releases, customer referrals, and participating in talk shows and local events
- Explore the possibility of joint advertising along with complementary businesses or your vendors
- Use Web marketing, including email campaigns, your own website and PPC campaigns that are comparatively inexpensive.
Monitor Marketing Results
Another major activity for getting value for your marketing money is to track the result of each campaign. Decide on the results you should achieve, develop ways to measure the results and constantly monitor the campaign. Modify tactics based on your findings, even dropping those that do not work.
Small business marketing can achieve great results if you take the trouble to get familiar with your prospective customers and develop marketing tactics that work with this group. Certain tactics cost less than others and you can choose these wherever possible. Track each campaign and adapt them till they begin to work (or drop them if they won't work).
