Archive for April, 2009
Over the past decade more and more people are getting fired, getting downsized, or getting fed up with their corporate jobs and embark on the journey as a small business owner. Unfortunately, most of the new small business owners fail to consider their marketing plans or strategy. There are many marketing concepts for small business marketing to consider and plan for, but here is our list of Top 10 Marketing Concepts For Small Business Marketing.
Marketing Concept # 1: Consistency
Consistency is the number one marketing concept for small business marketing only because it is left out of marketing concepts for so many businesses. I have worked with a long list of clients, big and small, that are extremely inconsistent in all areas of their marketing. Consistency helps lower the cost of marketing and increase the effectiveness of branding.
Marketing Concept # 2: Planning
Once small business owners decide to be consistent with their marketing, planning is the next major concept to engage. Planning is the most vital part of small business marketing or any level of marketing, for that matter, and so many owners, marketing managers, and even CMOs plan poorly. Put the time into planning your marketing strategy, budget, and other concepts presented here to ensure success.
Marketing Concept # 3: Strategy
Strategy immediately follows planning because your strategy is the foundation for the rest of your marketing activities. In the process of planning, you must develop your strategy: who you will target, how you will target them, and how will you keep them as a customer.
Marketing Concept # 4: Target Market
Target market is also another key concept for small business marketing. Defining exactly who you are targeting allows small business owners to focus on specific customers and reduce marketing waste. A well-defined target market will make every other marketing concept so much easier to implement successfully.
Marketing Concept # 5: Budget
Although it is listed at number 5, budgeting is important throughout the entire process. Creating a marketing budget is usually the hardest and most inaccurate part of small business marketing. Most small businesses owners lack a great deal of experience in marketing, so their budgets usually end up skewed. The most important part of this marketing concept is to actually establish a marketing budget. From there, you can worry about how to distribute your available funds.
Marketing Concept # 6: Marketing Mix
The marketing mix is usually defined as product, pricing, place, and promotion. As a small business owner, you must specifically decide on your products (or services), the appropriate pricing, where and how you will distribute your products, and how will you let everyone know about you and your products.
Marketing Concept # 7: Website
In today’s market, a business of any size must have a website. I hate when I see businesses that have a one page website with out-dated information. Customers, be it businesses or consumers, will search the web over 60% of the time before making any purchasing decisions. This marketing concept contains a slew of additional components, but you must at least develop a small web presence of some kind and keep it updated.
Marketing Concept # 8: Branding
Many small businesses owners also neglect this concept. Small business marketing must focus on this marketing concept just as much as large corporations do. Branding consists of the pictures, logo, design scheme, layout, make up, and image of your products and even your company. Branding is how your customers perceive (please place a lot of emphasis on that word!) your products and company. Make sure to pay special attention to what kind of brand you are building through each step of your planning and implementation.
Marketing Concept # 9: Promotion and Advertising
Promotion and advertising is a very complex marketing concept, but must be considered for any type of business and its products and services. Once you engage the previous 8 marketing concepts, you must finally let your target market know about you and your products. Proper promotion and advertising will result in effective brand recognition, and, ultimately, increased sales.
Marketing Concept # 10: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
The concept of customer relationship management has become a huge industry in the marketing world. There are many types of software and services offered to help businesses of any size handle their customer relationship management. Since there is so much available, usually for a large sum of money, small business owners usually look at this concept as something they are not big enough for or have enough money to implement. Don’t be fooled by the massive industry that has evolved from this concept. Maintaining proper customer relationship management is essential to creating loyal and consistent customers.
This list of marketing concepts should be examined, researched, planned, and implemented, especially by small businesses, in order to be successful. Also, your marketing doesn’t stop here. Each business is unique and will have additional components that must be considered, but this list will jump-start any marketing plan.
“Write a book and get recognized as an expert.” How many times have you heard that? Hundreds? Thousands? It is a fact that people acknowledge you as the expert when you have put your knowledge in print. It could be a book, a column, a booklet or a white paper that has been published. If people find what you wrote helpful to them, you become an expert!
The good news is you can write about anything and become an expert. It doesn’t necessarily need to be something you know right now. Yet, I do encourage my writers to write about what they know as it is the easiest way to write your first book. It is important to write about what you know if you are promoting your business and want your clients to recognize you as an expert in your business.
Yet, I have learned from my clients that you can write about what you don’t know and be highly successful at it. Here are some tips to get any writer started writing about what he or she doesn’t know.
1. Have a passionate idea. Some of my clients wanted to do something different: Write a Zen book, a comic book, and produce a positive, motivational rap music CD. These passionate ideas had a thread of relationship to their business, yet they were obsessed with creating these projects. And that is the key: You have to want it so bad that it becomes an obsession. You think about it day and night and you know you will not rest until you do it.
2. Research your idea. Get some basic ideas and resource information by doing research. For many writers this is not fun: Then get a college student to do it for you. Tell the student what information you need to get started. For example, the comic book author would want to see if anything like an educational comic book for adults has been done before in the same topic she has chosen. She will want to check out comic book publishers and their criteria. Also, find some articles on comic book publications and “how to” articles. You can use the Internet, the library, and even the bookstore to get the information you need.
3. Find and ask the experts to help you. “Flattery will get you anywhere,” the saying goes. Experts love to hear that their ideas are helpful. They are willing to help you if you ask. For example, the author who wanted to create a comic book knew nothing about how to do that. She met someone who was a graphic designer. She told him about her dream to create her comic book. The designer was excited about it and showed her his drawings. Collaboration was born to create a comic book. Just keep on asking people who you know that can help you with your idea. The Law of Attraction will take over and in no time you will have the right person to help you write your book. Other ways are to visit networking groups or visit organizations that are related to your topic.
4. Go to seminars or take classes. There are many great writing seminars and classes available to learn more about your subject. We even have Internet online classes and teleseminars we can take without even leaving our house. Learning in an environment with other students is a valuable opportunity to make new like-minded friends. So don’t be a wallflower and keep to yourself. Share your ideas and be actively involved in the class so people will get to know you. Class participants could give you some great ideas for your book, especially if you are writing on a new topic and gathering information for your book.
5. Be an eagle-eye observer. Pay attention to what is going on around you. Read everything with an eagle eye. What are the latest, hottest topics? Do they fit your criteria? Is it something you might want to write about? Start watching TV differently–instead of just for entertainment watch special shows that give you information and news that might perk your interest in writing a book. My rap music CD client wanted to produce a positive rap CD to reach young adults. She began observing Gospel rap musicians and listening to music that had a positive influence. Observe other people’s point of view. Keep your eyes open and watch people in their daily lives. So by following these five simple steps–passionate idea, research, ask the experts, take classes, and be an eagle eye observer–you can write about what you don’t know. Remember you must be passionate about what you want to write, set up a writing plan, follow the plan, take action and write every day. In no time you will have written your book that makes you the expert.
This unique small business financing program offers many benefits, and not just to small business owners. This program allows referrals, and this can help you make a nice sum simply for referring small business owners to the program. The referral program is a situation where everyone involved wins, and there are no losers. This program requires no credit checks, tax returns, or any of the other documentation that is usually required. It is one of the best available small business financing options, and the referral program means that you can earn extra money simply by telling other small business owners about this fantastic program.
Referrals are paid for by the lender to help identify other small business owners who could benefit from this program. Many small business owners have networks of other small business owners, who may belong to the same trade groups or associations. In addition, many of us know people who own a small business and could really use financing right now to help in these tough economic conditions. The referral process is very easy, and takes almost no time at all. Anyone you refer will put your name as the referral source on the paperwork, and when your referral qualifies for the financing then you are paid a referral fee. You get money simply for helping an acquaintance or friend get the money they need for their small business. This financing program is risk free, because the processing fee is completely refundable if you are not one hundred percent satisfied with the amount of financing offered.
The referral program offered by this financing opportunity means you can help out any small business owner you know or meet, and benefit from it. The extra income you can make from referrals can really come in handy, especially with the slow economy and financial crisis that is raging. The best part is that this small business financing program sells itself, because of all the benefits offered and the fact that there are no disadvantages. You do not not to push to sell the benefits of this financing program, once small business owners realize the enormous potential and the ease and convenience offered. Financing is critical for any small business to grow and expand, and the financial crisis has made getting this financing extremely difficult from banks and other traditional lenders.
This new and unique small business financing program is a lifeline to small business who need financing but do not meet the perfect credit and documentation requirements that are needed in the current climate. The referral program means that you can get the small business financing you need plus earn some for telling people about the program you use. Unlike all the other financing options, this program is very flexible, and requires a small amount of documentation. Bad credit is okay and can still get approval. This program has helped many small businesses get back on their feet by providing the financing needed. The fact that you can earn money for telling people about this fabulous financing program is just another benefit, for a program that has many.
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